It is, perhaps, a measure of how far and how fast our circumstances have deteriorated that results we would not have accepted as worst-case scenarios just a year ago may now represent our best-case hopes. Who could have imagined, for example, when we were toying with dreams of another 1.7-million-unit year, that a sales forecast of 1.5 million might now be deemed optimistic by some – perhaps even wildly so?

Or who would have believed that GM’s Canadian dealer numbers will be reduced from over 700 to as low as 450 by 2013 – if the company survives at all. That shocking detail was found deep in the company’s recent submission to the Canadian and Ontario governments seeking financial aid. And that’s the best case scenario!

The purpose of reiterating those sombre stats is not to reinforce the climate of doom-and-gloom we are living under every day. The mass media are doing a fine job on that count.

But it is to emphasize the stark reality that this is not just your usual cyclical downturn – the kind we have all lived through and dealt with before, in some cases many times. It is broader and it is deeper and it is compounded by massive structural maladies both within the auto industry, in some specific cases, and in the economy globally.

Consequently, it may take longer to get out of than recessions of the past and some of us – to be frank – may not get out intact. Those who do will do so by prudent management; by re-examining and rethinking everything they do and determining ways to do it better – more efficiently. Throughout this magazine you will find information and advice geared directly to helping you achieve those ends.

In some respects, this downturn may prove to be a much-needed catalyst to stimulate exactly the kind of introspection and action that will make our enterprises stronger when the economic drought is over. In fact, it is encouraging to hear many already talking in just those terms.

There are some encouraging signs, as you will read in subsequent pages. Not the least is the federal government’s budget promise of a $12-billion Canadian Secured Credit Facility to support financing of vehicles and equipment – a major coup for the CADA, which lobbied arduously for just such a provision. Once it is implemented, it should help open credit channels for dealers and consumers alike. That alone won’t solve all our problems but it promises to help.

How long the turnaround will take is anyone’s guess at this point. But the business will come back, to some degree at least. It’s inevitable. The challenge now is to get from here to there.

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