Who's buying new cars?

Andy Watkins
Editor Business Automotive

Today's question is who is buying the new cars that General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are claiming they are selling? I decided to survey my 225 closest friends on Facebook and the results are in....with in the last year only 1 person bought a new car out of 225, while 112 bought used cars the rest stated they are shopping around, but can't afford one at this time. I'm very concerned that all the automotive companies are showing huge sales increases, but just in my survey I show a different story altogether.

Of course....my survey was very small and wasn't an official measurement of the automotive companies actual sales....so I decided to call on the local dealerships and speak with actual live sales persons. At first I thought they might not tell the whole truth to protect their ego's or companies reputation, so I decided to tell them the truth and let them know why I was asking them for this information.

I spoke with 16 dealerships and 11 of them said sales are down very low for new cars, but very high with the used cars. They stated they can't keep enough used cars on the lot. The other 5 responded with...about the same as a year ago....that of course didn't tell me much....they wanted nothing to do with me after that response anyway. The other 11 did share that it was very hard to get financing for people that were interested in a new car, plus they couldn't get approved for the larger monthly, so most if not all went the used car method.

I then spoke with a train dispatcher from CNC and he claimed that the Automotive industry was booking more cars and shipping more cars from factories to all the States then any other industry. This now made me to think a little more outside the box. I decided to send letters with a survey attached to Trucking, shippers, and other train companies for more details on what is being delivered around the country.

So the truth is still pending and this Automotive detective is on the case....back soon with more information regarding Automotive sales in the U.S.