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Even Tom Gill of Columbus has had moments of doubt. During the first three months of his new, nice-guy dispensation this spring, his Oldsmobile dealership's sales dropped nearly 50%, largely, he believes, because his competitors were shiftily using the old, illusory tactics -- lowballing him -- to undercut his prices. "It got real frustrating," he says. "For me to tell a customer I'm not coming down in price was like steering a ship in reverse. It was hard." Then, unexpectedly, Gill had the best May and June in the five-year history of his operation. Customers came back in droves, bringing Toyotas and Hondas with them as trade-ins, import models he had never seen on his lot before.
Was this upward blip an accident or a reward for good behavior? Gill does not know for sure, and neither, at this point, do the many observers who are pondering what has become the auto industry's most intriguing question: Will the era of skinned customers give way to the age of the golden fleeced?