Car Business

"Don't be a stranger" -- Peggy Olson I went to a wedding a few weeks ago, and the conversation at my table, as it often does, turned to "Mad Men. " A few guests were very adamant about Season 5; "lackluster" and "disappointing" were the most commonly used words. I've been back and forth about this season, but have always thought there has been more good moments than bad. After last week's glaring misstep, I was getting worried. But tonight's beyond-excellent episode, which ranks right up there with episodes "The Suitcase" and "Shut the Door.

"Don't be a stranger" -- Peggy Olson I went to a wedding a few weeks ago, and the conversation at my table, as it often does, turned to "Mad Men. " A few guests were very adamant about Season 5; "lackluster" and "disappointing" were the most commonly used words. I've been back and forth about this season, but have always thought there has been more good moments than bad. After last week's glaring misstep, I was getting worried. But tonight's beyond-excellent episode, which ranks right up there with episodes "The Suitcase" and "Shut the Door.

James L. Dunbar Sr. remembers acting as both salesman and security guard for his start-up armored car company in Baltimore in the 1950s and 1960s. Most days, he'd meet with clients in the morning, then put on a uniform and a gun to provide those services with his sole armored car in the afternoon. "When I was 26, no one was going to knock me off," said Dunbar, now 71, in an interview last week. "I thought I would live forever." But as his company grew across the country in the 1980s, Dunbar started to plan for a time when he'd no longer be in charge.

General Motors Corp. announced Wednesday that it will continue to upgrade its Baltimore transmission plant, investing $23.5 million as it positions the facility to become a core part of its electric car business. The money is in addition to $246 million the company announced in January to equip the plant in White Marsh to build electric motors beginning in 2013. Plans are to build a 40,000-square-foot facility next to the site where workers now build transmissions, including some that go into hybrid vehicles.

A Harford County car dealer who was forced out of business last fall has been charged with theft for allegedly failing to satisfy the liens on traded-in cars after receiving money to retire the debts.The charges against R. Brooke Boyle, the former owner of Brooke Boyle Motor Cars Ltd., are contained in a 76-count indictment unsealed yesterday by Harford County State's Attorney Joseph I. Cassilly. The charges allege crimes between August 1988 and October 1989.Cassilly said the indictment includes 45 counts of theft involving more than $300,000.

When James Dunbar started his armored truck business in 1956, he had three goals: build up his fleet to eight trucks, fly in a Boeing 707 and drive a Cadillac.He has long since met those goals, but the 62-year-old businessman continues to set new objectives. His Federal Armored Express Inc. is the fourth-largest armored truck company in America and growing fast.Recently, the company acquired about 75 routes from the nation's third-largest armored carrier, Loomis Armored Inc."I want to be No. 2," Mr. Dunbar said, who at least for now does not aspire to overtake Brink's Inc., the largest armored truck company in the business with 1,300 cars in 43 states.

Would you buy a used car from this retailer?Circuit City Stores Inc., the giant home electronics chain, startled Wall Street, auto dealers and much of the retail world yesterday with an announcement that it was going into the used-car business.The news, tucked near the end of a news release detailing the company's financial results, overshadowed a 38 percent increase in profits in Circuit City's fiscal fourth quarter."I was a little surprised that the media picked up on that when we announced earnings that were above expectations and described our keymarkets and plans for expansion, all of which will have a big impact on our business," said Ann Collier, Circuit City's spokeswoman.

Sales of both new and used cars in Maryland plunged 26 percent during December, and dealers and economists blamed the drop on the same weakness in consumer confidence that plagued other retailers during a sluggish Christmas season.Marylanders bought only 18,503 new cars in December, according to yesterday's figures from the state Motor Vehicle Administration. The performance was by far the worst in a year in which new car sales overall dipped 6.5 percent."This is a real step backward in the recovery," said Michael A. Conte, director of the Regional Economic Studies Program at the University of Baltimore.

Most businesses are loath to acknowledge problems in serving their audience. The auto industry, however, not only admits to its bad rep, it uses it for ad campaigns.A recent radio commercial for one car line, for example, measures the heartbeat of a fictitious patient when confronted with various stimuli. When a member of the opposite sex asks if the neighboring bar stool is available, the pulse quickens. When a pilot announces the engine has just fallen off the plane, the pulse races faster.

For years consumers have been experiencing vertigo at the eyeball-popping sticker prices on automobiles in new car dealers' showrooms. Since 1989, new car prices have been rising well ahead of personal incomes, putting that dream machine out of reach of many prospective buyers.To avert a crippling slump in production, carmakers resorted to all sorts of novel schemes to keep sales up, including leasing. But now there are signs that the huge investment automakers have sunk into leasing arrangements may permanently alter the economics of the car business.

New cars sold to Marylanders hit their highest point in more than a year in September as the federal "cash for clunkers" program lured buyers into the showrooms. The Motor Vehicle Administration registered 26,992 new cars and light trucks in September. That was the most in one month since July 2008, when 29,188 were recorded. Last fall's financial collapse caused a plunge in consumer spending that sent some car manufacturers hurtling toward insolvency and gave dealers their worst year in more than a decade.

The 4.2-acre used-car lot that Frank Saglimbeni wants to build doesn't seem outsized in this era of big-box stores, but to hundreds of residents who live near the bucolic 19th-century crossroads known as Daisy in far western Howard County, it's a monster. On a field where narrow, winding Daisy Road meets hilly, scenic Union Chapel Road in an unevenly aligned intersection, Saglimbeni plans to build a 3,850-square foot, two-story building and a lot for 155 vehicles on land that has been zoned for business for more than 50 years.

It should be another favorable year for the U.S. auto industry, but there will be some bumps in the road. Auto analysts and industry officials see new-car sales remaining stable in Maryland and the nation, assuming there is no war in the Middle East. A conflict could reduce sales by as much as 6 percent, they said. Other predictions include: Labor talks leading to new contracts between the Big Three domestic automakers and the United Auto Workers union. A continuation of the generous incentives that boost new-car sales but cut into the profits of the automakers.

Samuel J. Zito, a sprightly centenarian who had operated Zito Buick Services in Baltimore for 40 years, died of respiratory failure Friday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. He was 100. Mr. Zito, a 51-year resident of East Lake Avenue who would have been 101 next month, was born in Baltimore. One of seven children of Italian immigrant parents, he was raised on Pennsylvania Avenue, where his father owned a confectionery and fruit store. His entrepreneurial instincts began early, when he was delivering newspapers at the age of 6. He swept the floors of a barbershop after school for 50 cents a week, and as a 14-year-old delivered singing telegrams for Western Union.

James L. Dunbar Sr. remembers acting as both salesman and security guard for his start-up armored car company in Baltimore in the 1950s and 1960s. Most days, he'd meet with clients in the morning, then put on a uniform and a gun to provide those services with his sole armored car in the afternoon. "When I was 26, no one was going to knock me off," said Dunbar, now 71, in an interview last week. "I thought I would live forever." But as his company grew across the country in the 1980s, Dunbar started to plan for a time when he'd no longer be in charge.

A start-up insurance company that promises to offer more affordable insurance policies to city residents and small businesses will announce today that it plans to begin operations in mid-summer of 2001. American Skyline Insurance Co., with headquarters at 14 Light St. in Baltimore, will offer standard personal and commercial insurance coverage to customers in Baltimore and Washington, including policies for automobile owners, homeowners and small business owners, said the company's chief executive officer, Earnest E. Hines.

New cars sold to Marylanders hit their highest point in more than a year in September as the federal "cash for clunkers" program lured buyers into the showrooms. The Motor Vehicle Administration registered 26,992 new cars and light trucks in September. That was the most in one month since July 2008, when 29,188 were recorded. Last fall's financial collapse caused a plunge in consumer spending that sent some car manufacturers hurtling toward insolvency and gave dealers their worst year in more than a decade.

IN AUTO LOT parlance, the proposal to bring a huge "state of the art" used car dealership to Howard County should be **TC "cream puff," an easy sell. While the state legislature is weighing the removal of a snack tax to encourage the creation of jobs, including 200 at a Frito-Lay plant, here are 300 jobs for the taking -- with no state incentives requested, save for the lifting in Howard County of an antiquated statute that prohibits auto sales on Sundays....

Some of the heavy negotiating going on in auto showrooms across the state has nothing to do with cars or trucks. There is a flurry of bargaining among dealers looking to cash out and leave a business whose future is not nearly as bright as its recent past. "I know of four dealers who are in various stages of sale negotiations. And this is only within the past three months," said Jacob J. Cohen, managing director of the auto dealers' group of American Express Tax and Business Services Inc., which provides financial services for many of the state's new-car dealerships.

New car sales continue to sputter in Maryland, falling 9.2 percent last month, according to figures released yesterday by the Motor Vehicle Administration.The decline marked the eighth consecutive month in which sales were lower than in the corresponding period of the previous year. Sales have been off in 11 of the past 12 months."Very interesting," said Michael Funk, a research economist with the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University, who noted that the figures "are not reflective of the state's economy."