Braveheart
By Jim Ziegler
In the waning years of the thirteenth century, the clans of Scotland united to fight the tyranny of King Edward I of England. One man, William Wallace, came to symbolize everything that was good and noble in their struggle.
Of course, you know you'd never catch me watching some wimpy Alan Alda movie. When Braveheart came out in 1995, I saw it at least a dozen times. Remember the scene just before the big battle when Mel Gibson (as William Wallace) was riding before his ragged army, wearing smeared paint and waving swords and axes at the English? They even "mooned" the enemy in defiance. Now, you know that's my kind of guy.
When asked to surrender, Wallace's reply was...
"Here are Scotland's terms. Lower your flags, and march straight back to England, stopping at every home to beg forgiveness for 100 years of theft, rape, and murder. Do that and your men shall live. Do it not, and every one of you will die today."
~Mel Gibson as William Wallace in Braveheart, CIRCA 1995~
William Wallace was a real, true-to-life, flesh and blood person and the story, for the most part, is true, just as it was depicted in the movie. When an English Sheriff killed his wife, Marion, the legend of Robin Hood was created and passed on for generations. Braveheart is a story about bravery and honorabout the misuse of power, broken promises, lies and deception. In the end, William Wallace was betrayed by those he trusted. It was some of his fellow Scotsmen who sold him out to Edward I in hopes of favor. They betrayed him for power, land and position.
For months now I have been predicting that a confrontation was coming to a head. Well, this month, (written on November 27) five Ford Dealers filed a lawsuit against Ford Motor Company in the U.S. District Court in New Jersey. The lawsuit is aimed directly at Ford's Blue Oval Certification program.
Supported by the Ford Dealer Alliance, the dealers are seeking class action verification to sue on behalf of all affected Ford dealers nationwide. Several of the dealers involved in the lawsuit are close, personal friends of mine.
Of course, I believe the lawsuit will examine the fact that even though Ford is suffering a documented epidemic of safety and quality problems, they have elected to roll out this bogus, alleged customer satisfaction program administrated by none other than the dubious J.D. Powers and Associates. Evidently, someone other than me smells a rat here.
I believe Blue Oval certification was designed as a thinly disguised, two-tiered pricing scheme designed to eliminate some dealers and create an unfair competitive edge for factory-selected dealers.
In a recently published interview, Jac Nasser repeatedly referred to this as a customer satisfaction issue. If Mr. Nasser were really concerned about customer satisfaction, it seems to me that he would dedicate more time toward building better, safer cars and less time to twisting suppliers' arms, causing them to take dangerous shortcuts. This is all about malicious plots aimed at circumventing state franchise laws and defeating their own loyal dealer body.
Now these brave dealers have taken a stand and the heat is on. These men are heroes. It would be really disappointing if their fellow dealers sucked up or turned their backs and left them hanging out in the wind to dry. The Ford Dealer Alliance has set up a war chest called the Blue Oval/Premier Legal Fund.
If Ford is allowed to get away with this without meaningful opposition, every other manufacturer will follow their lead. This is about all of the factories, not just about Ford. Everyone is waiting to see the outcome. It is becoming increasingly obvious to me that your NADA is going to sit this one out on the sidelines for the rest of the game. I strongly suggest to every dealer, regardless of what you sell, you need to reach for your checkbook. This affects everyone.
On other issuesdid you see where General Motors is charging ahead in Minneapolis with another (allegedly goofy) initiative? They are going to test (and ultimately fail) three concepts. First of all they are stuck on the idea that the public will go for "built to order" cars. Let's face it; General Motors has definitively proven they have never had the ability to produce the cars that sell. Now they want us to believe they've got it figured out? Aren't these the same people who invented VOMS? If they really had their act together wouldn't they have regained tremendous truck market share while Ford and Chrysler are on the ropes, distracted with their problems? Isn't Ron Zarella still the alleged Marketing Czar of General Motors? Who would have believed he'd still be here? Dammit! I am about to lose another bet..
The truth of the matter is the public will reject the whole concept. Remember this, just my opinion, mind you; any program designed by propeller heads will only appeal to the small, niche propeller head market. Maybe they should have tried this out on SAAB or Saturn first.
First, most people are not going to wait for a car to be delivered. We are into the instant gratification, right now, spot-delivery generation. That's why dealers with the most cars on the ground and the best right-now selection will always sell more cars.
Secondly, in case you haven't noticed, the Internet is still a non-issue. Dot-communist companies are dropping like proverbial flies. We are going to exchange our retail customers who would have bought from us anyway for low-profit fleet buyers. These alleged geniuses at General Motors are going to use Oldsmobile as a test marketbrilliant demographic.
Thirdly, they are sneaking in e-pricing, which is probably the most destructive concept out there. The factory is going to further reduce its already non-existent markup in a blatant price fixing scheme, which must be some kind of illegality. Personally, I think this is part of a greater, more diabolical scheme to test whether or not they can eliminate dealers and sell directly. If there was a snowball's chance in hell they would be successful, I'd be really concerned. But, what the heck, this is General Motors. Look at their track record.
Hey, did you see where Maryann Keller blew out at Priceline.com? Truthfully, I really like Maryann. We've done a few speeches at some of the same conventions. I haven't caught up with her so all I know is what I read. I read in the press that she said, "For car buying, the Internet is an idea whose time has not yet come and may never come."
Think about that for a second. She was in charge of Priceline's Internet Auto Sales Division. I know Maryann. She is a class act and an extremely bright and competent person. She definitely knows the car business. With all of its resources, Priceline asked her to lay off half of her staff. All of this happening shortly after Priceline CFO Heidi Miller also blew out. Priceline is in a panic, restructuring after watching its stock value deteriorate to $4.28 a share from $104.25 earlier this year.
Note to Priceline: I think it's time to ditch the band and for Captain Kirk to put away the guitar and warp the hell outta there.
Here's a good oneIn the November/ December issue of Across the Board magazine, (prestigious business publication) there is a quote by J.D. Power's senior executive, Chris Denove. The blurb's headline reads "Death of a Car Salesman". The first sentence says "With 22 million people having sought online auto-buying tips last year, the days of the car salesman could be numbered." I bet the magazine got that extremely accurate number from J.D. Power and Associates. Whadda ya want to bet? (I'm struggling not to regurgitate here.) According to the article, 168,000 people actually ordered cars online last year. (Sorry, couldn't hold it.)
One interesting thing in the article was Denove's claim that twice as many dealers were using online buying services this year. Does that explain why so many dot-coms are in the toilet? Oh, I get it. He said Internet dealers were using buying services, he never said anything about their hooking up with Internet buyers.
Here's the good part...
"The online buying services are particularly effective for shoppers who feel intimidated by salespeople and want dealers willing to give them their best price right up front without a lot of negotiation."
That quote was attributed to Denove.
Does J. D. Power and Associates say one thing to our face, and something else behind our backs? This is not an automobile publication and, to me, his remarks appear to be very anti-dealer. (This isn't the same good ole boy back-slapping the dealers at those Internet conventions that I remember, Chris Denove.) I have always suspected and said repeatedly that I think J.D. Power and Associates is behind a lot of the factory anti-dealer schemes. I don't trust them as far asbesides, doesn't Power have an interest in CarClub.com? Conflict of interest I meant to say.
You know, if he'd been a little bit smarter, Al Gore might have taken Florida by a landslide, by a hundred thousand votes or more. All he probably needed to do was to have hired J.D. Power and Associates to tabulate and interpolate the results. Hell, he might have won by two hundred thousand votesor even more.
Last year I wrote that Ford Motor Company was about to take a hard fall. In speeches and articles over the last three years, I have predicted that Trotman's cost cutting, and then Nasser's "Jac the Knife" foolishness, was going to cause serious quality and safety problems. We've all sat by and watched as Ford stock dived into the toilet under what I feel is an incredibly incompetent regime from the very top downward.
Did you read the Nasser quote when asked about the Tulsa Auto Collections where he allegedly said "It is clear that we can't do what we wanted to domaybe what we wanted to do wasn't right. I am not even sure about that."
Excuse meunless I misread something, he even said he'd look at an offer to sell the Auto Collection. In the press release I saw he even admitted that the Auto Collections weren't selling as many units as they were under private ownership but they were profitable. Duh! What he didn't say was how their profits compared. I'll guarantee you they are in the dumper compared to where they were before Ford tampered with them. I have always said the Auto Collections were Ford's way of blowing more than $100 million dollars to prove that 100% of their crap doesn't work in a retail environment.
In many other industries, I believe Nasser and Rewey might have been tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail for producing a fiasco like this one. Personally, I always thought of the Auto Collections as the Bob Rewey legacy to Ford Motor Companya monument to management innovation.
I have one question I would like to see Bob and Jac answer: How can such monumental arrogance stand in the face of so much glaring evidence indicating a track record for such a great degree of bumbling incompetence?
In early 2000, I started predicting that Daimler-Chrysler was entering what I called "The Age of Constipation."
In my opinion, this guy Jüergen Schrempp is a world class zero. After reading "Taken For A Ride," I felt my opinion of Schrempp was validated even if only half of what the authors wrote about the Daimler-Chrysler merger was true. How can anybody take this character seriously? Is this a cartoon or real life? He's in charge of Mercedes?
Then he had the arrogance to admit publicly that he duped Eaton and Lutz and basically made fools out of them by lying about the whole "Merger of Equals." He never intended to develop or support Chrysler. The whole deal was a trick played on inferior Americans by superior businessmen. Of course, I was saying all of this in print when all of those other publications were writing about the automotive Internet revolution, or quoting Chris Denove, while they were waiting for some real news to jump up and slap them in the face.
Now, just one year after Stallkamp got the axe, Jüergen unceremoniously gives the boot to Jim Holden, head of Daimler-Chrysler North America. Now, we see the last Americans at Chrysler lining up at the counter of Kinko's running off mass copies of their updated resumés. I think you're going to see a mass talent drain at Chrysler as Americans flee in droves.
As plants are being shut down and German flex plants are being considered, rumor has it that Jüergen is headed for a showdown with the UAW. This ought to be an event worth selling tickets to. I predict it ain't gonna turn out the way he envisions it.
Rumor has it that the Germans have different views of a woman's place in the office. I predict some professional females will have legal grievances concerning their treatment in the workplace with the alleged prevailing new Aryan attitudes.
WhooshSuperman lands. Have no fearDeiter Zetsche is here. The new Chief Executive Officer of Chrysler is in and Ted Cunningham Executive VP of Sales is out. Ted is on the bricks along with Kathleen Oswald and Tony Cervone. I wonder if ole Deiter even handed them a blindfold and a cigarette?
Prediction: I strongly believe you might be seeing ol' Jüergen himself out there on the bricks soon. I don't think the German board members at Daimler-Chrysler are going to be as forgiving as their Ford and General Motors counterparts. Okay, I know my track record is a little weak in this area. Admittedly, I have lost bets on Zarella and Nasser's longevity. Of course my reasoning was logical, based on the erroneous assumption that the boards of those corporations were comprised of rational, logical, clear-thinking business people. Don't look at me. I frankly don't know how Nasser and Zarella can justify their continued employment.
By the wayregardless of what Schrempp says, look for Chrysler to be sold back to some stupid Americans at fire sale prices. I wonder if Kerkorian still wants it?
In the meantime, I foresee quality problems at Chrysler as they try cost cutting measures similar to those at Ford. Let me ask youI just heard that somebody said you have to take a two-by-four to their suppliers to get results. Tell me that someone in a top management position at Chrysler didn't make such an asinine statement. Is this the Twilight Zone or a Three Stooges Movie or what? If that's true, I'd like to be able to buy the company myself just so I could fire that guywith a bad reference.
TrotmanSchremppNassernow Deiter. Personally, I've had it with the way you Europeans and Australians do it. My family heritage is German. I really do love your beer and your sauerkraut and those cute little leather pants with the suspenders and the little green hats with the goat's beards and stuffbut, on the other hand, I've got to tell Alex and Jac that I'm really not so crazy about your hot tea and your kangaroos. Sometimes I have to wonder if any of you really have a shred of a clue when it comes to the American market.
Well folks, I'm actually watching the sun come up through my window here. I got so involved in this one I hardly touched the snifter of Remy sitting here at the keyboard. There's a battle brewing and it isn't going to be pretty. I hope everyone supports the cause. With the NADA convention coming up, wouldn't it be a hoot if the factory executives looked out at the "make" meetings and saw a sea of angry dealers with their faces smeared with paint, all of them dressed for battleand all of a sudden you all bent over and gave them the traditional Braveheart salute.
"In the year of our Lord 1314, patriots of Scotland, starving and outnumbered, charged the fields at Bannockburn. They fought like warrior poets. They fought like Scotsmen. And won their freedom."
~Mel Gibson as William Wallace from the movie Braveheart~
More Food For Thought
Looking forward to the NADA convention in Las Vegas, I think a lot of things will be shaking. As always, you will find me at the DEALER magazine booth #2110. Stop by and pick up a button that says "Ziegler's Right."
Also I will be the featured keynote speaker for the annual Moss-Adams CEO/CFO Conference the day before the convention. I promise to be irreverent. My schedule is on my website at www.zieglersupersystems.com I really appreciate all of your emails and letters.
I have been blessed with good health and a great life. My business is prosperous and I have a lot of good friends (and some mean enemies). I want to thank Mike Roscoe, Publisher and Editor of this magazine. His determination to take a stand and print my column is a monumental testimony to his character. If you want to read "objective" fluff or rewritten fiction passed off as news, I can steer you to half a dozen other publications.
As you may or may not know, I am a professional speaker. Over the last two years I have performed keynotes and dinner speeches for more than fifteen state dealer associations and I have keynotes currently scheduled for five more state association conventions. Please ask your state association about the possibility of hiring me to speak at your annual event. Even though, without exception, every state association that truly represents their dealers constantly rates me as a top speaker, I am never invited to speak or present workshops at the NADA convention. I'm sure they have their reasons.
Jim Ziegler is President of Ziegler Supersystems, Inc. jziegler@dealeronline.com
