06/04/2026
Today's speaker was Wes Monken, who co-owns and operates three automobile dealerships in the area: Monken Dodge, Chrysler Jeep, Ram, and Nissan on the west side of town across from the Centralia Recycling Center, and Monken Chevrolet and GMC across from Buchheit of Centralia. They also operate Monken Toyota in Mount Vernon. He spoke on the current status of the automobile industry.
Wes began his presentation by telling the audience he was born in St Mary’s Hospital and raised in Centralia. His father had dealerships, including Datsun as well as a used car lot. Although he helped out his family by cleaning cars, etc., Wes officially began his auto sales career in 1997.
Mr. Monken continued by describing some of the factors that have influenced the automobile industry over the years. He started with the sustained rapid pace of changes in customer preferences, automobile technology (GPS, Lane Assist, Adaptive Cruise Control, driverless cars, etc), electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, supply chain, interest rates, tariffs, and more. The pandemic played a role, as well as the global computer chip shortage. New car sales dropped from about 18 million vehicles sold per year to about 12 million. The shortage of vehicles forced more sales at Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) than before, which essentially raised the price of the cars. New car inventory is just now getting back to near-normal. Tariffs have raised the prices of cars imported from overseas with some importers being charged a 100% tariff on cars they import from specific countries. Since most automobiles are made with parts from many different countries, the tariffs can actually raise the price of a car made by a US company.
Wes explained that the number of cars in stock on a particular dealer’s lot has changed as well. Before the pandemic and computer chip shortage, dealers would normally have a wide variety of vehicles on-hand. During the pandemic and chip shortages, the numbers of cars on a lot and sales people available declined. They have since rebounded, but not completely. Many auto sales are conducted online these days and more comparison information is available, which changes the buying experience.
The biggest shift globally is toward full electric vehicles (EV) and Hybrid models in lieu of gas-only cars. In addition to the pure EVs, there are two types of hybrid vehicles: Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and Gas-hybrid-electric vehicles (HEV). In the last 10 to 20 years, Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV) have dominated the market. If gas continues to rise in price, that could accelerate the shift to hybrids.
Wes concluded his presentation by theorizing who can “win” in this situation. In his opinion, the winners are those who can adapt the fastest to the changes presented. Korea, for example, is doing well in their adaptations to consumer requests. Used car sales continue to be strong, with a 1:1 ratio of new-to-used among some manufacturers. Chinese manufacturers are currently discouraged from the US market due to tariffs, but they have produced some cars that may be attractive to a US market if they are no longer subject to tariffs. The #1 auto seller in the world currently, is Toyota, the company that developed the Prius, embraced fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly automobiles. Technology, adaptation, and customer satisfaction are the keys to the future.
Pictured: Wes Monken and Centralia Rotary Club President, Tom Ballagh
