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Dude, where did all the dealerships go?

654 messages, Last post on Nov 23, 2009 at 7:56 PM
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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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Replying to: nippononly (Nov 20, 2008 1:27 pm) It has happened here, one Metro point closed in the spring. Ford and the surrounding Metro Points participated in the buy out. The closer your store was to the closing point the more you paid.
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Replying to: joel0622 (Nov 20, 2008 5:19 pm)
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Replying to: nippononly (Nov 21, 2008 8:17 am) My money would be on the Chrysler dealership. He's got Chrysler and Dodge which leaves him with nothing new of interest to me. He does have a fair number of used cars but they are overwhelmingly Chrysler products as well. The other dealers in town are a Pontiac-Buick-GMC and a big "family of dealerships" that sells Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Jeep, Suzuki, Nissan and Honda. Maybe at one point he'll replace the Suzuki dealership with something else but he does seem to sell enough of the things.
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