Sweet Loan Alabama: Birmingham Dealers Make TV Plea
By Michelle Krebs October 28, 2008By Dale Buss
Typical of auto-industry players who are frustrated by perceptions of a credit crunch are the
dealers in Birmingham, Alabama.
The local economy is among the nation's soundest. It's increasingly skewed toward service, including medical research and health-care institutions. Yet the diversified area also is home to assembly plants operated by three relatively prosperous automakers: Mercedes-Benz, Honda and Hyundai. Housing values in metro Birmingham actually rose over the last year.
But at about the same time in October that GMAC announced it would be tightening up credit-score requirements for borrowers, Regions Bank, a Southern bank popular in Alabama, announced that it was getting out of the indirect-auto loan business. And in the wake of the bailout drama in Washington, rumors circulated that a local congressman said consumers couldn't get auto loans at Birmingham dealerships.
"I was getting calls from local reporters and TV stations who were asking me to go on the record saying how many of our dealers were offering financing," said Brett McBrayer, president of the Birmingham Auto Dealers Association. "I'd say, '100 percent,' and they'd think I was lying."
So the Birmingham dealer group decided to go on the offensive, creating a 30-second TV-advertising spot that -- in an unprecedented move -- local stations have begun airing for free as a public-service announcement. (It can be viewed on the dealers group's Web site.) And Birmingham's gambit has drawn interest by dealer associations in other local markets, including Oklahoma City, according to McBrayer.
In a world filled with questions, the ad begins, with a simple graphic of a globe underneath a giant question mark, even answers have become confusing. This is why your Birmingham Auto Dealers Association wants to shine a light on answers that are true.
The voiceover continues as the screen switches to a graphic saying, "Buyer Financing Is Available." The ad continues: Financing is available at local dealerships. The money is there for you. And the fact is, the cost of ownership when buying today? Lower than yesterday, on new vehicles more dependable and better protected than ever.
You can buy and finance a new automobile. Your Birmingham new-car dealers are ready. The ad closes with a graphic that reads, "Accelerate Birmingham!"
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