Case Scenario: Big Drive Auto
Big Drive Auto is a multistate dealer of several manufacturers’ cars and trucks. They sell the vehicles, service them, sell parts for repair, and do a significant business in motor oil, coolant, and replacement tires. Management is always scanning the macroeconomic environment for signals that will help them better plan their business. Big Drive has been keeping data on the volume of sales in its various lines of business over the last ten years. In some cases, like auto and truck sales, it tracks the numbers of units sold. In other cases, it uses constant dollar sales. The following tables report Big Drive’s sales in all of its multistate locations since 1998.
Table 1.
Vehicle Unit Sales (thousands)
|
1998
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
2003
|
2004
|
2005
|
2006
|
2007
|
|
139
|
160
|
145
|
133
|
154
|
167
|
165
|
161
|
160
|
163
|
Table 2.
Motor Oil, Coolant, Tires (thousands of constant dollars)
|
1998
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
2003
|
2004
|
2005
|
2006
|
2007
|
|
2,096
|
2,064
|
2,150
|
1,978
|
1,935
|
1,980
|
1,956
|
2,000
|
2,020
|
2,050
|
Table 3.
Service Revenue (thousands of constant dollars)
In addition to sales data, Big Drive Auto collects data on the prices it charges customers. Following are the data since 1998:
|
1998
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
2003
|
2004
|
2005
|
2006
|
2007
|
|
5,915
|
6,111
|
6,300
|
6,490
|
6,716
|
6,897
|
7,118
|
7,317
|
7,500
|
7,650
|
Table 4.
Index of Sales Prices for Vehicles: Year 2000=100
|
1998
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
2003
|
2004
|
2005
|
2006
|
2007
|
|
98.0
|
99.2
|
100
|
99.0
|
97.0
|
96.8
|
98.0
|
97.2
|
98.5
|
99.0
|
Table 5.
Index of Sales Prices for Motor Oil, Coolant, Tires: Year 2000=100
|
1998
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
2003
|
2004
|
2005
|
2006
|
2007
|
|
100.5
|
100
|
100.1
|
102.0
|
102.9
|
106.0
|
111.2
|
116.9
|
118.5
|
119.0
|
Table 6.
Index of Sales Prices for Auto and Truck Services: Year 2000=100
|
1998
|
1999
|
2000
|
2001
|
2002
|
2003
|
2004
|
2005
|
2006
|
2007
|
|
97.5
|
98.8
|
100
|
100.4
|
102.0
|
104.1
|
105.8
|
107.7
|
109.2
|
110.4
|
The source for the U.S. government macroeconomic data that correspond to company data can be found in the industry detail of the GDP accounts as reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. They give data for both GDP quantity indexes by industry, as well as the price indexes by industry used to convert the nominal data into the quantity data. Industry detail tables with data going back to 1998 can be found at https://www.bea.gov/Industry/Index.htm. Click on the link for Interactive Tables of the Gross Domestic Product by Industry. The tables can be found in the Gross Output by Industry section. The Bureau of Economic Analysis Web page may change locations periodically. If this is the case, you will be able to locate the information using a search engine (such as Google) and the phrase, GDP by Industry.