New Car

Maryland consumers tightened their purse strings and sat out the surprising new-car buying frenzy that swept much of the nation in October, according to figures released yesterday by the state Motor Vehicle Administration.The 1.2 percent decline in new-vehicle sales in the state during October contrasted sharply with the 10 percent boost in car and light truck deliveries nationally."Dealers that I've have talked to said that October was a pretty good month," said Robert C. Russel, president of R&H Motor Cars Ltd. in Owings Mills and chairman of the Maryland New Car and Truck Dealers Association, a trade group representing 320 new-car dealers in the state.

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.

Let's hope Maryland new-car dealers are getting a decent amount of cash-for-clunkers action. They need it. Not only have sales of all cars plunged in this state. The portion of new-car sales has fallen, too. In 2000, four cars out of every 10 sold in the state was new, according to stats from the Motor Vehicle Administration. The ratio has been falling steadily since then, and this year it went through the floor. For the year to date through June, only 27 percent of all sales were new cars.

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.

As Christine Canales sees it, she's the victim of a system that has been offering car buyers great deals on nearly new cars.Until she got the ax in June, Ms. Canales was business manager and saleswoman with Avis Rent A Car System Inc.'s used-car sales lot in Glen Burnie.She was one of hundreds of Avis employees across the country who lost their jobs when they were caught in a feud between the nation's automakers and new-car dealers over the industry's practice of selling cars to rental fleets at 5 percent to 10 percent below the price franchised dealers paid.

Thirty-year-old Rick Schmelyun Jr. of Silver Run has been going to the races ever since he was 6 weeks old."Racing has been my whole life. Every weekend I go to the races either to watch or to race," said the son of local racing legend, Rick Schmelyun Sr.Schmelyun, one of many second-generation racers on the area dirt track circuit, wants to become a full-time sprint car driver on the World of Outlaws Circuit.He has the needed determination and confidence and, after his first full season, his accomplishments show he has his father's ability and talent.

Maryland consumers may be spending freely on Christmas gifts this year, but they are tightening the purse strings when it comes to big ticket items such as automobiles.New car sales took a sharp turn for the worse last month, as deliveries fell 22 percent below the November 1995 sales pace, the state Motor Vehicle Administration reported yesterday.Sales last month were nearly 30 percent below the November 1994 level. The drop continued a pattern that has plagued Maryland car dealers all year.

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.

After holding back most of the year, Maryland motorists went on a buying spree last month that boosted new car sales 18 percent over the corresponding period of 1995, according to figures released Friday by the state Motor Vehicle Administration.The flurry of showroom activity seemed to catch some dealers by surprise and followed the sharpest decline of the year in November, when sales were off 22 percent."I guess people had money left over after doing their Christmas shopping," said Jeffrey A. Legum, president of Westminster Cadillac, Oldsmobile and Chevrolet.

Maryland's long-running new-car sales boom seems to be losing some of its pep, but 1994 is still shaping up to be auto dealers' best year since the pre-recession late 1980s.According to figures compiled by the Motor Vehicle Administration, new-car sales rose 3.4 percent last month, compared with the previous September. While that kept intact a 16-month string of higher sales, it's a far more modest pace than the double-digit gains of the spring and early summer. Sales growth has slowed every month since April.