If the news about the continuing surge in sales of used cars goes onwards and upwards, then the opposite can be said of new car sales. We have heard that Toyota plans a 10 % reduction in working hours in the UK, and Jaguar and Land Rover have agreed with unions to cut the hours and freeze the pay of workers in their factories. The frightening thought though is that if it can happen with the world’s biggest car maker i.e. Toyota, which has just made its first loss for 71 years, then who will it end with and when it will the situation turn around? Unlike the banks that were the catalyst for the present economic crisis at least the worlds car makers are attempting to introduce long term solutions to hopefully short to medium term problems. Cutting production to meet with falling demand, revising targets but still avoiding actually closing down plants and therefore being flexible enough to pick up production should a recovery begins, shows the bigger picture policy of manufacturers and car dealers. By lobbying governments and trying to introduce measures to breathe life back into the motor trade, such as the car scrappage schemes and calls for increased lending facilities the industry is surely leading the way in terms of a determination to find a solution to this crisis.
By admitting past mistakes and learning that building too many cars and encouraging dealers to pre-register is not the solution to long term success they are certainly doing a lot more than the banks. Despite constant massive cash injections and state initiatives – all taxpayer funded – can anyone name one single measure a bank has introduced that makes peoples’s life any easier? Apart, perhaps from continuing to pay obscene bonuses to underachieving fat cats whilst the rest of us pick up the tab!
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