There’s trouble in Motor City this month and the senior market could save em! Bob Schnorbus, Chief Economist of Forecasting for J.D Powers estimated 2007 US auto sales at 16.2 million cars. That’s revised downward from 16.5 million. Toyota suffered its second straight monthly decline falling 3% and Chrysler is off 6%.
That translates to 300,000 fewer cars than last year and it’s believed that car sales won’t begin to turn around until after 2009. Not a lot of happy faces in auto show rooms these days as June and July auto sales were equally dismal.
What if you were an auto dealer and I pointed out to you that you’re avoiding and ignoring 48% of your market. You don’t think so? Take a look at any TV commercial announcing auto sales. A showroom full of people ages 25 through their late 30’s jumping up and down and climbing in and out of the cars on the showroom floor. What’s wrong with that picture is that there’s not a single person with gray hair looking at the cars! They are purposely ignored because some in the car industry thinks that if they show older people looking at their cars, the rest of the market will think they’re “Geezer Cars!”
There’s “green in the gray!” A total of 48% of all new cars are purchased by people over the age of 55. They also buy 54% of all higher priced cars. That amounts to 60 billion dollars worth of cars every year.
Oh, one more thing about car purchases. Women over 55 buy 60% of all cars. They also account for 83% of all purchases.
Mister Car Dealer, I suggest you get off your showroom floor, hire and train some sales ladies with gray hair and include people over 50 in your commercials. If you need an added push, the 7 trillion dollar 50+ market will grow by 21% and the 55/64 year old market will grow by 77% in the next 10 years. The lusted after 18 to 44 year-old population will shrink 1 to 2%. You make the call!
Posted by clarkweber 