A Nightmare for Sales of Dream Cars

The car industry has long been seen as a real-economy bellwether, going back to the old economic truism of "As General Motors goes, so goes the nation." Sales of new cars, trucks and minivans in the United States dropped 27 percent in September from the same month a year earlier. Nissan saw a 36.8 percent drop; Ford, 34.5 percent; and Toyota, 32.3 percent. Auto sales have eroded for 11 consecutive months. And Tammy Darvish, vice president of Darcars Automotive Group, said customers are holding on to their money in part because of what they're seeing in the newspaper and on television.

"It's scaring the heck out of people. We're spooking people," she said. "I think an infusion of confidence can solve a lot of our worries and our problems right now."

Ethan Rossignol, a salesman at Darcars Toyota in Silver Spring, spent last Tuesday night -- the 30th -- waiting for the end-of-the-month bargain hunters to show up. Savvy car buyers know it's a good time to strike a deal and take advantage of monthly incentives. But the dealership was dead. "Low energy" is how Rossignol described it.

The market hasn't crashed by any means, he said, but recent weeks have been tough, and the buyers aren't looking for tricked-out cars anymore.

"People that might have been looking for a loaded, leathered-up, navigation, $32,000 Camry, they're more inclined to buy a $22,000 Camry with cloth interiors," he said.

At Easterns Select, Bassam pointed to a Cadillac Escalade mounted on a platform at the corner of his lot. It was up for auction, and the price was swinging $10,000 in either direction in a matter of weeks -- the market having lost all sense of what a gas guzzler like that might be worth these days.

There was a steady stream of bumper-to-bumper rush-hour traffic heading west on Leesburg Pike, but no one was stopping to look at the Escalade or any other car on the lot. In an hour, only a couple of customers stopped by. Bassam said that in his various dealerships he sold 1,000 cars a month in 2007.

In September, he sold 580.

"There's a stranglehold on people's lives, and it's through the loans," he said.

There are more subtle signs of an economy going downhill, such as people having to give up cars they can no longer afford. Jatinder Sehmi, who owns Montrose Towing Service in Rockville, said he often repossesses cars from people who overindulged during good times and now can't pay their bills. He'll set up an appointment to meet in a parking lot, and often will find the car there, empty, keys inside.

Sometimes the repo work is trickier, involving car owners wielding bats and so forth, Sehmi said. He tells his drivers to avoid confrontation.

He also has trained his people in the art of nabbing a car in less than 10 seconds. Sehmi demonstrated his technique. He hopped in a tow truck, threw it in reverse and sped toward a sad Chevy at rest against a chain-link fence in the rear lot of Montrose Towing. In a flash, the boom went down and slid under the car, two "claws" snagging the front wheels even as Sehmi put the truck back into forward gear and sped off. The entire procedure took four seconds, tops -- it was a bit like watching a frog nail a fly.

What's different these days, Sehmi said, is that he's repossessing more and more high-end cars from leafy neighborhoods.

"People living beyond their means. That's pretty much the story behind all these cars," he said.

He pointed out a nice Mercedes. The guy refinanced his house, felt flush with money, bought the fancy car. Now it's mired in mud in an impound lot.

"A wreckage of someone's life," he said.