More Auto Choices Coming per Volkswagen's Mory Richardson 

Rotarian of the Day Roland Herwig at far left introduced Mory Richardson with Volkswagen of Edmond as the program speaker at the January 23rd meeting. Mory's topic was "Choices and Changes in the Auto Industry".

The time between "generations" of vehicles is shrinking more rapidly all the time.  Improvements in economy, safety, ergonomics and more drive automakers to make drastic changes each year.

Competition for buyers is changing the way sales take place. More online buying options make the purchaser more in command than ever before. Often the financing is more involved than the actual selection of the car.  The day of the "hard sell" may thankfully be drawing to a close, at least in the regular retail market.  (Still buyer beware in the used market). Sales Force turnover is a problem and is solved by more visuals and more information available to the buyer. 

Sales are "Millennial" driven. Female buyers are more respected and more powerful.  Much more interaction takes place due to available research material, consumer magazines, social media, etc. 

Mory also touched on the diesel problems that Volkswagen and other vendors have been fighting to overcome. The "rush to market" is the main blame for the issue with the real problem being the need for at least 3 - 4 more years of research and work to overcome the emissions problems (legitimately) before the current models were put on the market. Now lots with 2 - 3 year old "new" inventory are finally getting upgrades that will enable the dealers to move these off the lot. Don't expect "new" new inventory to show up as the liability and perception is just too negative right now, although there is a void in the 5 passenger 45-50 mpg automobile that the diesel cars were filling.   Thanks Mory for a great discussion.