9:27 am, October 24, 2008
THERE’S no doubt many of you are having trouble out there. Forecourts are bare, punters are like unicorns and times are tough. But it’s not all bad news!
I read a really interesting article on the BBC News website yesterday about how car manufacturers feel the ‘recession’ will be tough but that we’ll all come out of it stronger on the other side.
Toyota’s chief says he was surprised at how quickly the market nose-dived, and that things are ‘increasingly competitive’. You don’t say.
I much prefer the quote from BMW’s head of sales and marketing Ian Robertson: ‘To use motorcycling terminology, when you enter a corner you don’t look into it, you look at where you want to be when you get out.’ Very philosophical.
The piece goes on to talk about the fact many of the industry’s top execs are looking beyond the recession where they see gold. Yes, gold!
Bentley’s chief was said to be very optimistic even though sales have dropped by a third since the spring, and a Toyota vice president added: ‘Cars are indispensable anywhere in the world for people to move and the current financial situation does not change that.’
It’s about time some chiefs started to speak up the industry and help troubled traders look beyond the bad times. Yes, times are tough now, but we need to see the positives in challenges like this.
The media is often blamed for talking up the credit crunch storm and when I read the papers it’s quite clear that doom and gloom sells.
Take another story I saw on the BBC News site on the same day. It was about the fact approved mortgage applications rose in September for the first time in quite a while.
It certainly took some digging to find the story and even then it was littered with dread about what’s to come – isn’t it about time we started talking up the positives when they happen, no matter how small?
If you’re interested in reading the full excellent BBC article you can see it by clicking here: Car Companies Look Beyond Recession
Happy selling!
James
