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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: carthell (Nov 19, 2008 9:12 pm) I have been in towns with populations as small as 1000 that have their own Chevy and Ford dealer. In many cases, those towns are within 40 miles of a city with a population over 100,000, which has its own dealers, both domestic and import. What can really be the future of these tiny-town dealers? OTOH, if as one is led to believe the service and used car sales are the main profit engines for dealerships, then I guess their future may yet be bright. People will always need service for their vehicles, and used car sales are much less dependent on captive financing from the manufacturers.
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but we're about to lose our local Saturn dealer. I've never really had any dealings to them, other than delivering a pizza to them once or twice back in the day, and dropping by once with my Dad when he was car shopping. But they always seemed cool. I don't know what the details are, but the land under the dealership has been sold, so they're bailing out. Edit....Wow, it happened quicker than I thought. I went to their website and see that they're already closed! http://www.saturnofbowie.com/ There's also a Chevy dealer behind them, and a Toyota dealer next door. Last time I was at the Chevy dealer was a few years ago when I had to get a power window switch for my truck. They were so dead that the $41.40 I spent on that switch was probably the most profit they made all day!  I don't know the Chevy dealer's story, but I wonder if the Toyota dealer is expanding?
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Replying to: andre1969 (Nov 20, 2008 6:58 am) The dealers I have been seeing going under are mostly Chevy, Ford, Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge, and Pontiac-Buick-GMC. I would have thought the Saturn dealers would have gone already that were going to go, back when they had no product to sell.... |
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| ...I was just up at my Cadillac dealership for an oil change and inspection/emmissions and more normally upbeat service advisor was quiet and reserved. I'm sure he's concerned about his job and the future of his workplace. This is the human face of the crisis the automakers are facing. | |
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Replying to: nippononly (Nov 20, 2008 6:41 am) I think more of them will survive than you might expect. A car dealership can be run with no more than maybe half a dozen people on staff, and most of those small dealers don't have any debt to carry. The local Chevy dealer (where I bought the S2000) is more of a used-car dealership these days. They have a Prius on the main line in front of the building today. |
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Replying to: bumpy (Nov 20, 2008 7:53 am) Our local Caddy dealership has closed after maybe 30 years. They are still in business but only sell Chevrolets in their new car department. Meanwhile, down the road maybe a mile a new Hyundai dealership will be opening. Up the road at the nearest big town the Chrysler dealership is gone. The Mitsubishi dealer has been gone for a while but that's been tried at least twice in the area and just never supported enough business even in the good times. |
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Replying to: bumpy (Nov 20, 2008 7:53 am) Should those dealers that are struggling get a piece of the bailout pie?
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Two Lincoln/Mercury dealers folded, but Landmark Ford picked up the two marques without skipping a beat. Consolidation of local dealers will happen where the surviving dealer has the financial reserves to take advantage of the economy. When a business doesn't plan for a downturn, it deserves to be swallowed up.
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In my area the Caddy dealer changed hands and moved from its location of some 35 years - I think it was leased land, now in demand for high density residential use (once the recession ends). Now they share a location with the Hummer dealer, which I think is under the same ownership. So, we have GM's best and GM's lamest in one spot. The other local dealers seem to be surviving in their locations. There are small startup highline used car dealers that seem to appear and fail every year or two. |
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Replying to: euphonium (Nov 20, 2008 9:16 am) But I think the big news is outright dealer atttrition, and certainly that is mostly what we have had in the Bay Area - dealers going away and NOT being picked up by a different dealer elsewhere. In California Big 2 market share is only like 22% between the both of them, so it makes sense that there shouldn't be 3 Chevy and 3 Ford dealers for every Toyota dealer.
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