The prestigious Gallup Poll announced that once again car salespersons rank at the bottom in terms of public esteem. As in the past, nurses rank at the top.
As a measure of how low car salespersons stand in the public’s mind, they fall below even members of Congress, who are at an all-time, historic low.
According to Edmunds.com, one of the top websites for car shopping, “54% of car shoppers say they want more clarity on the exact price of a car rather than haggling with dealers.” — Detroit News, June 8, 2013
According to Automotive News, auto “Dealers have moved to the front lines of opposition against legislation that would make it easier to workers to join unions. The practice is commonly called card-check.”
“Dealers…are claiming some success in slowing momentum of the bill, which is a top priority of organized labor and key Democratic leaders.” — Automotive News, March 23, 2009
That was in 2009. Since then, dealers and their business allies have succeeded in blocking enactment of the legislation.
Dealers like to be able to fire employees at will, sometimes pressuring them to cheat customers, under threat of losing their jobs.
Auto dealers are overwhelmingly conservative. Their political giving, predictably, follows the same pattern. Auto dealers donated tens of millions of dollars to right-wing politicians like former President George Bush, Presidential Candidate John McCain, and Presidential candidate Mitt Romney..
Auto dealers like to pose as “Main Street” “mom and pop” businesses, in order to get concessions from legislators and regulators. But according to Automotive News, “The $1 billion club for 2012 includes 34 [dealership] groups, including 13 with more than $2 billion.”
Increasingly, auto dealerships are consolidating and thousands are publicly traded on Wall Street. Microsoft’s Bill Gates is one of the largest investors in the nation’s largest auto dealership chain, AutoNation, which reportedly grossed $15,668,8000,000 last year.*
*Automotive News, “Top 125 dealership groups in the U.S.” – March, 2013.