Detroit Automotive News

Traffic schools online

2011-01-18T00:44:00.002-05:00

Written by: Andy watkins

Traffic schools when I was young were in a classroom that was outdated and smelled of old socks. Finally, traffic schools have modernized and now appear on the web. I found out the hard way that they existed by getting a speeding ticket when I was in Texas last summer.
I was given an option to take an online traffic school to avoid getting points on my driving record. The defensive driving course I took was from www.ustrafficschoolonline.com and it took me about 7 hours, but sitting at home wasn't so bad.
My points were waived the traffic course was easy and I do beleive I learned a lot. I'm glad traffic schools like http//:www.ustrafficschoolonline.com exist to help me learn and save money in a way that is practical and smart.

Who's buying new cars?

2010-12-27T15:53:00.002-05:00

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.

Obama for change

2009-01-17T11:42:00.002-05:00

written by: Andy Watkins
Editor Business Detroit

The first African American President will be sworn into office on Tuesday and the entire world will be watching. I just can't believe it took the most powerful country in the world this long to elect a person of color. Well now that has been accomplished what's next...Obama is going to have the next toughiest hurdle to leap in his first term. Wars in Iraq, Afganistan and now Gaza...will be on his most important international agenda, while the nations economy is still out of control.

So let's get this straight...Obama needs to create peace in the middle east, stomp out the terroist and fix our economy...piece of cake. On a daily basis we receive email's from small business owners in the Detroit market talking about how bad things are in their fields. Well now that we have a new congress and a new President coming to power hopefully we will see a different type of focus regarding our economy and International ideas.

Obama and Biden will be working long tough hours over the next 96 months to accomplish what seems to be the impossible. Now he will need help from ever citizen in this great land. Now you ask how can you do your part...well it's seem...stop being so greeding.

If you focus on these areas then we can all get back on track instead of declining out of control.

1. Write your congress person the state and federal levels and ask them to stop with the add-ons to every bill noted.
2. Stop supporting outsourcing of jobs
3. Slow down your spending and save your monies in bonds, mutual funds or real estate.
4. Please pay your bills...if you need to get a 2nd job for a short period do it.
5. Do not ignore the collection calls...pick the calls up and speak with them they won't bite they just want to get paid. If they are rude...tell them to stop and do everything in writing...make arrangements with them that creates a win win situation.
6. Buy American made...not just American named products. Tell the CEO's that you won't buy their products if they are made elsewhere.
7. Invent something...improve something...or just volunteer somewhere...please make a difference. This will make you feel great, it will also help others in the long run.
8. Last but not least....STOP WHINNING....get off your butt and get the job done...NOW....pass these advise on and Obamas agenda might just work.

A New Plan...will it work?

2008-12-03T20:20:00.000-05:00

written by:
Andy Watkins
Editor
BusinessDetroit.com

The big three have now presented their business plans for recovery to Congress and will be in front of the Senators and House of Represenatives answering some more detailed questions about their plans. Even though Congress and most of the public view this as a bailout it actually is not a bailout. This request is a bridge loan to cover normal outstanding expenses and without this bridge loan each of these automakers would not be able to operate at the same way and would require major cut backs and layoffs of its employees and product lines.

If the credit markets wouldn't have gone South in recent months then the automakers would have just restructured the debt and refinanced their existing loans through their normal pathways, but due to the downturn and the credit markets being frozen that option was closed. The U.S. Government is the only group large enough to provide the cash they all need to keep operations moving.

Many would argue that the free markets suggest that the strong survive and the weak should fail, well I agree with that concept, except in this situation the credit markets are not acting as normal in the free market, so to use that arguement wouldn't be matching the situation as apples to apples. The automotive companies have been weakened by slower sales and increasing overhead, but they wouldn't be on the verge of closing their doors if the credit markets were still operating at full strength again.

So this local business person supports the Bridge Loan to the automakers as long as the request and plans are real. If the automakers are playing a shell game with our tax dollars and crying wolf then they should fail, but if they are telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth then we need to give them the bridge loan not only to save jobs, but to speed up the recovery of our nations economy.

Do the Auto's Live of Die?

2008-11-16T12:28:00.001-05:00

Written by: Andy Watkins
Editor - BusinessDetroit.com

The big question all over the media world wide is do we help save the automotive industry for a complete meltdown. Many say it worked for Chrysler years ago and that's where I would like to start my debate on this topic. Many years ago the U.S. government decided to give Chrysler a 1.5 billion dollar loan in which it got paid back and it seemed that it saved the company and industry from a huge loss...or did it? What if the U.S. government turned down the loan offer to Chrysler years ago and it closed it's doors. That would mean many indivduals would have lost their jobs, homes, business that were connected to that auto giant. Now that we placed bandaid on the situation back then my belief it has caused an even great problem today. Letting Chysler fail years ago and allowing the free market to work the way it should would have possibly saved the current automotive industry from it's complete failure.

Basically, the free market suggests that if you run your business correctly with a quality product and a fair market price you should be able to keep operating as long as the bad running companies go out of business. Why you ask?...well it's very simple...if the bad companies are saved then the market share for everyone shrinks and the great companies ove time get hurt even though they are doing everything right...they are limited on growth and then they implode due to the lack of new revenues because the bad companies have turned things around slightly and retained partial market share causing pain on the companies that should have taken all the left overs.

So now we (Detroit and Michigan tax payers) are begging congress to re-think the loan idea and save General Motors. Well this writer thinks that is a terrible idea and the free market really needs to work the way it is suppose too. So U.S. Government get out of the way on this one and let the chips fall as they are suppose to fall.

GM and Chrysler? Good or Bad?

2008-10-21T17:23:00.000-04:00

Written by: Andy Watkins
Editor - BusinessDetroit.com

The media has been publishing story after story of a possible merger between two of the largest U.S. automakers this week. General Motors and Chrysler may become one very large auto company, but does this make any sense. If this does occur will it save them from going out of business, will it lower their overhead or will it just delay the inevitable distruction of both car companies. These are all great questions, but if it does happen, whoever does the buying the other will lay in waste. If GM decides to buy Chrysler in these uncertain times then it could destory their existence forever. Why don't they wait and just work on lowering their overhead internally first, get rid of all the bad assets, then merge as one making them a solid new company with little waste. If they decide to merge prior to the cut backs I fear that the UAW will fight them on every cut back the new company makes knowing perfectly well that they are in big trouble.

The merger between the two is a good idea because it will lower production costs, overhead and operation costs including labor costs. The auto industry needs less players in order for it to stay alive. Since the 1970's automakers have each lost market shares due to the large increase of new car companies around the globe. We currently have about 4 to 5 too many car companies, so if this merger does occur it will help all the automakers in the industry.

What's Next for the big three or should I say small 3

2008-10-15T21:43:00.000-04:00

written by: Andy Watkins - BusinessDetroit.com editor

Well today the stock market took another dive and everyone is shaking their heads wondering what went wrong. Well, we in Michigan weren't surprised because we've been in this mess for the last 8 years or more. Due to the fact that General Motors, Chysler and Ford Motor started to close their plants down across the state of Michigan years ago to move them to areas of this planet with low paying wages.

I spoke of these bad decisions years ago and again months ago regarding this massive move of labor to a low economic areas in a fast growing economy in China. Well guess what I was correct in saying it was a bad decision and now the big three are in a very big mess, but don't worry our wondeful government will bail them out like usual.

This is another bad idea where our government uses our tax dollars to help companies who basically turned their backs on the hard working auto worker. We need to let the free market make the proper adjustments and trust me it will if we let it. We need to share our thoughts with the elected officials and tell them to stop bailing out all these companies. The elected officials claim they are doing to protect main street, well guys and gals your dead wrong...you are hurting us more then ever...you need to get out of the way allow the free market make the adjustments it needs to. Yes, main street will suffer, but I strongly believe we will suffer less if the free market handles it directly without the help of the U.S. governement, who many of the individuals approving these bailouts couldn't run a company if their life depended on it.

Well, what would happen if General Motors, AIG, or Chase Bank went out of business? Simple, the free market would allow solid companies the opportunity to increase market share, assets, credit lines, labor etc... and they would be able to become more stable and grow as needed due to the competition being less in that market. Then free market would suggest that a possible opening would occur at the lower end of the industry and new businesses would be born that are more effect and would produce a better overall product.

Instead, we've lost our minds and dumped billions on top of billions in hopes that bad leaders, bad policies, bad ideas, bad companies, bad CEO's would all just fade away. Now we've given them time to stay in the game and delay the economic rebound by years.

As always our state felt the first blow of this bad economy and we will be the last to recover thanks to our great automakers bad decisions.

Are U.S. Automakers done?

2008-07-25T12:50:00.000-04:00

Written by: Andy Watkins

General Motors, Chrysler and Ford Motors all posted poor new car sales in the United States, but huge profits in China. So are the U.S. Automakers really doing poorly or are they just shifting their future business revenue stream from the United States to China? Yesterday I decided to go to a few auto dealers in the Metro Detroit area and I was shocked at the price tags. Then I was cracking up when the sales person told me about a new finance deal that I could get an 8 year auto loan....well that is crazy. No wonder why Toyota has passed General Motors in sales who is buying a $30,000 car in today's economy. General Motors and the rest have to get their heads out of the clouds and understand the supply and demand issue. If no one is buying your cars then lower the price tags. Stop blamming the auto workers and unions and start showing some executive accountiablity for your pricing structure. Stop being so greeding and price your products to sell.

General Motors plan they just rolled out is all about cost cutting, but has nothing to do with price corrections based on a basic supply and demand issue. If they don't change the pricing models then they will no longer exist in the near future.

Back in the 70's and 80's we spoke about buying American and it worked it got us out of some rough times. Well I think we need to send the message to the US Automakers like GM, Ford and Chrysler and buy REAL American made cars like Honda of Ohio and Toyota out of Michigan. My Pontiac Aztek was built in Mexico....and I thought I bought an American Auto....never again will I be fooled.

Buy American and remember....the Big Three aren't really American anymore.

Where did they all go?

2007-11-03T17:17:00.000-04:00

By: Andy Watkins - Co-Editor BusinessDetroit.com

What happened to our Detroit Auto companies? They seem to be leaving us behind, but still want us as customers. Ford, GM and Chrysler want us to spend over $25k on their cars, but they want to return the favor by investing in China for their future. It isn't all their fault we are to blame just as much. What do I mean....well it started with contracts that were created back in the 1970's and has now comeback and bitten the hand that was feeding us in Detroit. The CEO's have been forced to make choices that will make them stablize their market share against the foriegn auto makers like Toyota. At the same time it's very hard for me to buy one of the big three cars when they are obviously destroying Michigan's economy and this country's.

I was at a business networking event speaking with fellow business owners and I kept hearing the same story from all of them when it came to the economy of Michigan. They would say "Detroit's Automotive companies have decided to leave and there is nothing we can do about it." That's a bunch of bull....I say. Not the fact they are leaving because they are leaving at a very fast rate, but we can do something about it. We the people do have the power and it's called "We the cusotomer or not" power. I think the power of the people needs to be used right now in order to save our local economy.

So what is our power you ask, well it's very simple we start a boycott on all General Motors, Ford and Chrysler products and a boycott on their sub companies as well. We then need to let them know we are disappoiinted in their decisions and greed. Detroit Area works built their companies with their own backs, so we need to be treated with respect.

BOYCOTT the BIG THREE PRODUCTS it's the only message they will understand if not they will continue to abuse us.