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Automotive News & Views Dude, where did all the dealerships go?
654 messages, Last post on Nov 23, 2009 at 7:56 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: gagrice (Jan 01, 2009 5:10 pm)
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Replying to: boaz47 (Jan 01, 2009 6:28 pm) They do have other info of interest: Idaho Auto Auction |
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A local mega dealer has had another setback and is about to lose its Chevy/Buick franchise. Dealmaker auto group aka Seaway Chev./Buick in northern NY is in default with GMAC. http://www.newzjunky.com/court/1224dealmaker.htm A few months ago they closed their Ford store in suburban Syracuse NY. Funny that all the used cars are gone but the lot is loaded with new Ford cars and trucks as well as a KR and Cobra stangs buried in the snow out front. This is the 6th Ford dealer to either go broke or take a buyout from Ford in the Syracuse area. http://www.syracuse.com/business/index.ssf?/base/business-14/122605180193340.xml- - &coll=1 A local longtime (1948) single prop. family Linc/Merc. dealer in another upscale Syr. burb. of Manlius took a FoMoCo buy out and sold their prime location for a strip mall/drug store instead of building a new building/service dept. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-187744842.html
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Replying to: otto8 (Jan 04, 2009 11:39 am) Funny that all the used cars are gone but the lot is loaded with new Ford cars and trucks as well as a KR and Cobra stangs buried in the snow out front Maybe Ford is in no big hurry to take them back. I think they already have too many vehicles on hand! |
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Here's one right in my own back yard that I totally missed: San Rafael Ford dealership closes without warning Keli Gaffney pulled into the parking lot at Ford of Marin Friday afternoon and nearly smashed her pickup truck into its metal gates. "I was supposed to be here at 2:15 to have my windshield repaired," said Gaffney, who had purchased her vehicle from the San Rafael dealership two weeks earlier. "And then today I find out they're out of business." A sign on the doorway of the West Francisco Boulevard dealership declared, "Ford of Marin has temporarily closed. If your vehicle is in our possession, we will complete the work and contact you when it can be picked up." The few employees remaining in the parking lot declined to provide an explanation for the abrupt closure. "Read the sign," one employee growled, closing the dealership's gates. So I guess at least one person had contracted for work on a car she purchased, and they went out of business before completing it. This is a dealership that had been through several hands in the last decade, so I guess it's not that surprising that it finally went under completely in the current business atmosphere. It was no relocation though: today we are down to one Ford dealership in the county, the Novato dealership mentioned in the article. This one recently expanded to include a full remodelling and to add the Mercury and Lincoln brands, so maybe they are on a solid footing. http://www.marinij.com/ci_10691088 On a separate note, I heard unconfirmed rumors yesterday that the Toyota dealership in my town may be about to fold. In the worst possible coincidence of timing, they bought up a neighboring Buick dealership early this year that was closing, and expanded into their space. Now sales are dead, and they have laid off half their sales force. It is noticeably quiet when I go over there for service...the service department, however, appears to be thriving just as it always was. |
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Replying to: nippononly (Nov 22, 2008 12:33 pm) "What I meant was that all cars spend a little time sitting there, so ones like the Prius, which is still selling well, would still spend a few days there. Of course I didn't mean to imply that the thrust of the article was wrong - some cars are spending months sitting there. But even now Toyota dealers don't have big stocks of Corollas, Yarises, and Priuses. They just finally have a few to sell, after a summer of having none of any of those models. " Ok , don't let facts get in the way. Honda's sales abysmal for 4th quarter 2008. Toyota's sales down 37%, Ford down 32% . For the Corolla and Yaris, sales are up but no comment on the Prius . Overall for Toyota, sales doth suck. Rather like a flipper you bought in Compton, you don't want to go there . T-2 months till California goes bankrupt.
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Replying to: duke23 (Jan 06, 2009 8:41 pm) NO, Not California. We got a $90 billion High Speed Railroad to Nowhere just voted in by the unwashed masses. Maybe Obama will send us a check to get going on that project.
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Replying to: gagrice (Jan 06, 2009 8:53 pm)  ) of which only $10 billion in funding has been approved. And that is bond funding, so they won't go ahead if the credit rating for the state falls any further. And CalTrans apparently has a half billion dollars worth of projects ready to go as soon as Obama cuts the check out of his little New Deal thing. Obama is also talking about cutting checks to the states that are in danger of bankruptcy, as part of his economic plan, so never fear!  None of this will help dealers who are going to fail in the next three months though. The trickle-down from the economic recovery plan, if there is any, will take too long to trickle that far down. duke: are you responding to something I wrote a month and a half ago?
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Replying to: nippononly (Jan 06, 2009 9:57 pm) Most projections I have read believe it will be upwards of $90 billion. And yes those are all NOWHERE in my book. Especially SF that is due to chip off into the ocean any day now.  San Diego does not seem to be as devastated by the downturn. San Diego car dealers are experiencing their worst downturn in 30 years or longer. New car and truck sales in the county in 2008 will be 17 percent lower than last year, according to a report released this week by the San Diego New Car Dealers Association. Sales have dropped 33 percent since the peak of the market in 2004. Some auto dealers see parallels between today's market and the 1970s, when the industry was hit by oil shocks, stagflation, sky-high interest rates and a sharp shift in consumer preferences favoring fuel-efficient vehicles instead of the luxury-sized “boats” that made up the bulk of the market. “We've been in business for 60 years and we've had some tough times – especially during the energy crises in the 1970s, when interest rates were getting close to 21 percent,” said Tony McCune, who owns McCune Chrysler Dodge Jeep in National City and Chula Vista. “Those were horrible days and we pulled through, so we'll pull through this one. We just have to battle through the crisis.” New owners at my Toyota dealer, no closings that I can find. San Diego is more conservative than the rest of the state. Though we have had our share of foreclosures. |
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| Not exactly in the same boat, but around a year ago the Caddy dealer nearest to me lost the lease on the land it has occupied for maybe 35 years, and had to move. It is now located adjacent to a Hummer dealer on an auto row. The old site was to be developed into retail and condos I assume - that is, before the commercial real estate market puked, and now the old building is sitting there vacant, kind of like an old ghost. It is a very 70s looking building, with a rambling service wing, a main showroom with large period windows, and a tile roof - kind of that faux Mediterranean look popular at the time. The old signs are still up, and there is even an Oldsmobile sign. It's kind of sad to see it - when the building was still occupied it was almost kind of cool to see it in that out of style building. | |
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