US auto industry bail out affecting local auto dealers

We don’t have any auto manufacturing in North Carolina, so we don’t have much riding on the fate of the US auto industry, right?

Wrong.

We make more components for cars and trucks than you might imagine. And what about the people who sell and service the vehicles?

North Carolina’s 690 new vehicle dealerships generate a lot of business in a good year.

More than $20 billion in vehicle sales represent more than 18 percent of all retail sales in the state. That’s a lot of tax revenue, and employees; well over 32,000 according to the national auto dealers association.

Auto dealers support the federal loans for auto makers.

Local Congressman Mike McIntyre disagrees. He voted against his party when he voted against the loan plan.

Robert Glaser of the NCADA said if the big three go bankrupt, it could devastate those suppliers and the state’s auto dealers.

Money owed them by the auto makers would become unsecured debt, subject to the rulings of a bankruptcy judge. Pennies on the dollar could amount to nails in their coffins.

The loan package is hanging on the Senate now and many Senate Republicans are unhappy with the plan.