Car Dealers

The Motor Vehicle Administration has issued a warning to car dealers across the state to halt advertising it believes is misleading consumers.Ronald E. Forbes, director of licensing and consumer services, said ads that give consumers a false impression of how much they might expect to pay for a new car "have become very commonplace."A common practice, he said, is for a dealer to have the purchase price appear in small print alongside a hypothetical trade-in amount, with the words "your balance" and a dollar amount in much larger, bold type.

On Sunday, I wrote about the Federal Trade Commission's fact-finding mission into the consumer experience of buying, leasing and financing a car. The FTC is trying to decide whether current consumer protections are enough, or whether more regulations and customer education are needed. Steven Eisenberg, a business manager with Arena Motor Group in Owings Mills, called to say that the dealer's side of the story is often overlooked in articles about buying a car. I told him I would post his comments on the blog.

Car dealers say they are frustrated and disappointed that Congress has failed to pass a $14 billion loan package that is intended to save Chrysler and General Motors from bankruptcy, and they warn that the impact on the economy would be severe if those companies are allowed to fail. In Maryland, about 26,000 people are employed at the state's 340 auto dealerships, which contribute significantly to local philanthropy, from Little League to the state's Teacher of the Year Award. All of that is at risk, dealers said.

Continuing a tradition begun in 2008, members of the Bel Air New Car Dealers Association agreed to donate $20 for every unit sold at their 2011 Labor Day Weekend sale at the Festival at Bel Air shopping center, to a local Harford County charitable institution that serves members of the community in need. For 2011, the Dealer Group decided to make the Harford Family House the recipient of the donation. Previous beneficiaries were the Harford County Commission on Veterans (2008), the Harford County Community Action Agency (2009)

Credit markets for housing are loosening up a bit. Will automobile lending be next? Car dealers certainly hope so. Thanks partly to the decline in consumer spending power and partly to the evaporation of credit, 2008 was the worst year for auto sales in a very long time. Maryland dealers sold 16,842 new cars in November, down 38 percent from November 2007 and the worst result for any month in more than a decade. But dealers hope that federal bailouts will do for car loans what they're starting to do for home loans.

REPEALING THE BLUE LAWS that ban Sunday sales of automobiles in Howard County may look like an unwanted imposition on the county's car retailers. Most of the dealers don't want it. Of the 13 dealerships in Howard, 10 oppose a repeal, saying it would be a hardship to stay open.The real push for repeal is actually coming from an entity known as Car-Max, a used-car superstore owned by Circuit City that wants to locate in Howard County. The problem is that Car-Max, which can employ between 250 and 500 people, is threatening not to move here unless it can operate on Sunday.

Car dealers in the county and nation are riding out a recession thathas reduced the number of car sales. But that woe hasn't stopped 20 Harford County dealerships from joining a campaign to raise money forthe state's homeless.For every car that is sold, participating dealers are donating $10 for a raffle ticket in the name of the buyer for a $200,000 house. Cash raised in the raffle will go to Action forthe Homeless, a Baltimore-based group assisting the homeless.The raffle will take place Oct. 26. A brand new house in Anne Arundel County, built and donated by Ryland Homes, will be given to the winner.

An effort in the General Assembly to lift a ban on Sunday car sales has again brought out car dealers protesting that they and their customers like the day off.The huge AutoNation USA retailer would like to see the ban lifted by the time it opens a store in Glen Burnie and possibly one elsewhere in the Baltimore region. The company's competitor in fixed-price, late-model used-car sales, CarMax, opened a lot in Howard County last year after lawmakers lifted that county's ban.The state law has exempted Montgomery and Prince George's counties for years, allowing Sunday car sales in those counties, although few dealerships are open there seven days a week.

Developers, auto dealers, energy companies and port businesses were among the interests that helped Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. raise more than $620,000 in a 2 1/2 -week period this month for his campaign for governor. The GOP candidate, whose fund raising eclipsed that of Democrat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend during the period, raised more than 90 percent of his money from Maryland sources, according to campaign finance reports filed yesterday. Townsend's fund raising, meanwhile, seemed to melt away during the Aug. 7 to Aug. 25 filing period.

Several laws from the most recent session of the Maryland legislature take effect today: •Marylanders may have wine shipped to their homes, as long as their vintner of choice has paid a $200 permit and signed up with the state comptroller's office. •State workers will pay more into their pension system. Workers hired now will have lower benefits than their more experienced colleagues. •Car dealers can tack a $200 dealership fee on the cost of a new or used vehicle.

Robert Lee "Bob" Bell, who began his career in auto sales in the 1950s and went on to own the Bob Bell Automotive Group, one of the state's largest car dealers, died Sunday of leukemia at theUniversity of Maryland Medical Center. The Ellicott City resident, who earlier had lived in Laurel, was 78. Born and raised in Alexandria, Va., Mr. Bell was appointed a Capitol Hill U.S. Senate page and graduated from the Senate Page School. "He was a page for Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn," said a daughter, Mary Catherine Bishop of Ellicott City.

Several laws from the most recent session of the Maryland legislature take effect today: •Marylanders may have wine shipped to their homes, as long as their vintner of choice has paid a $200 permit and signed up with the state comptroller's office. •State workers will pay more into their pension system. Workers hired now will have lower benefits than their more experienced colleagues. •Car dealers can tack a $200 dealership fee on the cost of a new or used vehicle.

Reporter Annie Linskey is right to characterize the last-minute budget deal that allows Maryland auto dealers to double and triple the processing fees they charge buyers as "a giveaway to car dealers" ("Businesses see breaks from General Assembly," April 18). That giveaway will be a serious blow to Maryland consumers, however, because they will foot the bill for the $100 million windfall the fee hike brings to the state's car dealers next year. As our economy struggles to emerge from the worst recession of the last 70 years, many low- and moderate-income Marylanders are struggling to afford the cars they need to find jobs, obtain child care and travel to the places that offer products at affordable prices.

Thanks to a satisfied customer who gave an excellent reference, Jody Berg and her company, Media Works Ltd., got a call last month to pitch a potential client. The Van Tuyl Automotive Group, the country's largest independent network of car dealerships, was looking for an experienced media buyer to help it place more than $30 million in advertising over the next year - a staggering amount that would more than double Media Works' annual billings. Berg remembers speaking to a Van Tuyl official one day by phone in September, and then flying to a meeting in Atlanta the next day. Proposals and follow-up meetings came quickly after.

Gerald "Captain Jerry" Millman, a former used-car dealer and haberdasher who founded Captain Jerry's Custom T-shirts, died Sunday of kidney and heart failure at Sinai Hospital. He was 82. Born in Baltimore, Mr. Millman was raised in the city's Pimlico neighborhood. After graduating from Forest Park High School, he served in the North Atlantic aboard the Coast Guard cutter Dexter. After being discharged from the service, he established a used-car business in Brooklyn at Patapsco Avenue and Potee Street.

Credit markets for housing are loosening up a bit. Will automobile lending be next? Car dealers certainly hope so. Thanks partly to the decline in consumer spending power and partly to the evaporation of credit, 2008 was the worst year for auto sales in a very long time. Maryland dealers sold 16,842 new cars in November, down 38 percent from November 2007 and the worst result for any month in more than a decade. But dealers hope that federal bailouts will do for car loans what they're starting to do for home loans.

On Sunday, I wrote about the Federal Trade Commission's fact-finding mission into the consumer experience of buying, leasing and financing a car. The FTC is trying to decide whether current consumer protections are enough, or whether more regulations and customer education are needed. Steven Eisenberg, a business manager with Arena Motor Group in Owings Mills, called to say that the dealer's side of the story is often overlooked in articles about buying a car. I told him I would post his comments on the blog.

Reporter Annie Linskey is right to characterize the last-minute budget deal that allows Maryland auto dealers to double and triple the processing fees they charge buyers as "a giveaway to car dealers" ("Businesses see breaks from General Assembly," April 18). That giveaway will be a serious blow to Maryland consumers, however, because they will foot the bill for the $100 million windfall the fee hike brings to the state's car dealers next year. As our economy struggles to emerge from the worst recession of the last 70 years, many low- and moderate-income Marylanders are struggling to afford the cars they need to find jobs, obtain child care and travel to the places that offer products at affordable prices.

Car dealers say they are frustrated and disappointed that Congress has failed to pass a $14 billion loan package that is intended to save Chrysler and General Motors from bankruptcy, and they warn that the impact on the economy would be severe if those companies are allowed to fail. In Maryland, about 26,000 people are employed at the state's 340 auto dealerships, which contribute significantly to local philanthropy, from Little League to the state's Teacher of the Year Award. All of that is at risk, dealers said.

Around Maryland, dealers who sell domestic automobiles are wondering what the future holds as they watch the big three automakers lobby Washington for financial aid to stave off bankruptcy. With auto sales at their weakest levels in decades, many dealers fear the U.S. auto industry will collapse without quick approval of $25 billion in federal loans. They say that could lead to widespread business failures and job losses in a sector that employs 26,000 people statewide. "I don't think anybody can tell dealers what would happen if the unsinkable went out" of business, said Sam Weaver, owner and vice president of Chevy Chase Chevrolet and Chevy Chase Acura in Bethesda.