Visalia
- Local car dealers say things could be worse, but they all agree
they have yet to see a rebound in sales that slumped more than 18 months
ago.
“The market's pretty small right now,” said Don Groppetti, owner of Groppetti Automotive Group with eight dealerships in Visalia.
However, he said with a tone of optimism, “In relationship to where it was 12 months ago, it's pretty good.”
Lonnie Tiesiera, owner of Will Tiesiera Ford in Tulare and Jason Silva, general manager of Serpa Kia in Visalia, said the market has not improved a lot.
“No rebound at all – nothing,” said Tiesiera, explaining that truck sales are still way off. At one time one out of every four new vehicles he sold was a truck. Today, it's about one of two sold.
“We're still plugging along,” said Silva. He said they are seeing a little more traffic, but not necessarily more sales. “It's still slow.”
Auto makers reported a bounce in sales nationwide in February, with Ford reporting a 43 percent hike in sales. Tiesiera said he did not see that spike.
Even General Motors, builder of Chevrolet, Buick and GMC trucks, reported a slight bounce in sales, but Groppetti said he could sell more GM vehicles if he could get them.
“They have to start building products. I have 50 percent of the inventory that I use to have,” he said of GM cars and trucks.
Groppetti said he did not see a big drop off in the sales of Toyota's in the wake of the recall of eight Toyota models last month. In fact, he said, he saw sales rebound in the last half of February.
“I think the worst of that is behind us. It's still a very good vehicle,” he said.
Tiesiera said the sale of Ford Fusions and Focuses are good, but they don't offset the drop in truck sales. He said construction companies are not busy and as a consequence, they are not replacing vehicles as quickly as they did during the housing boom.
“Ford's got great products. The Fusion is probably our No. 1 seller right now,” he said.
Silva said buyers appear to still be looking at the less expensive models, which is good for him. “People are being cautious,” he said, adding they are looking at less expensive vehicles more than for gas saving vehicles.
Groppetti agreed, saying he has not seen buyers as picky about gas mileage as he saw two years ago when gasoline was near $4 a gallon.
Both Tiesiera and Groppetti said they expect things to turn around toward the end of this year.
“I think we're slowly starting to come back,” said Groppetti. “We're looking for 2011 to be a good year,” added Tiesiera.
According to California Auto Outlook, a 10.3 percent increase in new vehicle registrations is expected this year, a vast improvement over 2009 that saw sales decline 28.3 percent in the state.
Toyota had the market share in California in 2009 with nearly one out of every four vehicles sold being a Toyota. Honda was second at 13.5percent of all vehicles sold, then Ford at 12.4 and GM at 11.7.
The above story is the property
of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit
permission in writing from the publisher.