Wednesday, January 21, 2009

And Guess What.... they also bought lots of other things..

It's almost hard to believe but I do go to a hair stylist about every three weeks for a bit of a "tune-up" and sometimes I'll come home afterwards and the Princess doesn't even notice my new "doo"... sort of like a lot of those people out there that "knocking" the program when they don't even recognize the benefits to our community as a whole... in fact my hair stylist had opened one of the recent "trimming" conversations with how "awful that PNP was" but when I asked her what her evidence was she hadn't any... just hearsay from a bunch of naysayers... so then the conversation turned to her business "things were great" and people were spending money... I always believe that a "new" dollar spent here in our community turns itself over a minimum of 5 times and finds its way around our community and this is really important during this economic downturn.... so we shouldn’t knock our good fortune and it’s great to finally see some of the businesses who recognize the “good” in this program…
Immigration to P.E.I. pumps new car sales
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
CBC News
While automobile sales plummeted last year in a sagging economy across North America, dealers on Prince Edward Island saw a big jump, and they're crediting an increase in immigration.
Sales that average around 5,300 vehicles a year rose to almost 6,000 in 2008. Tyler Honsberger, the business manager for Capital Honda in Charlottetown, said many of his customers are new Asian immigrants.
"They'd be buying the Honda Civic. A lot of them come here with their families, so a lot of them are looking for a larger vehicle like a van," said Honsberger.
"Some of them that aren't used to the winter driving are getting a four-wheel drive as well."
CBC News contacted a half-dozen Island dealers, and all report 2008 was a good year, with sales about 10 per cent higher than last year. Honsberger said many of the new immigrants aren't looking for financing.
"They would usually pay by cash just because of them being new to the country, not having a landed status yet with a SIN number, no credit history, so 99 per cent of them would be paying cash," he said.
More good years expected
Auto dealers expect the good times to continue on the Island as the flood of immigrants who applied last year, close to 2,000, are approved and move to P.E.I.
The bulk of these immigrants applied through the provincial nominee program, which allowed them to put up $200,000 — a portion of which went for investment in an Island business — for a visa, pending health and security checks.
Honsberger expects the hundreds of millions of dollars distributed to Island business people, immigration agents and lawyers will also help car sales.
"It would help quite a bit," he said.
"Once people are buying cars, they're putting insurance on them, they're servicing them, they're registering them, so every little bit helps."
The PNP ran from 2001 to September 2008. In the early years the program was moderately successful, attracting a few hundred applicants a year. That leapt to 800 in 2007, a boom now being enjoyed by the car dealers. The soaring number of applicants in 2008 could fuel even better business.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your wife might be a princess but you are certainly no prince