Road Trip - Heading to Seattle

[XDCX]

I'm heading to Seattle and will likely spend the most of the week up there dealing with some family events.

It's about a 1,500 mile drive from Phoenix to Seattle and I'll probably be racking up 3,000+ miles before the week is over. I drove about 800 miles yesterday so I'm more than halfway to Seattle.

I'll still be checking out the forum (mostly from my Droid X) but my level of activity will be pretty low this week.

[steve_biegler]

Drive Safe!

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by steve_biegler

Drive Safe!

Thanks.

Because of the number of miles I decided to take my parent's Chrysler 300 instead of my Wrangler. While I love my Jeep I have to admit it's a lot easier to drive 800 miles in the Chrysler 300 - especially when the speeds are 70 - 80 MPH for most of the trip through Arizona and California.

[XDCX]

Well I've made it to Seattle and I remember all of the reasons why I left - it's dark, wet, windy, cold and there's a threat of snow.

I had to smile, however, when I saw a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker - I thought I had issues when it came to letting go of the past...

I'll be away from the Internet for most of the next couple of days - I'll still check for SPAM and approve new members as needed but that's about all I'll have time available to do.

[CL Pgh]

Originally Posted by XDCX

... it's dark, wet, windy, cold and there's a threat of snow.

Had to reread this a couple times... for a minute there I thought you were heading to Pittsburgh.

Lot of mileage on that trip... be careful out there!

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by XDCX

I'll be away from the Internet for most of the next couple of days - I'll still check for SPAM and approve new members as needed but that's about all I'll have time available to do.

Well my task has ended up being more difficult than I had forecast and I'll be away from the Internet for a few more days.

Given how quiet the forum's been over the past couple of days I don't envision any problems.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by XDCX

Well my task has ended up being more difficult than I had forecast and I'll be away from the Internet for a few more days.

Well, it's Sunday night and I still haven't finished the task which necessitated my trip to Seattle.

I'll be away from the Internet for the next couple of days but I'll be checking in on occasion from my Droid X.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by XDCX

Well, it's Sunday night and I still haven't finished the task which necessitated my trip to Seattle.

Well, I've finally finished my task and now I'll have a chance to get caught up on the forum and read about 100 unread email messages.

Tomorrow I'll start my return trip to Phoenix - I'm looking forward to warmer weather.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by XDCX

Tomorrow I'll start my return trip to Phoenix - I'm looking forward to warmer weather.

I drove about 500 miles yesterday and decided to stop in Yreka, CA. The weather is already starting to get warmer and it's great to see the sun again.

As I make my way South I think I might take a detour through Fillmore and Ventura and check out my old stomping grounds.

Hopefully I'll make it back to Phoenix on Saturday and add some content to the forum.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by XDCX

As I make my way South I think I might take a detour through Fillmore and Ventura and check out my old stomping grounds.

Well I ended up taking a detour and made my way through Taft, California and then slightly up the coast to Santa Barbara. Sadly, both are locations of CJDR stores that closed over that past year or two.

Once I made it through Santa Barbara I headed to Ventura and I was amazed at all the changes. The Oxnard Auto Mall which used to be dead was thriving and the Ventura Auto Mall seemed much less active - they even rezoned the Ventura Auto Mall so they could make a Casino out of one of the closed down dealerships.

The other surprise in Oxnard was to see they recently tore down the old AutoNation Used Car Superstore - I bet that facility wasn't even 12 years old but the developer tore it down and will redevelop the site.

As I made my way back to I-5 I drove through Fillmore, California and took a picture of one of my favorite CJDR dealerships to hang out at:

When I was covering that area the dealership was owned by Bob Crown and was pretty successful. Mr. Crown later sold the store off to the Family Group who later sold it to Art Schaier. Sadly, Art had to close the store in 2008 or 2009 and it's been vacant ever since.

Art Schaier was one of the sharpest and hardest working dealers I ever knew - he was the GM who made Earnhardt Dodge the #1 Dodge store for seven years in a row back in the 90s. The fact that Art Schaier couldn't make this store work illustrates to me how hard it was for the CJDR dealers to survive for the past five years.

Originally Posted by XDCX

Hopefully I'll make it back to Phoenix on Saturday and add some content to the forum.

Well, that never happened....

I guess I was tired after my trip and I caught a slight cold which also slowed me down. Hopefully I'll get caught up in the next day or two.

[rd3311]

The California coastal markets have always had to deal with high rent and garage policy rates, plus tremendous advertising costs as well.

I had a friend who used to have the CPD store in San Rafael near San Francisco, when he used to talk about these types of expenses back in the 80's it seemed extremely high back then. He had to do over $300k total gross just to black the store out each month, and he was only selling 125 units total some months.

I told him that he must be missing out on making more retail deals because his gross per unit retail was too high, and the volume was not there to add any net to the bottom. Later Chrysler had him sell CP to a guy down the street which made it even worse for him.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by rd3311

The California coastal markets have always had to deal with high rent and garage policy rates, plus tremendous advertising costs as well.

I had a friend who used to have the CPD store in San Rafael near San Francisco, when he used to talk about these types of expenses back in the 80's it seemed extremely high back then. He had to do over $300k total gross just to black the store out each month, and he was only selling 125 units total some months.

I told him that he must be missing out on making more retail deals because his gross per unit retail was too high, and the volume was not there to add any net to the bottom. Later Chrysler had him sell CP to a guy down the street which made it even worse for him.

I agree that California is a tough market to operate in and Chrysler has lost a lot of California dealers over the past five years.

Chrysler recently developed a plan to use a Private Equity firm to re-open some of their closed points and Chrysler Reality was going to subsidize the rent. The plan was controversial among the private capital dealers in California and I haven't heard anything about the program lately - maybe the project is on hold?

Regardless, when you factor in the rent, the regulations, the taxes, the business climate and the fact that many Californians are buried in their mortgages, I can understand why there's not a long line forming to re-open closed dealerships.