Car Dealer Lawyer

This is a special Halloween.  Once a year we are supposed to celebrate all that is dark, mysterious and frightening in our world.  This year, the economy has done that for us already.  For dealers, Halloween is usually the last day of a tough month where there is little or no possibility of a big [...]

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Do you remember when you were in school, and you worked really hard on a project to turn it in on time - then the teacher let everyone off the hook by moving back the deadline?  That’s how I felt today when I learned that the FTC delayed enforcement of the Red Flags rule for [...]

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One of the most difficult parts of the car business is keeping your gross margin high.  When you buy your cars in an efficient market and sell them to an increasingly sophisticated customer base, it is difficult to maintain a return that justifies the investment, effort and risk.  There are only two ways to increase [...]

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Times are tough - really tough.  Most pundits predict that a significant number of dealerships will not be around much longer.  Most dealers have probably already thought of these ideas, but repeating them does not hurt.  These are my ideas on how to survive tough times:

Assume Your Bank Will Fail - In the next year, [...]

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I spent most of the week working on Red Flags policies.  Not being one to reinvent the wheel, I bought A Dealer’s Guide to the Red Flags Rule by Michael Benoit.  It worked like a charm.  If you haven’t implemented your Red Flags policy, remember the deadline is November 1.  You can order a copy of [...]

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