Where have our customers gone? They’re not in ANY stores! The news these days is full of fear and we all know nothing rivets an audience better than some good old fashioned Chicken Little fear.
What news is brewing behind the scenes? Good news I say! First, we know that 94 out of 100 of your customers are still working and second, they ALL have been given a BIG raise in the last 30 days!
Since July 4th, gasoline has fallen almost 50%. In NY, it’s fallen from $4.30 a gallon to $2.60’s. Where ever you live “The Oil Bubble of 2008” has popped and all signs point to gasoline going even lower.
Ok, so how are things at your customer’s home? Let’s look at their gasoline bill, this month vs July (3 months ago).
Mr. and Mrs. Average Joe have a sedan and a SUV and drive 15,000 miles each.
A Chevy Impala
= 56 gallons per Month
WAS: $4.30 p/gal fill up = $240.80
NOW: $2.65 p/gal fill up = $148.40
Save = $92.40
A Ford Explorer
= 78 gallons per Month
WAS: $4.30 p/gal fill up = $335.40
NOW: $2.65 p/gal fill up = $206.70
Save = $128.70
Combined gas savings per month: $221.10
That is sweet news indeed!
Drop this Credit Crisis news and we’d be over run with consumers! Alas, the credit crisis news is grim and hides this windfall. But, as the weeks pass, the Fed intervention will make its way into the system. Fear will ebb and your customers will get that “all clear” signal to come out into the sun. In the mean time, they’ll have been enjoying a windfall of lower energy (and falling food prices). This windfall is enormous and has just dropped into our laps. Remember, it was just weeks ago when everyone (me included) had resigned ourselves to the new era of $4 gasoline.
When the time comes for your customers to dump the old car and buy new, they’ll be more conservative and far more open to the value of a used car then ever before. There has never been a better time for the future of selling used cars than here and now.
Joe P.
