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i think with so many nice cars coming out now people are realizing that to pay guys 400k in labour for less then a years work might not be worth the money.Not putting down these shops, they build amazing cars and nobody can tell them to charge 30 bucks an hour when people are willing to pay hundreds.I dont think the high end market for cars will be effected, after all, a bad economy doesnt effect rich people, they always do well.These recent "lower prices" if you can even call them that,reflect a saturated market not a downturn in the economy, imo.
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Great Topic
Great topic. I am anxious to hear from folks in the car biz. IE..builders, press, etc. I am a car hobbyist. Have been for several years and I love it.
There seems to be many opinions about the current state (and future state) of the economy. "On this had we could be heading into a recession....on the other hand this is just a slight correction". I believe that is where the famous Truman line came from: "What I need is a one handed economist". Whatever you believe about the economy I think it is hard to argue that building and (especially) buying a nice pro-tour and\or hot rod is done with disposable income. Money that we are OK spending without risk of not being able to pay a bill, feed savings, etc. And, people are simply more cautious today about how they, or if they, spend their disposable income. This has and will continue to effect the hot rod market IMO. The effect is not not all negative. Here is what I mean: It is possible today to buy a very nice pro-tour and\or hot rod for less then it would have cost to buy the exact same car this time last year. I am driving around in proof of that statement. The quality has not decreased (not that I have seen) but the simple fact is that people are unable and\or unwilling to spend 100K to 200K on a trophy car these days. So, if sellers want to sell, they are selling cheaper. One result is more folks are able to buy into the car hobby. I have a friend that has been sitting on the sidelines of this hobby for years, saying it was cost prohibitive to get into the car hobby. He recently bought a very nice PT Camaro for a song. And, all things considered, the seller felt OK about the sale. And this same seller is now onto his next car project. So, we can count one more member amongst us car guys and car gals. At the end of the day there are people with money who are going to be willing to pay a lot of money for a high-end build. Just fewer of these people then there was 1 or 2 years ago. My 2 cents. Chris |
I own an Industrial Distribution company that handles Pneumatic and Hydraulic equipment. We supply basic repair parts to full blown machines. My work for food manufacturing companies has exploded over the last 4-5 years as that industry has gone really high tech. With that being said, I deal with several window manufacturers, automotive and appliance manufacturers as well. The one saving grace for me has been the fall of the dollar. It has made capital goods obscenely inexpensive compared to the European equivalent. The enemy I fought before (moving production overseas) might be the ticket that pulls the rust belt out of the dumps. The machine manufacturers that remain here are lean, mean and understand the global economy..
Jegs is a customer of mine, I will ask next week to see how the business climate is.... An interesting read on China and pricing. http://www.jimpinto.com/writings/chinapricing.html Darren |
byndbad914
Just one comment about your friend, I don't of course know who he is or anything about his business but are you sure the dealers that he has been selling to just haven't gone elsewhere for their business? If you had had 3-4-5 businesses doing the same thing and they all say business is down I would totally agree with you but having one business loosing a lot of their revenue might not be enough to say business in general is down in that particular industry. chrismoe, Totally agree with what you are saying, my comment on that would be that people should be more careful with how much money they spend on something. I used to buy my daily drivers with almost nothing down, but my next car I will at least put 30-40% down on. I would not again buy a car if I can't put a lot down on it. Tonny |
he has more than just a couple of dealers he works with, so for them to all go elsewhere doesn't completely add up, but is always possible (can't be ruled out). He has had long term relationships with them so I doubt they would all just up and somehow make the same decision at the same time tho'.
But when I hear that from him, sales drops from my friend in the perf supplier market and now another friend has a Dad that works auto sales and he said it has been slower in recent months too for him. Three different people assoc with either the auto sales market or aftermarket and they are seeing a drop may not be a global representation by any means, but a trend IMO. It'll be interesting to see if Jeg's gives an answer or not. Even then, hard to say how true the statements are in a biz relationship... the ones I mentioned are personal relationships so I know I am getting the real story there and no generalizations. Most biz owners are smart enough to keep tight lipped about financial issues with the public so it would be in Jeg's best interest to not say things are bad even if they truly are. |
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This holds true for the price of gas/diesel. If the dollar is only worth approximately 50% of what it was worth 1 year ago, then the price of oil is relatively the same as a year ago, as is the price of fuel. By keeping the dollar low, but holding inflation at a minimum, the Fed is applying a de facto import tariff on overseas goods. Shiny Side Up! Bill |
"It'll be interesting to see if Jeg's gives an answer or not. Even then, hard to say how true the statements are in a biz relationship... the ones I mentioned are personal relationships so I know I am getting the real story there and no generalizations. Most biz owners are smart enough to keep tight lipped about financial issues with the public so it would be in Jeg's best interest to not say things are bad even if they truly are."
I will leave it at the guy I know at Jegs will be very honest with me....:unibrow: Darren |
As a business owner, It depends on who your customer base is.
I've got a european customer spending $10,000 each way to ship his car by air freight to me real soon. Diversification of your business helps. The dollar being down helped my overseas sales some last year. In 2007 I did more business with 2 customers in the Czech republic than I did with all of my customers in Chicagoland. My hourly shop rate is the same for all customers (and a lot cheaper than the pontiac dealer across the street). I experienced huge growth last year and this year is looking good too. Here's few tips to save on gas, turn your freaking car off when waiting in line at the drive throughs, railroad crossing gates, etc. maybe dont use your remote start 10 minutes before you leave and your average mpg will go up a lot! I park my truck at the shop and commute on my motorcycle. Also why is everybody ok with spending $10 a gallon on water that you can get for free? Thanks |
If we all keeping buying car parts, new cars, houses, hell just weekly trips to Wal-Mart buy your kid a new toy, you a new shirt whatever there wont be any economy problems the wrong thing to right is save alot of money(yeah save alittle), the money in this flows in a big circle if it stops anywhere the problems start. and as americans stop listening to all the BS on TV, and live life.
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