Car Dealers Ask Obama Advisers To Do More To Unfreeze Credit
06 März 2009 - 8:38PM
Dow Jones News
Auto dealers pressed U.S. officials Friday to take more steps to
unfreeze credit markets, becoming the latest segment of the car
industry to seek the government's help.
The National Automobile Dealers Association met with two members
of President Barack Obama's auto industry advisory team for about
75 minutes Friday morning. The dealers didn't ask for direct aid,
said John McEleney, the association's chairman, but instead asked
for modifications to existing government programs to stimulate the
flow of credit.
Dealers increasingly find it difficult to obtain loans they need
to stock their lots with vehicles, further hurting U.S. car sales,
said McEleney.
The meeting at Treasury Department headquarters included Ron
Bloom and Steven Rattner, who are advising the Obama administration
on the auto industry, and about half a dozen officials with the
dealers association, including representatives of dealers who sell
General Motors Corp. (GM) and Chrysler LLC vehicles, McEleney
said.
A Treasury Department spokesman didn't immediately respond to a
request for comment.
McEleney said Bloom and Rattner were receptive to the dealers'
concerns but were noncommittal.
"They didn't come out and tell you what they could or couldn't
do, but they seemed to be sympathetic to the problem," McEleney
said in a phone interview with Dow Jones Newswires. "I think they
had a much better grasp of it when we were done."
He said the meeting focused mostly on dealers' concerns about
the administration's new lending program, the Term Asset-Backed
Securities Loan Facility, which is designed to generate consumer
and business lending.
Because of requirements on bond ratings, dealers fear the
program's benefits to the auto industry will be muted. The dealers
urged changes to the program so that the lending arms of Detroit's
struggling auto makers - GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. (F) - will
be ensured access, McEleney said.
-By Josh Mitchell, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6637;
joshua.mitchell@dowjones.com