Car Dealerships

Do you get warm and fuzzy thoughts about car dealerships? Brian Williams did leading into an NBC News piece the other night. The report was what newspaper people used to call a "sidebar", an extra story after the Big Three Bailout lead story. Maybe its just me, but I hate going to a dealership to buy a car. I hate it so much that several times in Birmingham I actually hired a broker to buy a car for me. While the TV report was heavy on the "cars donated for a church raffle" and "support for the little league teams", all I can think of when car buying time arrives is how they're going to find a way to give me as little for my trade-in as possible, while changing me as much as possible for the new vehicle. I know they're a business and have to make a profit, but please! Dealer add-ons, mandatory binding arbitration, this extra fee and that one, "let me go check with my sales manager", secret video cameras in the "office"...As far as my own experience, buying a car is a miserable experience...not at all a trip to the cuddly we're-all-friends place the NBC story described. This is a tough time for dealerships (and for everyone!) One in Montgomery shut down last week after almost a century in business. But the dealerships and the car makers all have a hand in their own demise.