ping
It’s time for Paulson and W to come out once again and tell us that subprime is contained.
The media elites are going to keep yapping and drive consumer confidence down and the next chapter is recession.....
However, that is not the case today. Since most of the easy jobs has gone to franchises (i.e. oil changes to Jiffy Lube and tires to NTW), an auto mechanic today really needs to know his (or her) stuff. It is now a highly skilled position that requires some degree of computer literacy as well as mechanical know-how.
Therefore, a good mechanic often commands salaries that are equivalent to a professional position and is a very good career option for those inclined. Especially since it appears that people are hanging on to their older cars for more years.
Good thing the video market isn't effected...
If I assume that 50% of the 300M Americans are of legal driving age, then that leaves a potential of 150M customers. Assume the average life of cars/trucks to be 7.5 years, then there is a natural need of nearly 21M cars/trucks per year. Yet the current annual market is significantly less than that at $16.4ish million.
I don’t see the auto market declining with any signifigance. In the industry, we hear this claim every year and then we hear those forecasters sound shocked when there is slight year over year growth.