Of course, if you are a GM or Chrysler dealer, the clunkers program takes on a heightened urgency. But it adds up to less than half a month of Art’s total sales. So far, Art has sold 65 cars through the clunkers program and expects to sell another 40 to 50 before the taxpayer money runs out. In 2007, Americans bought 17 million new cars. “My personal opinion is if we do 11 million cars next year that would be a very good year.” That is still a shocking number. “If Washington did nothing, we’d recover at the same rate,” he said. I don’t believe we can sustain our country by giving money to buy things,” he said.Īrt thinks the worst is over, but he isn’t rehiring and sees a long, slow recovery. Philosophically, I’m not in favor of all the spending. Hard times or not, if you expect Art Wright to be pounding the table for the “cash for clunkers” program, you would be wrong. “First time in 25 years I’ve had layoffs,” he sighed. This year, he cut his staff to 185 from 215. Now, he is running at 250 to 275 a month. For his dealerships, Art’s combined new car sales peaked at 300 to 350 cars a month. Of course, Art’s dealerships have suffered, along with all car dealers, in our great recession. (I have tried tracking down someone to talk to at Kelly. The contrast with the Kelly showrooms down the street is simply startling. And that is why his showroom is bright and clean, why there is a greeter desk and an express service center at which three technicians simultaneously work a car for fast turnarounds. market share, keep car re-sale values high and “give our customers great service.” ![]() That seems to be Art Wright’s credo-and it fits nicely with Honda’s long-term corporate strategy: steadily grow U.S. He has two sons, one of whom works in the business and lives nearby with Art’s two grandchildren. (Guess who ended up with it? The Kelly Auto Group from up the street.)Īrt still has the same business partner he started with in 1984. He picked up a number of new franchises along the way, including a Ford franchise he sold a few years back. Twenty-five years ago, he made the big leap from managing a Cadillac-Honda franchise in York, Penn., to buying his own Honda franchise. But Art struck me as a pretty special dealer. That is a lot to get from a conversation with one car dealer. taxpayer has poured into Detroit may not be enough to save it. In little more than an hour with Art, a commonsensical 58-year-old, everything was much clearer to me: Why GM and Chrysler failed and Honda didn’t why “cash for clunkers” isn’t a cure-all for the auto industry and why the $100 billion the U.S. He also happens to be Chairman of Honda’s National Dealers Advisory Board. ![]() It was there that I bumped into Art Wright, co-owner of Lehigh Valley Acura Honda Suzuki Hyundai. So I gave up on Detroit and headed up the street to Lehigh Valley Honda. No greeter, no salespeople, only a couple of sad customers and an even sadder popcorn machine. Surely, things would be different at Kelly Ford, its sister dealer across the street. “Cash for clunkers” mania may grip the nation, but apparently not at Kelly Buick GMC. I stood in the empty showroom for a few minutes but no one came out to greet me. How is this for a snapshot of the American auto industry?Īt just after 9 a.m., I arrived at Kelly Buick GMC, an auto dealer at the southern tip of the Lehigh Auto Mile. In this first column of a series on the economy, he visits the Lehigh Street Auto Mile, whose auto dealers serve the 800,000 people of the greater Lehigh Valley. Mean Street columnist Evan Newmark recently left the insulated confines of Manhattan for a two-day road trip to Eastern Pennsylvania. Andy and his dad are truly among the very best.įinding Hope in a Cash-for-Clunker Country To this extent, the recent experience of a Journal reporter at his store comes as no surprise to me. Over the past couple of years, I’ve gotten to know Andy, Art’s son and found him to be one of the brightest and most progressive thinkers in the industry. Below you’ll find a Wall Street Journal article about Lehigh Valley Honda. Congratulations to Art and Andy Wright of Lehigh Valley Honda.
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