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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
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... about 45 minutes to a town that had one dealer for each of the Indebted 3. The Chevy dealer had closed a few months ago, the Dodge dealer looked to be in good shape, and the Ford dealer looked like it was winding down: about a dozen new vehicles total, none of them trucks. 
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especially sad story, it was a family Lincoln-Mercury dealership for many years, with Audi as well, and one poor guy is stuck in his house because the market has tanked, even as the shop folds up and all the cars go back to the manufacturers.  CONCORD — The day his employees were laid off, two days before New Year's Eve, Darrell Cooper went home and told his wife it was the worst day of his life. .....In all his 23 years working at Diablo, Cooper has had to fire only a couple people. As a group, the employees had a softball team, had barbecues and sometimes bowled together. He even thought about buying the dealership, keeping everyone together, but the bank wouldn't give him a loan in this tight credit environment. Some of the 40-plus people laid off Dec. 29 have found other jobs, but some of the service folks who worked with Cooper have said their new environments are a little cold. ......When the dealership closes for good Feb. 28, Cooper and Serrano — along with about eight others in the building — will be gone, too. Until then, they will sort equipment, deciding what will go back to Audi and what will be auctioned off. Diablo Lincoln-Mercury has operated in Concord for 30 years and has been at its current spot on Market Street's auto row since 1991. Before it was Diablo, it was called Jefferson Motors. Lexus, which operates a dealership on the 2-acre site next door, bought the Diablo Lincoln property and will expand its business into the Diablo building and lot. .....Schniegenberg (the general manager), 31, has a 14-month-old baby and his wife stays at home. He's been at the dealership since he was 22. "There's just nothing out there," he said. "There are some guys here who have been in the auto business for 35 years and it's all they know and looking for something else is so hard for them. "I'll try to stay in the field, but it'll probably have to be out of state," he said, with a tone of resignation. He and his wife own a house in Walnut Creek, but if they sell now, they'll have to take a loss — if they can even sell it, that is. "I'm getting to the point where I'm like, 'You know what? I don't care anymore.' We tried to refinance, but we were told we couldn't because we've made our payments on time so we can't modify it. We've done everything — we've written congressmen, everything. No one cares. "You go from being shocked to dismay, then anger," Schniegenberg added. "Then you get anxious and scared. For a lot of us, this was our whole life." http://www.contracostatimes.com/antioch/ci_11648435 Dealers should have had received some help from the bailout too - they were the only part of the automotive supply chain that got no help at all, and they are all small to medium size businesses, unlike many of the big suppliers claiming big trouble now, and VERY unlike the automakers themselves. And these manufacturers continue to have to absorb all these returned vehicles..... |
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Replying to: nippononly (Mar 02, 2009 9:32 pm) That is what I have tried to emphasize on the UAW thread. The UAW holding onto their fancy lifestyle has already caused 1000s of people in the dealerships to lose jobs. Most of those jobs do not pay as much as a UAW job pays. The reality when the smoke clears there could be 50% less dealerships in the USA. I guess that is what the D3 and especially GM was hoping for. If the dealership closes they do not have to buy them out.
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Replying to: gagrice (Mar 04, 2009 5:14 am) But I think the priorities are all screwed up that we give (calling it a loan is a bad joke) $17 billion to these companies, just so they can go broke later in the year instead of earlier, and we give nothing to dealerships which are small businesses employing tens of thousands of people all across the country. The dealers and suppliers should have been the recipients of government financial support in some form, not the automakers. Now we are contemplating throwing away another $30 billion (and that's just in the near term) on these automakers, and still the dealerships will get the shaft, and I'm convinced that for the automakers themselves it's just postponing the inevitable anyway. |
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and this one is slightly unusual in that it's a Toyota dealership. This place had just spent all the money required by Toyota to upgrade and expand their dealership, barely 8 weeks before, and they are gone along with ten others, including the Nissan dealership in Fremont (also here in the Bay Area): More Japanese car dealerships close Another day, another Bay Area car dealership closes. Ah, but this is not one of the usual suspects. Superior Toyota/Scion in Oakland, which opened just two months ago, shut its doors suddenly on Wednesday. That's 100 jobs down the drain. Also closed were Superior Nissan in Fremont and 10 other California dealerships owned by Long Beach-based Superior Automotive Group. Bank financing withdrawn was the explanation. Not surprising, given the fact that Japanese car companies in general, and Toyota Motor Corp. in particular, are doing every bit as badly as Detroit, in some cases worse. Check out the rows and rows of unsold Toyotas on Bay Area lots. Ripple effect: San Francisco ad agency, Attik, axed 15 employees, close to a third of its staff, earlier this month. Company executives wouldn't comment, but the layoffs came as Toyota whacked back its Scion campaign, a major account of Attik's since 2003. In these times, one also has to wonder about the prospects of another Attik account, Toyota's $300,000 Lexus sports car. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/26/BUL0164VE6.DTL One of the local news programs interviewed the owner of another Toyota dealership in the area, and he said many of the Superior employees had come asking if he had any work available, but of course he really doesn't and he felt bad for them. I'm kinda surprised that one of these big corporate dealerships failed, the pattern I'm more used to seeing is the little family places closing up. |
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I'm kinda surprised that one of these big corporate dealerships failed, the pattern I'm more used to seeing is the little family places closing up. I'm thinking that the companies that are run well are the ones that are going to survive, whether they are family run or corporations. The dealerships that have excessive debt on their books, and are not able to secure financing for inventory, are the ones that will likely go out of business. Again, this is true regardless of how many dealerships you own and run. |
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but seemingly relevant here: US auto dealers ask Obama to help stop job losses CHICAGO, March 4 (Reuters) - Three U.S. auto dealers' associations have asked President Barack Obama to launch policy initiatives to help save jobs in the auto retailing industry, one of the associations said on Wednesday. The American International Automobile Dealers Association (AIADA), which represents America's 11,000 international nameplate car franchises, said the three associations sent a letter to Obama asking him "to institute policy initiatives to stave off further job loss in auto retailing, and lay the foundation for a broader economic recovery." "The two-pronged plan includes revitalizing the asset-backed securities market for wholesale and retail auto loans and expanding the Small Business Administration loan guarantee program to provide working capital for auto dealers," the association said in a statement. ....."The auto retail industry in the United States is suffering greatly, and tens of thousands of jobs are being lost with each passing month of lower and lower car sales," said AIADA Chairman Russ Darrow. "The retail sector of our economy drives the manufacturing sector." "In order to achieve a comprehensive economicrecovery, Congress must focus on retail, and empowering Americans to buy again," he added. http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0421853220090304 I note with concern that it does not include any request for emergency financial aid, which means that if anything IS acted on in this request, it will be some time before its effect helps anybody at the dealership level..... |
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plus all the oil being stored, waiting for prices to rise, it seems like a big poker game. will the consumer blink first?
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Replying to: explorerx4 (Mar 04, 2009 4:58 pm) And who will be doing that exactly, the manufacturers or the dealers? Because I'm sure the dealers can't afford it. But with all the money we are handing GM and Chrysler, all their vehicles SHOULD be reduced in price by half. Interesting thought - that would quickly halt the ongoing extinction of dealerships, if you could suddenly get an Aveo for $4995, a Cobalt for $6995, etc.
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Replying to: nippononly (Mar 02, 2009 9:32 pm) I am not understanding why the cars go back to the manufacturers. The bank, lending institution or dealer owns the cars.
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