July the fourth

Jul 022010

What does the 4th of July mean to you? You should think about it.

When I think of the 4th of July, it’s obviously in a patriotic vein. I think about how we became a country, and also it reminds me of the pride I have in our country. With all of our faults (which we air on our sleeve for the world to see) we are still the beacon of hope to the world. Outsiders can find fault with us, but often because they, deep down, are envious of us. All people everywhere can have reasons to love and be proud of their countries. However, the fact remains, the United States of America is by far the most desired place to live when others are asked, “If you had to choose a different country to live in, which would it be?” We are diverse, we are strong, but at the same time, compassionate and willing to help others in need. As best we can, we’ve tried always to help police the world and protect and help others.

I often think of the veterans who served in our military, many of which also fought for the cause of freedom. Consider this, how often, especially in the last 100 years, has America taken land from those that we were at war with? Consider how many Americans have died while forcibly removing tyrants, dictators, and those that employ genocide, from power.

So as you have the day off, watch fireworks, go and do what you wish, enjoying good food at the same time, remember what made us great, what makes us great, and think of how we can continue to make America the beacon of hope and the greatest nation now, or ever, on earth.

How green are we?

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Jun 022010

You hear a lot about going green these days. At the Birdnow Dealerships we take that seriously and were doing it long before it was politically correct or the latest fad.

About 27 years ago when I first owned my Jesup dealership I noticed an employee heading out the door with a pan of old gasoline. I asked him what he was doing and he indicated he was going to dump it outside on the gravel lot. I told him to never do that. We put it in a barrel and when full we paid to have it properly disposed of. When we began our body shop, we contracted with Safety Kleen to properly dispose of old solvents and paints. We also comply with the emission rules for painting operations.

Even before it was required, we bought an oil filter crusher and began crushing used oil filters. At first we burned the used oil in a waste oil heater. I paid nearly twice the cheapest price for a heater in order to get one that more thoroughly and efficiently burned the oil so as to create less pollution. For the last several years though, we’ve had the used oil from them and from our oil changing operations picked up by a licensed recycler. We paid to have the crushed filters properly recycled also. For years we’ve properly disposed of oil rags, wipes, and floor dry products as well as mercury switches and fluorescent lighting tubes. We also pay to have used tires hauled away for recycling.

As the years have gone by, most everything that we’d been doing became required, or the law in most cases.

How do we pay for all of this? We put a small percent charge on each repair ticket with a max cap. This money goes into a bookkeeping account and all recycling fees, and charges are put against that. So far we’re pretty close to even.

When it’s all said and done, though, if we all do our part, we’ll leave a better place for those who follow us.

Credit Problems

Purchasing a vehicle No Responses »

Apr 212010

Do you know what your credit score is? It’s very important. Have you heard the ads to repair your credit, to make credit card debt disappear?

I’ve been in the auto business for over 35 years and have to chuckle at those ads. I’d suggest the idea that, since the first thing they ask for when you call is money, you should avoid them. Only in circumstances where the credit card company thinks that they’ll lose everything will they negotiate with you. The key point there being, they’ll negotiate with YOU. What I’ve seen of the credit repair companies is that they either suggest things that are illegal, or they put you on a path that you can get the same advice for, for free.

First of all, the one thing that lenders dislike the most are debtors that won’t communicate with them. If you are unable to make your payment, or the whole payment, contact the lender. The second thing to do is first learn what your score is and also get a copy of your credit report. If your score is less than 650 you need to work on it. Things you can do is pay your bills on time. Especially your loans, credit cards, and rent or house payment. If you have any judgements against you, you should contact the holder of the judgement and try to work out a settlement, or payments if they’ll indicate that on your credit report. You not only need to make your credit card payments, you need to try to whittle the principal down. Another thing that I’ve seen that’s helped folks with poor credit is to get a car loan somehow. (bear in mind, I’m an auto dealer, that’s where my experience comes from) You can get that loan by saving a large downpayment, or getting a co-signer to the loan, or in some cases the dealer might help you. If you can secure that loan, make the payments exactly as agreed. And, of course, you have to have a plan to fix the other problems you have on your credit report.

In summary, your credit score and history are really important. It can cause you a lot of extra expense on future car loans, home loans, and in many cases cause you to not qualify for any loan at all.

Insurance, An important part of the cost of a vehicle

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Mar 032010

We often suggest that a customer should investigate and compare the cost of insurance for a vehicle they are considering purchasing.

There is a guide that every new vehicle dealer is required by law to furnish you a copy of that compares insurance ratings of new vehicles. The government compiles this book using accident data from most accidents. The rating that a particular vehicle has can greatly affect the premium you’ll pay for collision insurance. Remember that if you finance your vehicle you’ll be required by the lender to have collision and comprehensive insurance coverage. Even if you’re not financing you should have those coverages if your vehicle is worth more than you can afford to lose if it was totaled.

So here’s how it works. A police report says that the driver was going 35 miles per hour and hit a parked vehicle. The insurance company pays the claim to fix the vehicles. That data is compiled along with possibly a million other accident claims each year and the circumstances of the accident. They are then able to spot trends where one vehicle costs more to fix in a similar accident than another. This happens because of the way some vehicles are engineered or built and also because of the cost of repair parts. A large percentage of accidents result in the insurance company paying to have the damaged vehicle repaired so they are very interested in the cost to fix a vehicle.

We once had a Mitsubishi traded in. The customer said they couldn’t afford the insurance, it was three times higher than the same size class and value Chevy we sold them. Recently we found a dash assembly required (because the air bags had deployed in an accident) to fix a Chevy was slightly more than $400.00 and a dash assembly for a similar competitive make vehicle was $3,800.00. That’s why insurance premiums can vary so much from one vehicle to another. Remember that if in a certain accident one car costs $5,000 to repair and a different vehicle costs $8,000 to repair, the insurance company is going to charge a higher premium for the second example.

Finally, when there are safety recalls, that can increase your premiums because it’s not always easy to prove if a vehicles system failed that caused an accident.

Where Oh Where do I get my warranty work done?

Maintaining your car No Responses »

Jan 312010

Often when visiting with friends and customers the subject of service and warranty comes up regarding different makes of vehicles. It’s important to consider your time and convenience when purchasing a vehicle. If you buy a vehicle that requires you to take it 35 miles for service, does that fit your lifestyle? Many times I’ve had people tell me that they do their own service, or their vehicle never needs warranty repair. I agree, a majority of vehicles never need anything except for routine maintenance which can be done many places. However, vehicles are complicated; they have over 20,000 parts on average. Most parts are designed to last the life of your vehicle, but sometimes things go wrong.

So, here are some things to consider:

Does the dealer offer free loaners? The Birdnow Dealerships do for as long as you own a vehicle that was purchased from us. A customer told me the other day that he had to rent a vehicle while he had his vehicle serviced at a metro dealer. The rent was $175.00 for the four days his car was in the shop.

What happens if there’s a recall? The average vehicle needs to be checked at a dealership four times and those numbers are basically the same for American brands as is for foreign brands. Most customers only hear of safety recalls such as is the case right now with millions of Toyota models. Many times there are what are called “campaigns” where the manufacturer sends you a card asking you to stop so a dealer can check something that might be a problem, that is different than a recall.

How much is the dealers labor rate? The Birdnow Dealerships offer just as good of service, with technicians that have the same levels of training, if not more, for a fraction of the labor charged by many other dealers.

In conclusion, here’s a story that I think will really drive home what I’m describing. One day a customer came in with a GMC truck that was a year old and still under warranty. He wanted to trade for a new Chevy. Trading every year isn’t unusual, but his reason was a bit unusual. He’d become angry at the treatment he’d received at the GMC dealer he’d bought his truck from. He left angry, telling them he’d never be back. When he got home, he opened the phone book to look in the yellow page for another GMC dealer. He was unpleasantly surprised to see that the closest one was 45 miles away!

2/1/2010 UPDATE:

WOW! I just listened to the president of Toyota beat around the bush for ten minutes on the Today Show about the problems that over half the Toyotas have with accelerators that stick. This problem has been happening for around ten years. He wouldn’t guarantee that the repair they’ve come up with would fix the problem. Also, does anyone else wonder how a problem they’ve been aware of for ten years can all of a sudden be fixed with a washer under the pedal and that they’ve come up with this in less than a week? He referred to this as a rare problem….I hope no one I know experiences that rare problem!

Extended Warranties update!

Maintaining your car 2 Responses »

Jan 112010

(Click here to read the earlier post about extended warranties.)

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

US Fidelis suspends sales of service contracts

by Matthew Hathaway

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Wednesday, Dec. 30 2009

WENTZVILLE — After laying off hundreds of workers at its massive call center
this month, US Fidelis announced Tuesday that it has stopped selling extended
auto-service contracts.

Meanwhile, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is seeking to amend a lawsuit
against US Fidelis to include additional allegations of deceptive practices
that, according to a motion, were directed by the company’s owners, brothers
Darain and Cory Atkinson.

Company spokesman Ken Fields would not answer a reporter’s questions about the
viability of the company, and he denied a request to interview US Fidelis Chief
Executive Chris Riley.

As recently as April, US Fidelis had boasted about 1,100 employees and claimed
to be the nation’s top seller of extended auto-service contracts, which often
are marketed as “extended warranties.”

The firm was an industry leader, and in the St. Louis area it spawned dozens of
rival companies started by or staffed with former US Fidelis employees.

As with US Fidelis, several of those companies are being sued by Koster for
misleading consumers. On Tuesday, Koster’s office sued four more area
companies: St. Louis-based Carhill Enterprises, which does business as Consumer
Protection Services; St. Charles-based CarSafe, which does business as Dealer
Preferred Warranties; St. Louis-based Dealership Services; and Maryland
Heights-based Dealership Warranties.

Fields, of the Fleishman-Hillard public relations firm, did provide a company
statement attributed to Riley. In it, he said the company had suspended sales
and was focusing on reducing the number of customers who cancel their coverage.

The company has blamed a tide of recent cancellations on the economy as well as
what it considers to be unfair criticism levied against it by consumer groups
and the news media.

“As a result, hundreds of good, hard-working people have lost their jobs and
the St. Louis area has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in annual economic
impact that our company provided,” says the statement, which credited the
company with delivering “more than $280 million in annual economic impact in
Missouri.”

Although sales have been suspended, the company says it still employs more than
200 workers — including customer-service and account-resolution agents who work
with existing customers, which the company has said number more than 300,000.

Keeping most of those customers from canceling is important, but it may not be
enough to keep the company viable, said Philip Jehle, the former chief
financial officer and vice president of operations at US Fidelis. To survive,
it needs new customers.

“If they’re not selling, there’s no revenue,” Jehle said.

US Fidelis customers pay in monthly installments, but that money doesn’t go to
US Fidelis, Jehle said. That’s because the firm gets its money on the front end
— in full and in advance — from companies that finance customers’ purchases.
When those customers cancel, US Fidelis must pay the finance companies back.

Cancellations aren’t the company’s only concern.

On March 6, 2008, Missouri’s then-Attorney General Jay Nixon sued the company
for violating telemarketing laws and for mailing consumers deceptive sales
letters. Litigation of that lawsuit stopped when Missouri joined a multi-state
investigation of the firm.

That investigation now includes at least 43 state attorneys general.

Last week, Koster’s office breathed new life into the state lawsuit by seeking
to amend the original complaint. The amendment would include allegations of 40
current and past business practices that violated consumer-protection and
telemarketing laws.

Koster’s office now accuses US Fidelis of deceiving consumers through the sale
of controversial and unregulated coverage plans that require consumers to
purchase an auto additive. That practice, which is common among
service-contract brokers based in the St. Louis area, was first made public in
August when the Post-Dispatch published a story about the prevalence of what
Koster has since dubbed “the additive scam.”

Additive-based warranties, unlike extended service contracts, do not need to be
refundable or underwritten by insurance companies. The additive-based plans
cover fewer repairs, it’s easier for companies to deny claims and consumers
often are unaware that the product they bought wasn’t, in fact, a service
contract.

A good idea to avoid home and vehicle fires

Maintaining your car No Responses »

Dec 262009

I’ve added some pictures of what can happen to a vehicle if you leave chargers plugged into the outlets. Actually for years I’ve unplugged electric items at home that I know aren’t going to be used for a while for the same reason, or while on vacation.

In most cases, if there’s a short circuit, just like in your home, a circuit breaker will trip to avoid a fire or shock to a person (shock regarding your home 110 volt circuits, not your vehicle) What can happen, however, in your vehicle or your home, is what happened to the vehicle in the pictures. The charger itself got hot enough to melt and start a fire, but it wasn’t drawing enough power to trip the circuit breaker. The fact that the vehicle was in the home’s garage could have even created more of a disaster.

At the dealership, over the years, we’ve encountered a few situations also where those chargers actually drew enough power to discharge the vehicle battery over a few days. That’s always inconvenient, to have your vehicle not start after sitting at the airport for a week!

Closing dealerships

Uncategorized 2 Responses »

Dec 162009

Last year as part of the restructuring of GM and Chrysler in bankruptcy, approximately 2000 dealers were abruptly terminated, or in the case of GM dealers told that they would lose their franchises no later than October of 2010.

GM and Chrysler claimed that dealers cost them a lot of money. Here’s a good way to look at this. Consider dealers as the only customer of the manufacturers. Also be aware that virtually everything we get from the manufacturer, we pay for. Canceling out dealers would be very similar to a dealer filing for bankruptcy and in the bankruptcy stating that the dealer would no longer sell to people whose last names started with A through the letter D. Less dealers mean less competition and fewer choices for getting service for consumers.

I’ll admit that some dealers might have been too close to one another, but wouldn’t it have been a better plan to allow the market (that means the customers) choose which dealers would survive? Many dealers lost franchises because the manufacturer wanted to combine their brands under one roof. Here’s an example of that: In the Waterloo Cedar Falls area, Holdiman Motor lost their Jeep and Chrysler franchises. Those franchises have already been given to a different dealer who had the Dodge franchise. Even in bankruptcy the Jeep and Chrysler franchises had considerable value yet the manufacturer took them from one dealer and gave them to another dealer. This, I’m pretty sure of, was done with no payment to Holdiman, or charge to the other dealer.

There are rules and laws that protect dealers from manufacturers using such tactics. But in the shroud of bankruptcy they were able to bypass those laws. There are also rules and laws that protect dealers from unfair competition and also require that all dealers pay the same amount for their new vehicles from the factory. Those laws and rules were created years ago to ensure that there were convenient service and price competition available to consumers and that little dealers wouldn’t be unfairly forced out of business. The alternative will be no place but large towns having auto dealers. The big dealers would like that, you won’t….

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject.

Something really new from the Birdnow Dealerships!

Uncategorized No Responses »

Nov 272009

The Birdnow Dealerships are going to launch a first of its kind 24/7 emergency message service for our customers. All of our customers will begin receiving a card with a toll free 24/7 emergency contact number on it. We are calling this card our VIC (Very Important Customer) cars. Only our customers will have access to this number. When calling, a live operator will ask which of our locations you normally do business with, or which one of our locations you’re closest to, and, at your choice, will call a specific manager, or the emergency contact managers of that store. If no one answers, if you wish, an email will be sent to all emergency contact managers at all of our locations. As soon as possible one of our emergency contact managers will call you back and see how we can help. Each of our managers will have a complete list of contact numbers for all staff in the entire Birdnow Dealerships organization. So, for example, if you normally do business with our Oelwein location, but it’s the middle of the night, you call our VIC emergency operator, and our emergency operator isn’t getting an answer to their phone call, an email will be sent to all emergency contact managers. Early the next morning, the first emergency contact manager that sees the message will call you, find out how we can help you, and will use our master list of all employees to call the appropriate person from the store location that can help you. Our 24/7 operator will have contact information for after hours towing, etc. to help you, but our purpose is not to replace emergency services or roadside assistance. Examples of what we would be able to help with is a loaner on the weekend, or advice on where to have a damaged vehicle towed.

This is just one of many things that make our dealerships unique. We like to say that we have all the benefits of a large dealership (a lot of vehicles to choose from, many sources of lenders to get you the best possible deal, better trained technicians and equipment) but not the negative things big dealerships can have. (high service labor rates, turnover in sales staff, high pressure to buy today, don’t care attitude once you’ve purchased from them, etc.) The Birdnow Dealerships are one big family, spread across NE Iowa, if you’re a Birdnow Customer you’ll be at home at any of our locations.

Let’s talk about: Taxes and buying a vehicle

Purchasing a vehicle No Responses »

Oct 282009

This article is mainly meant for my Iowa friends. And of course you need to consult with your tax preparer before you ever make a purchase that involves your consideration of a tax write off or deduction.

In Iowa, this is the last chance to deduct the use tax (the 5% added on for road construction) that is added on any vehicle purchase. We often refer to it as sales tax, but it’s really called use tax.

There are also some very good tax deductions for purchases made for business. Again, you need to discuss this with your tax advisor. Using my companies as an example, we are going to purchase two new trucks with snow plows. They are 100% deductible this year. We are also going to purchase a five year old truck with a plow also. That one, because it’s used, is 20% deductible this year and the remaining 80% at the rate of 20% per year for the next four years.

This year inventory is lower that I ever remember. This is in part because of the success of the cash for clunkers program, and also plant shut downs because of retooling, etc.

Every year we have customers that wait for the last minute and then are in a big hurry to get something bought. They sometimes ask us if they can order and pay for a vehicle in December, but take delivery after the first of the year. It’s my understanding that if the IRS is aware that is what happened, they’ll disallow it.

Take advantage of the selection now, or pick from what we have coming, or we’ll even locate a vehicle for you at another dealership, if we don’t have what you want.

Older Entries

July the fourth

How green are we?

Credit Problems

Insurance, An important part of the cost of a vehicle

Where Oh Where do I get my warranty work done?

Extended Warranties update!

US Fidelis suspends sales of service contracts

A good idea to avoid home and vehicle fires

Closing dealerships

Something really new from the Birdnow Dealerships!

Let’s talk about: Taxes and buying a vehicle

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