"Lee's Blog Updates!" Edmunds Daily

Lee's Blog Updates!

I thought I would take some time today to update you on some stories I have previously blogged about.

Back in March I blogged about Honda clamping down on internet warranty sales, due to the fact that online retailers were discounting the warranties and taking business away from less tech-savy dealers. I updated the story in April, Saccucci Honda, which has been doing quite the business selling extended warranties on their website, decided to single-handedly fight back by challenging Honda in court. You can follow the story in our forums. The outcome of this court case may determine whether the public will have to start over-paying for extended warranty coverage, or if the free market will prevail.

Last month I posted my prediction that we would all be paying more for cars in the future, due to ever-increasing raw material costs. Since then, several automakers have announced price increases, including Nissan and Toyota. The latest is BMW. As the global demand for raw materials continues to increase, it is likely that we will be paying more for everything, not just cars.

In an effort to display my prowess in business, I posted my thoughts on what I thought Cerberus was going to ultimately do with Chrysler, with respect to their decision to drop leasing. Most did not agree with my ultimate conclusion, and rightfully so. Recently I spoke with Mike Jackson, the CEO of AutoNation, the nation's largest auto group. I asked him what he thought of Chrysler's move to no longer lease vehicles. He told me that it was a move that was necessary for them to assure that they could continue to secure funding for maintained operations and future product development. By divesting their portfolio of leases, investors would be more willing to purchase securities backed by Chrysler and Cerberus. Ultimately, this is a move that will help assure the long-term viability of Chrysler as an automaker. Although Chrysler does have many challenges to yet overcome.

Finally, I blogged about MyGallons.com, which was supposed to offer consumers a way to hedge against rising gas prices by letting them buy gas credits at current prices and them redeem them in the future, when gas prices presumably go higher. Shortly after my post, the Better Business Bureau gave MyGallons an "F," when it was discovered that they did not have a contract in place with a vendor who could process transactions with gas stations across the country. MyGallons stopped accepting paid memberships and offered a refund of all existing membership dues. As of this date, MyGallons is still not accepting new memberships and appears to still not have a vendor in place. Of course, it probably doesn't help that gas prices have gone down, and not up, since the site was launched in July.