Selling Cars: Apparently not crucial in the car-selling business.
-Car companies don't just spend their time drawing cars and then making some. Let's look at what else they do.

Movie stars, charity events, yes, even blogs are part of the fight to shove a new car into your driveway. Product placement, champagne-soaked galas and children's events with not a child in sight are all crucial for maintaining the delicate business called automotive.

Not all these activities are a complete waste of that $199 a month we pay to lease our Getta….I mean….Chevy truck. Creating buzz and a genuine appearance of corporate goodwill is a major priority for manufacturers. In this, long awaited, rebirth of Basic Transportation, let's look at everyone's up to.

Look, here's Tom Cruise and Laurence Fishburne looking excited about MI3 on the roof of an Escalade. That's because GM are the official providers of cars for the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. To be fair, if you paid to see MI3, good chance you think the current Impala is pretty nifty too.

The sponsorship is ideal because everyone knows that no American craves a 6.2 litre V8 more than New Yorkers. And with the gobs of media coverage the Tribeca Film Festival garners across the nation, there's no doubt that having the almost-convincingly-straight Cruise and the not-quite-popular-since-Matrix Fishburne stand on the Escalade is the perfect thing for GM to do.

This is money that could be used making more Solstices. The HHR is a great use of an existing platform, whereas middle-aged celebrities on a Cady isn't. Instead, getting involved with the TFF is as uninspired an idea as the Cobalt.

Dodge, on the other hand, are mingling the regular folk! A fantastic idea that's made even better with some 'amateur' snaps springing up on Autoblog. The Challenger concept, just debuted at Detroit in January is now making surprise appearances. To check out what the muscle car buying public thought, some Dodge guys showed up to a California cruise night to cheer up so real car fans. Needless to say, no one jumped on the roof.

In case there was any doubt, people love cars like this and they must have loved seeing the retro concept. It’s hard to believe that starting with a car that was made already, thirty-something years ago is even allowed in the car designer handbook - but the success of the current Mustang after years of ponycar wannabes from Ford changed the rules.

The Challenger is a lot truer to its roots that the current Charger or even the Camaro Concept. There is, however, one car that’s looked pretty much the same since day one, sometime around D-day, in WWII. That’s right, it’s the Jeep - CJ, TJ, Wrangler or Renegade, there’s only one Jeep that comes to mind when someone says Jeep. It’s the Jeep. And Jeep continued to break new ground in product placement since the last century, striking deals with video game producers (and, in Tony Hawk‘s case, stars) to make sure that Jeeps stay at the front of our mind and associated with the word ‘Jeep‘. While the latest Unlimited has little to do with WWII, that’s no reason those patriotic feelings shouldn’t be nourished.

That's why Jeep struck a deal with Electronic Arts to feature a Willys Overland in next year’s sequel to Medal of Honor, called Medal of Honor Airborne. The Jeep will be able to go places other game vehicles can’t and be used as a weapon’s platform. No word yet when the RPG-launcher edition Wrangler will announced.

General Motors hit a home run with the Pontiac Solstice-a small convertible with an attitude! This is a sporty little 4 cylinder car that handles like a high end sports car. Priced to sell with a 5 speed manual for around $20,000, with the automatic and fully loaded being around $27,000. This is a car that barely spends a night at any dealership as there is a waiting list. When they hit the ground, salemen are scurrying to call their prospects. General Motors finally got it right!
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What happened to the Pontiac GTO? The sports car to fill the void of the Trans Am for Pontiac is history after this year. Is it that the GTO name reminded car buffs of the times of old, and the new look reminded them of the Grand Am? Or, is the $1000 gas guzzler tax a turn off for the automatic GTO? I believe sports cars are a thing of the past. Where can you go and show everyone what your car will do? Cruising city blocks is not what it used to be. Although, Corvette and the new Camaro will do well, as the new Camaro is going back to the past in the look all the way down to the recessed gauges. We want to remember our past, the way things were when we were young. The GTO captured none of the characteristics of cars of old and I believe this is why it failed. Let me know what you think.

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Quoted from USA today: Paul Newman

"Listen, I'm just like Fox News. I'm fair and balanced," he says, playfully mocking Rupert Murdoch's cable network. "But for this merger to occur, Tony must first think about what is fair and realistic. He can't load the gun, point it at us and expect us to make a deal. I know what the offer was, and it was neither fair, nor balanced."

I hate to say I told you so but here we go again.

If the "nobody can lose" filter doesn't get turned off there will be no merger!

Sebastain Bourdais made it three in a row at Monterrey Sunday with his third victory in as many tries. After leading the first stint he was passed during the first pit stop only to regain the lead at the next stop. Nothing seemed to bother the Frenchman, not even a near miss of a back marker, as he went on to complete the last stint and bring home his third win of the year.

Next I suppose he will show us how to do circles!

There were an estimated 76,000 in attendance for the three day event. Yes I said only 76,000 for the three days. Long Beach draws that many for the race. Gerry Forsythe indicated that this could be the last event there.

There goes another permanent road course!

I really believe that most car salespeople are good people and I believe they get a bad rap sometimes. Many salesmen that I know are very good people and just doing a job to provide for their family's, and can we truly blame them for wanting to make as much money for their family as they can. Dont get me wrong, there are some out there that will lie and cheat to sell a car, but there are many more that would not tell a lie if their job depended on it.
How do you know, as a customer, if you got a good deal or if you were ripped off? I believe that a "good deal" is just a perception that we have placed on a transaction. It is a good deal if we like the car and was given all the information that we need to make an intelligent buying decision. It is always someone else that tells you that you did not get a good deal. When I was selling, I had customers tell me that profit was not a dirty word. They did not mind paying me a profit because I gave them all the information that they needed to know and probably some that they did not need. I made sure that my customers were taken care of after the sell especially because that is when you find out what kind of deal you had. When a customer came in and had a problem, I took care of it, period! When that person was ready to buy another car, they knew my name and was already confident that they would be taken care of.
Maybe instead of classifying all salespeople as scum of the earth, we may need to take a look at those that take care of the customer and realize that they are people like all of us that are trying honestly to put food on the table for their family.