We talked about this before, but it bears repeating – auto dealers are the only group in the auto industry, including car transport companies, to be exempt from the new federal regulatory system. The full bill is over 2,000 pages long, and the focus is on reforming the nation’s financial regulatory system. Lobbyists for the auto industry fought for months to get the exemption even though other industries fought just as hard – if not harder – and came up with nothing.

But what does that mean for you, exactly? Well, the auto industry writes over $250 billion in loans every year – this is 80% of ALL loans written in the United States – and it means that without oversight you could get screwed by them. But auto dealers say they weren’t responsible for the economic collapse a few years ago, and for the most part they’re right; but that doesn’t mean that they should go on doing what they’re doing. Any loan given out needs to have protection for the person taking the money, lest the lender be a shark and start preying on the person who got the loan. That won’t happen in the auto industry, it seems.

So, be careful. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: be careful.

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According to the International Automotive Technicians’ Network’s poll of rpair shops, most expected an increase in business during 2010 and into 2011; over half of all shops polled said they anticipated a slight increase while 16% said they were expecting a major increase; only 14% said they saw a drop, while the rest said business would remain about the same. Many car transport companies move vehicles to and from repair shops, especially local ones such as towing companies.

Repair shops have always had business – cars are machines, and machines break down. Not to mention the fact that most people don’t worry about car upkeep until something breaks, and it’s becoming a major problem as more and more high-tech cars start coming onto the market. With more high-tech cars on the road today, repair shops have to be at the ready, because more things can go wrong, but many are saying that business is good, so that’s always good news, right?

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The combined force of social media and e-mail marketing has been underway for quite some time, but now the numbers are in and things are…well, they’re pretty interesting. Twitter and blog posts are helping many dealers ship cars, and even car transport companies are getting into the social networking thing, with tweets and facebook updates about route changes, pricing and more being all too common nowadays.

And why not? Most people spend their free time on social media websites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, and as they say, you go where your flock is – which, for dealers and auto companies, means getting on board with the whole social networking craze. These tactics allow e-mail marketers to grow their lists and it allows auto dealers to keep people informed with new pricing rules and great financing options via Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail lists. This also allows consumers to use their preferred method of shopping around and sign up for (and go to dealers) on their own terms. The face of sales is changing, it seems, for the better.

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We’re not trying to be sexist here – all we do is report the facts as they are, and the fact of the matter is that dealers prefer male shoppers over female shoppers, and we’re going to explain why. Women account for just over half of all automotive buys, but they focus on buying a family car as opposed to a stylish car that costs more. Men, on the other hand, rank styling as their number one priority when buying a car, while women rank it 11th. Also, it takes just four months, on average, for men to become bored with their vehicles and they start shopping for a new one, which means more repeat business for dealers – women, on the other hand, can take up to a year to grow bored with their vehicle.

This plays on the gender stereotypes that, actually, aren’t stereotypes at all. Men are less rational, and this extends to their buying habits as well; flashy cars that get low gas mileage but look cool are at the top of men’s priority lists, and that is reflected in car transport companies‘ records as well; most male shippers tend to ship flashy cars, while most women shippers are shipping family cars. Again, these are facts, not hearsay, so don’t shoot the messenger, please.

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Since the mid-1970’s, Detroit cars have lagged behind Japanese vehicles in terms of quality; let’s face it, if you were born after 1970 you thought that Japanese cars were the best of the best, that they were the bee’s knees, and for the most part you were right. Ford, General Motors and Chrysler all fell short when it came to quality, and car transport companies for years have been moving more Japanese freight than American.

But not anymore.

According to J.D. Power, the 24-year trend of American-made cars being worse than Japanese-made ones has finally stopped. This has been made possible by a number of things – first, the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies forced the two companies to retool their lineups and bring out better vehicles, while Ford decided to not go the way of the dodo and stepped it up in response to the government bailout programs (which Ford did not partake in). Not only that, but the recent major recalls – and the bungled way that Toyota handled them – has played havoc with the company’s reputation, so much so that for the first time American vehicles are topping the quality lists.

Let’s keep it up, shall we? Better cars made in America means better sales in America which means more jobs in America. Let’s hope that no one in Detroit screws this up, because this could be just what the economy needs right now.

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General Motors has for a long time been an international company, but for all that time all their international sales have been handled by GM International Operations, which includes Asia, Europe, South America, Australia and Africa. Now, however, GM is planning on breaking the mold by creating an entirely new division just for their South American sales, which is GM’s fourth largest global sales region.

Car transport companies have found little success moving international GM vehicles, but that doesn’t mean that the move is bad; Brazil is one of General Motors’ largest markets in the world, behind only the United States and China. The new head of the region, Jaime Ardila, will report directly to the new GM CEO Ed Whitacre, and there’s also a new president overseeing the region’s sales, one Denise Johnson. Whether this will help GM’s sales remains to be seen, but Whitacre has really busted his hump in shaping the company, so we’ll see how this one goes.

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So, as many know, Ford is planning on finally ending the failing Mercury brand due to falling sales and even lower demand over the past five years. But the resale vales of Mercury vehicles are expected to be pretty abominable, according to ALG, who also reported Plymouth’s resale value drop as well as Oldsmobile’s. Plymouth’s resale values dropped 6.6 points in 36 months, and in the same span Oldsmobile’s numbers dropped 2.5 points; Mercury’s numbers aren’t looking any better, especially considering that car transport companies aren’t shipping too many these days.

But Plymouth and Oldsmobile aren’t the only ones to compare to; both Saturn and Pontiac’s numbers also dropped significantly, and the main reason is that without the brand name being touted in commercials or by dealers, people stopped caring about them. With no new vehicles rolling off the showroom floor, customers don’t see the reason to buy older models of the same name, and Ford is fearing that Mercury is going to go the same way. But…it’s a discontinued brand name, so, really, who cares?

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The new 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee is out, and while I personally haven’t had a chance to get behind the wheel of it, sources say that it’s much improved over the 2010 model. New features include a larger body, a more powerful and more fuel-efficient engine, and a lower price, which is always great to hear. Jeep wanted to put out a competitive midsize SUV to rival other foreign models such as the Toyota Landcruiser, but small sales numbers for the 2010 model had Jeep engineers back to the drawing board.

What they came up with is a newly redesigned Grand Cherokee with more interior space, a 2.6L Pentastar V6 engine wiht 290 horsepower, and an optional 5.7L Hemi V8; however, these new engines come at a price. While the 2011 model gets better gas mileage than its predecessor, it still only gets 16 miles to the gallon in the city, which is terrible at best and dismal at worst. Car transport companies, however, have already begun shipping them, so it looks like Jeep did something right as sales numbers are expected to increase over the 2010 model.

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This is pretty cool. Leasing has typically been an option only for people will great credit, but as the economy has tanked and shown no major signs of coming back any time soon, many auto companies are looking at extending leasing options to people with less-than-perfect credit, specifically those with a credit score of less than 700. Leasing typically gives people lower monthly payments, but car transport companies don’t like leased vehicles as they tend to get shipped less. Regardless, many people are now looking at leasing as their new option, and it’s shown in the numbers.

The average lease is just 41 months, which is almost half for any cash or financing options, and most leasees return to the dealership to lease another car as opposed to buying the vehicle they leased, which means, in short, more money for dealers and better cars for leasees. In other words, if you’re looking for a new car, leasing might just be your best bet right now.

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Last June was a bad time for car transport companies across the globe; new car sales were down, used car sales were down, and sales overall, everywhere, were down. Sales this year in June were up significantly over last year’s sales, but actually down from May. Now, there may be some reasons for it, but mainly the auto industry is worried about consumer confidence, which we spoke about earler this week.

June sales for Detroit companies were down by almost 13% across the board, but fleet sales are expected to prop back up in July and numbers overall are still expected to increase. April and May were two strong months, and we have a sneaking suspicion that the tax returns were a major part of it – let’s face it, when people have some extra income they tend to spend it (I know I do). But while new and used car sales were down, fleet sales were actually up for both Ford and GM, which could mean that while individuals are having a hard time forking up the cash for new vehicles, businesses are eager to update their fleets and get some more revenue.

So, I guess the only thing we can say is that we’ll be watching this to see how it turns out.

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