Zoom and Gloom: Cars for wealthy sell, old standards sit - Boston Business Journal:

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“al Qaeda would have to be on the shorews of Cape Cod for thesew cars notto sell,” the owner of Boch Automotivde said of his Maserati S.p.A. and brands. Indeed, despit Massachusetts car sales beingdown 3.6 percent year-over-year, brands like Ltd. and even less expensive luxury car makers like are navigatin g the hairpin turns of the market with accordingto R.L. Polk & Co., a research firm in Mich. “Part of it is our but Benz has been proactive instead of reactive when it comes to said Don Paparellaof Mercedes-Benz of Westwood.
“We’r e seeing a big increase in salez ofour re-designed C-class (entry levepl sedan) and a lot of peoplr are trading in their really big Cadillac Escaladews for our GL SUV.” The Bay State’as auto sales landscape appears to be a tale of two while high-end drivers thrive, mere mortals are facing the tougyh decision of whether to swap gas-guzzlingh trucks and SUVs for more fuel efficientf vehicles. Likewise, many dealers are struggling. Amonh the hardest hit: dealer s reliant on sales of large vehicles. For example, Massachusetts salews of vehicles are down about 7 percenthis year, led by a nearly 27 percent drop in a populatr Ford vehicle, the F-Series pickup truck.
Two of Chryslerf LLC’s best-selling trucks are down as well: Dodge Ram pickup trucks by almost 43 percent and Jeep Wranglers by closde to30 percent. “It’s not a great environmenyt out there, especially with the domestics,” said Joe sales manager for Planet Chrysler Jeep Dodge in Franklin. “We’re having a hard time getting rid ofold inventory.” But therew are bright spots. Compact cars and foreign vehicles, whichu are thought of as beingmore fuel-efficient and less expensives than domestic brands, are sellingf briskly. Massachusetts sales of the Ltd.’s Civic skyrocketed 31 or some 1,000 cars, and Nissan Motor Company Ltd.
’z Altima registrations are up 25 percent. Industr y experts say prospective buyers areshoppinh frugally.. “It is personal finance issuews that’s driving the market,” said Aarom Bragman, an automotive analyst with Global “People are looking for value acrossthe board.” But while car dealerships say customers are increasingluy looking to downsize their vehicles to upgrade theirt fuel mileage, new-vehicle sales are still hard to generate. For one, inventoriess of smaller imported carsare falling. With fewer in stock, salex slow.
Boch said import dealers are well suited to handlre declining inventories of the most popular cars becausr their manufacturers often make more thanone fuel-efficient For example, while Toyota Corolla sales are off, salesz of its Yaris compact car are up. Boch himselfd gambled on the move to small cars by purchasingy Civics from other dealerse to pad hisown inventory. Secondly, dealer are faced with the dilemma of takintin gas-guzzlers on trad that are depreciating fasterd than they can be causing trade-in values to “A lot of people are saying, it makes no sens to take a $10,0090 loss on my trucko and pay a premium on the new The amount of fuel savinges that you get doesn’t make up for it,” Bragman said.
Dealers selling large vehicles say they are in atougyh position, as manufacturers have been slow to changw their vehicle lineup. They also must find ways to sell what they have beforew the new modelyear arrives. “Dodge doesn’t really sell economyt vehicles,” said John Santilli Sr. of in which sells Dodges, Nissans and Cadillacs. “We’ve discountede (the trucks) down and we’ll lose some With Nissans, inventory can’t keep up with demand, he said. Sluggishj sales not only affectindividual dealerships, but they also pincu state and local coffers. Motor vehicle sales-tax collections, which make up about 2.
5 percentg of total revenue, were down year-over-yead about 10 percent in May and 5percen year-to-date, according to the . More the collections to date are $4 milliohn below the DOR’s own benchmark, creatin a potential budget shortfall. Even the luxury market, once thought of as beinfg recession proof, is seeing signs of softening. At BMW of sales manager Vin McCauley said strong sales of Mini Cooperds are offsetting flat sales in the mainBMW “Net-net we’re flat with 2007, but we’re down a bit in the SUVs with more peoplwe buying V6 engines instead of V8s,” he said.
“Nosw we have people trading in their trucks and SUVs for Santilli said sales of theCadillac Escalade, a ground to a halt when gas hit $4, “not becauser (buyers) don’t have the money, they don’t have the