I’m not big into driving for its own sake like my buddy Bismo is, but I’ve always noticed the makes and models of other cars while behind the wheel. Without thinking about it, I make mental notes about other vehicles, and I can recognize many cars with the smallest of visual cues. For example, have you noticed how the fenders are now flat vertically around the wheel wells? That’s a recent design trend.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I carry a percentage of typical car vintages, and some weeks ago, while commuting on the Mass Pike, I realized that it seems there are fewer new cars on the road these days. Since then I’ve been consciously looking for brand-new cars, and I’ve confirmed there really are fewer of them showing up compared to a year and more ago. The way things are going, we’ll probably be hearing auto dealers proclaiming “The 2009’s are here, so come on down!” for another year or two.
Some GM dealerships are being closed. And that’s not strictly limited to the unprofitable ones, either. According to a story on CNBC-TV, one money-making dealership they featured on the news segment was told by GM that it had to close. So there’s another reason in our current economy, why fewer people will be eager to buy new cars: how do you know how far you’ll have to drive to get warranty work done by a dealership? Just because you have a dealership near you now, doesn’t mean it will still be there a year or two from now.