Page 30 - BusinessWest December 21, 2020

Auto Sales
Driving R
Forces
For Dealers, a Sense of Normalcy, or a New Normal, Is Settling In
By George O’Brien
ob Pion was walking outside at his family’s
Buick/GMC dealership on Memorial Avenue
in Chicopee, and used the view to put things
in perspective for this industry as a trying, but
not altogether terrible, year comes to an end.
“That’s basically the new-car inventory,” he said, point- ing to a long single line of cars along the front of the prop- erty, noting that he was exaggerating, but only slightly.
Indeed, inventory remains an issue for almost all deal- ers in this region as manufacturers struggle to catch up after weeks, if not months, of shutdown at the factories. And mat- ters are worse for GM dealers, said Pion, the third-genera- tion principal of this venture, because of the lengthy strike at that corporation in 2019.
But aside from supplies of new cars — and things are getting slightly better on that front as well, as we’ll hear — the picture is brightening somewhat for auto dealers, and a sense of normal is returning, at least in some respects.
Or a new normal, if you will.
Indeed, Pion said the pandemic has effectively served to speed up the pace of change within the auto industry when it comes to doing things remotely and moving away from those traditional visits to the dealership to look at models, kick the tires, and even drop off the car for service.
30 DECEMBER 21, 2020 AUTO SALES BusinessWest