Thank you for your question. I'm happy to be able to answer it.
First of all, the best way to help our dealers would be to approve the $12 billion package as quickly as possible. We believe that these funds will help the financing arms of the auto companies to have more cash at their disposal. Then, our dealers will not have to rely so much on banks, which are not interested right now in lending them money.
We realize that given the current economic conditions, it is impossible to completely eliminate the need to do business with banks. However, if dealers can at least have a chance to finance their operations by doing business with the financial arm of the parent company, for instance, with GMAC, Toyota Financial Services or Ford Credit, then they would not need to deal with banks so much. Besides which, these banks do not want to do business with the auto dealers at this point in time.
We're recommending that the Senate approve this $12 billion bailout package as quickly as possible. We feel that this would greatly ease the pressure on our sector.
Elsewhere...