· The Second WaveI sincerely hope that no one misconstrues the message that I have written in my columns over the last decade. I have never been against public ownership of automobile dealerships. I believe that some of the current crop of Wall Street opportunists will crash and burn in the next few years creating incredible opportunities for good automobile business people. I am watching now as the second wave rolls outthe real car people. Never discount the real car guys.
· Group One just rolled out in Houston, for example. I have always been a fan of Sterling McCall Toyota and their state-of-the-art sales and marketing approaches. There are some great car people like the Potamkin groupand The Van Tuyl'sand I certainly wouldn't ever discount the Hendrick Group. I would always bet on anything that Alan Potamkin was involved in for great profitability and growthand the Van Tuyl success story is legendary. The re-organized Hendrick group will be another juggernaut to be contended with. These proven leaders in our industry have recently starting movingagainand I think we'll see some major magic soon.
· CarMax on the rocks. Rumors are just thatthey are only rumorsbut as I sit here putting these words to paper, there are rumors running rampant that CarMax is planning a major reorganization and may have to seek some type of protection or relief from Chrysler. Of course, that would delight me to no end. If you'll recall, I went on record in this magazine as saying that CarMax lots would be big outdoor skateboard emporiums before the millennium (July/August 1996 issue, page 6, column 3, paragraph 4). As of this writing, (Dec. 1st), CarMax stock is at 11 7/8. They've hit their all-time low per shareagain...an almost daily re-occurrence in November. Rumors have it that they have rolled some of their losses forward in the inventory and that they are dreading the final reckoning of the fiscal year-end audit when it all flushes out. Insiders tell me that there has been a scarcity of CarMax buyers at the auctions recently.
WellI will promise you thisif CarMax ever does go belly-up (sniffle) and Circuit City, for some reason, elects not to bail them out, then I will publish pictures of me and my little boy wearing our helmets and pads and high-top tennis shoesskateboarding across that lot in Norcross.