The federal government this week released guidelines for self-driving cars. Exactly when autonomous vehicles will be freely driving on our highways and byways is debatable. As a recent story in Wards Auto detailed, automakers such as Ford figure the technology will be ready to go by 2021. Consumer advocates such as Ralph Nadar, citing safety issues such as hacking, think it will be at least a decade.
One thing is for sure, however, autonomous vehicles will be here sooner or later. At the Further with Ford event last week Ford president and CEO Mark Fields paid homage to Ford’s dealers and mentioned that autonomous vehicles would likely drive more miles and thus need more service, so dealerships would have a role to play in an autonomous future.
Anyway, I’m sure you are tired of me harping on these future developments, but I hope dealers are already thinking about their place in an autonomous and car-sharing future.
Meanwhile, back to the present, where dealerships still need to make money the traditional ways. Sometimes, dealers don’t take full advantage of all the pathways to profit that are out there. This week, Don Ray discusses how to maximize your dealership’s financial structure so that underwriting profits aren’t left on the table.
The first presidential debate takes place this coming Monday. Should be interesting. Will the candidates stick to their previously state positions? Or will the tightening race cause one or both to alter their positions in a way they perceive as more popular?
Regardless, no matter who wins, he or she won’t be able to make massive changes in some areas that have been repeatedly mentioned in this campaign. No existing treaty can simply be abrogated, for example. But the winner will set the tone for the coming years, and will certainly espouse and perhaps pass policies that will impact the buy sell world.
In this issue, Ira Silver discusses how a Trump win or a Clinton win might impact the M&A world. Disclaimer: The views expressed in our columnists’ essays are not always those of this publication.
Then of course there is Transaction News!
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