Tag Archives: Auto Industry

Trends in the automotive industry tend to make their way into the marine industry eventually, so a recent study regarding the average age of the automotive fleet in the U.S. had me intrigued. According to a recent survey by IHS Automotive, the average age of a U.S. car on the road is 11.5 years. This means cars on the road ...

This weekend I purchased my first “new” car, by which I mean new to me. I am a millennial, after all. From the beginning, I knew what make and model I wanted, as well as the model year range I was hoping to buy and my rough budget. I sent inquiries about various used cars I found online, some through ...

By Jeff Scherer, Associate Partner, Callbutton LLC – Many years ago, before the Internet was “cool,” I was the Internet sales manager for one of the largest automotive retailers. This was a very interesting time because prior to this, no auto entities had really stepped out to try to market vehicles through this new budding medium known as “the Web.” ...

Let’s see how the auto industry handles social media and take some lessons away from another market that was “forced to change.”

By Peter Granata, president, Granata Design and the Marine Design Resource Alliance — Ever notice how some leaders look at things individually rather than as a whole? They look at the numbers of the business but not the business overall. They focus on the problem, not what is causing the problem. They look at the way things have always been ...

As in the auto industry, where companies like GM are narrowing their focus by eliminating brands and models to help lure customers back – which the New York Times discussed in a story today – Brunswick has made the decision to discontinue its Maxum line, which has been around since 1988. You can read the details here. What do you ...

Denny Hecker is widely known in the Minneapolis/St. Paul-area. A long-time auto dealer based here in the Twin Cities, Hecker’s career changed abruptly this year when, under the pressure of the economy, his numerous area businesses collapsed dramatically. Over the course of the last few months, Hecker’s empire has come crashing down around him in unimaginable fashion. According to the ...

By Chris Kourtakis, Owner, H20 Limos Marine Service — With the recent announcements of Chrysler closing up to 800 dealers and GM a possible 1,500 dealerships, will this hurt of help the marine industry? More people keep focusing on the negative, but as we all know there is a silver lining to everything. The dealership closings and layoffs could give ...

Gerard Broshart is one of hundreds of dealers with a glum outlook this morning. He, according to an interview with CNN, was one of the nearly 800 dealers who received a letter from Chrysler yesterday, notifying him that his business must be shuttered by June 9. Today, GM is expected to follow suit by notifying 1,100 “underperforming dealers” that it ...

At the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo last November, Brunswick CEO Dusty McCoy said [and I’m paraphrasing here] that while many of the recessions the U.S. economy has endured in the past are V-shaped (the economy drops quickly, bottoms out, then rebounds steeply as well) he expects our current recession will be more U-shaped – meaning we won’t experience that ...