With the announcement that the federal government will require a 90-percent improvement in fuel efficiency by 2050, one could almost hear the collective sigh of economists thinking, “Well, as if they don’t have it bad enough….”  Thing is, you could place every economist in the world end-to-end and they won’t reach a conclusion.  And car dealers hereabouts say things are looking pretty good.

                  “Business last month was great,” said Mark Campbell, general sales manager at Bill Hood Ford in Hammond.  “We’re up about 25 percent year-over-year.”   “Business is very good,” said Adam Bowen, general manager of Rainbow Suzuki Imports in Covington.  “Business is picking up” said Kenny Bothner, general sales manager of Eddie Tourelle’s Northpark Nissan and Hyundai, also near Covington.  “We have taken the turn for the better.  From last year at this time to now is just incredible.  We’ve seen the turn in the last three months.”  Not bad for an industry that a year ago was on the serious skids.

                  Shifting gears hasn’t been easy in an automobile market – or an overall economy – that has proven about as reliable as a Ouija board.  “We stayed pretty steady (during the 2008 gas crunch) but we had to adjust to the market,” said Bowen.  “When gas was $4.50 a gallon, we didn’t carry SUVs.”  Rainbow also has a seriously diverse inventory, which broadens the scope of its potential customers.

                  “I sell cars from $12,995 to $100,000,” Bowen said, mentioning a list of pre-owned brands from Jaguar to Mercedes – and, of course, new Suzukis.  And Rainbow also has a huge Internet presence.  “We do a lot of Internet business, so it’s all over the country,” he said.  “We’ve sold cars all over the world.  You’d have a hard time shipping Chevys, but the products we sell get a lot more business that way.”  That’s certainly one way to keep it balanced and the business flowing.

                  And while Rainbow maintained its stock-in-trade with diversity and market adaptations, mainline dealers without a diverse portfolio or an Internet side, bided their time, working with manufacturers’ incentives while they waited for a more open credit market.  And now?

“The primary reason is that banks are lending money now,” said Bothner.  “Consumers have more confidence.  With the credit tightening in the last two years, people would rather fix their cars than buy a new one.  Our parts and service business picked up.”

“Everybody has a little more positive attitude,” Campbell said.  “It’s springtime.  There is pent-up demand for automobiles.  Incentives have been better than usual. People are just ready to spend money again.”

“In tax season, things generally pick up,” Bothner said.  “We’ve seen new-car volume pick-up drastically just in the last month.  “Consumer confidence is back, to a degree.  There’s a trend of folks buying new cars.  Bank rates are low.  Rebates are larger than normal.  As far as Nissan, we have a tremendous product line.”

Ah, yes.  The products themselves do have a little something to do with sales volume.  With the Big Three automakers reducing the number of brands and models barely a year ago, it seemed manufacturers were adjusting to a new and different market – a market which had, perhaps, been flooded with too many choices and production that exceeded demand.  Then there was that pesky credit crunch that had lenders more willing to give you a toaster than a loan.

Among innovative marketing strategies that emerged in recent years was the “hybrid” craze, offering consumers a chance to buy cars that used gas and – and/or, maybe – electricity, reducing fuel costs… in theory.  “They build them but they don’t build enough of them,” said Campbell.  “Since the gas crunch went away from 2008, they’re pretty much dead.  Two years ago, we had a waiting list.”  These days, Campbell said, he might sell four or five hybrid cars a year.

“I’m a little biased on hybrids,” Bowen said.  “It takes five to seven years to make up the cost in gas savings.”  Bowen said depending on options and models, hybrid cars in general cost about $4,000 more than a standard, gas-drinking automobile.  “They’ve never been that popular,” he said.  “They were a little popular when gas was $4.50 a gallon, but they’re never going to be the biggest market out there.”

Bothner said, however, that Nissan is poised to launch a new electric car called the Leaf, which will debut in California in 2011 and gradually drift into markets across the country.  “It’s not like the old electric cars you think of, that were like golf carts in terms of pick-up,” he said. “This one has serious horsepower.  It’s going to debut in California in the next 11 months and then make its way to Louisiana.  I think the leaf has wheels, no pun intended.”

Those looming new fuel-efficiency guidelines, while not fully in place until most of us are dead in 2050, will start a trend moving now towards alternative transportation.  “With the standards the government has set, there’s going to be a push to electric cars” Bothner said. “And just like cell phone batteries that improved over time, the same will be true with car batteries.  Every few years you’re going to get a better battery.  They’ll get more miles per round-trip.”  Haven’t we heard this before?  Like in the ‘70s and ‘80s?  Yes, but things are different.

“I don’t see this being a fad,” Bothner said.  Maybe not.  But in the meantime, car-buyers are still looking for fuel efficiency – and a little bit of bling, too.  “Fuel economy is still mostly what people are asking for,” Bothner said.

“We’ve seen an increase in F150, Fusion, Focus and Mustang sales,” said Campbell.  “Everything is up.  It’s good.  If it upticks more, we may hit a slowdown because of inventory levels.”

“Pre-owned luxury cars are what’s hot right now,” said Bowen, pointing to his dealership’s business in Lexus, Mercedes, Jaguar and Infiniti brands, among other higher-end brands.  “Most of the time, our customers are younger couples to middle-aged folks, ranging from 32-60,” Bowen said.  “Most of the time, they’re also looking for someone willing to give them a shot at financing.  It just depends.”

Whatever your taste in vehicles, there’s something out there – even with last year’s reduction in brand choices.  Whatever your priorities – whether spaciousness, fuel-efficiency, or showiness – there are options.  But certainty – that a brand will continue, that a model will endure, that fuel standards won’t change again – is about the only thing you can’t pre-select in a vehicle.