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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: euphonium (Jun 01, 2009 10:40 am) Lots of people seem uncomfortable asking for a cheaper price so maybe they like the one-price shop better. |
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What Steve said!  Truth is, I would never shop at a one-price store, but most people prefer it. And even me, I am getting lazy as I get older. The internet thing is becoming my fave now, even though I realize that if I haggled in person I could squeeze a few hundred $$ more out of the price. That's not so different from a no-haggle store, except the "one price" is being quoted to me in cyberspace and I am going with the best one I get out of several dealers. |
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Replying to: nippononly (Jun 01, 2009 4:00 pm)
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for GM. They get to dump the "old" and walk away from massive liabilities without any sort of penalty whatsever. It's really quite incredible. Among the changes they are making going forward is that they are going to insist that some dealers with competing franchises in the same showroom eliminate them, or else the dealers themselves will have their franchise agreement terminated! GM already has informed 1,124 dealerships that they won't have their franchises renewed when the agreement expires on Oct. 31, 2010. Starting this week, an additional 200 dealers will get similar termination notices. GM is sending letters via Federal Express tonight to all 5,969 dealerships. Most of them will inform dealers whether they will retain their franchises and what changes they must make to retain their stores. Some dealers will be asked to remove competing franchises from their GM showrooms. Others might be asked to upgrade their stores.... http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090601/ANA02/906019914/1018- (registration link) Bankruptcy is sooooo convenient for GM. With the Dow jumping UP more than 200 points after the BK announcement today, I really question whether a government-funded Chater 11 was ever really necessary here - they should have liquidated the thing. Now even more dealers will get the shaft. Guess folks looking to open dealerships will be a lot more cautious about chasing a GM franchise in future.
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Replying to: gagrice (Jun 01, 2009 8:54 pm) The thing that makes me wonder is now that GM went bankrupt we are being told we are the major creditors. If that is the case if I remember correctly not too long ago GM offered to make your payments for a number of months and only if after that time would the repossess your car. Now that we own them can we go and repossess a new GM car because they owe us so much money? Maybe we should get a Corvette while we can?  Now that the UAW owns part of GM will they be docking people's pay for being late? You know if we step outside of our personal discomfort zone on how this effects our economy and look at the big picture we can see the world for what it is. A place run by the keystone cops. When this whole thing first hit the fan people were in financial trouble and started losing their houses. People started losing their jobs and they were told that they would just have to learn to adjust. When the banks, wall street and the manufacturers got in trouble they simply turned to the very people that were losing their homes and jobs and asked them not only to forgive the loans but to give them billions of taxpayers money. Then the very companies we are supporting will lay off even more taxpayers and give their executives more bonuses? I take it back, not even the Keystone Cops could have come up with this plan. 
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Replying to: nippononly (Jun 01, 2009 9:00 pm) Nader had some things to say about this GM & C mess: The bankruptcy and the GM restructuring plan are the product of a secretive, unaccountable, Wall Street-minded government task force that assumed power because of a Congressional abdication of historic magnitude. By all rights, the restructuring plan should have been submitted to Congress for deliberative review and decision. Many, many jobs will be lost that could be preserved. There is reason to question whether too many plants and brands are being closed -- a matter that should have been taken up in Congress. Just the closing of hundreds of (GM and Chrysler) dealerships will cost more than 100,000 jobs. These sacrificed jobs will fray communities and impose enormous expenses on government entities that will have to provide unemployment and social relief, while suffering lost tax revenues. Victims of defective GM products may find themselves with no legal avenue to pursue justice. In the Chrysler bankruptcy, with complete disregard for the real human lives involved, the Obama task force and auto company have maneuvered effectively to extinguish the product liability claims of victims of defective cars. I think the consumer will be the victim in this whole mess. I agree that liquidation would hurt but for less time than the way we are going about it. Hopefully none of our posters have defective GM or C vehicles as of today. I don't think you will find any dealerships willing to repair them under warranty. Who will pay the dealer with GM in BK court? Will Barry send them a check? 
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Replying to: nippononly (Jun 01, 2009 9:00 pm) Bankruptcy is sooooo convenient for GM. With the Dow jumping UP more than 200 points after the BK announcement today, I really question whether a government-funded Chater 11 was ever really necessary here - they should have liquidated the thing. Now even more dealers will get the shaft. Guess folks looking to open dealerships will be a lot more cautious about chasing a GM franchise in future. I see it differently. If GM had filed cchap. 11 bankruptcy without government loans backing them, the Dow would have plummeted because they would have no chance of surviving and would have taken a ton of suppliers and dealerships with them. At least now they have a chance at survival and the dealerships and suppliers can be reduced in a less disruptive manner. Remember this whole thing is about saving as many jobs as possible. |
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Replying to: gagrice (Jun 02, 2009 5:43 am) Disagree with Nader on this one. In December, Congress rejected loaning GM and Chrysler the money which is why Bush had to use an executive order (or something) to make it happen. Congress had there chance to be involved in the process and chose not to be involved. Whether it was the right or wrong thing to do is debatable. Also consider that this all HAD to be secretive because of the negotiations involved. By GM and Chrysler accepting the money to stay in business, they are at the mercy of the government. They had plenty of time to do this turnaround on their own using private money but the lack of vision by their CEO, senior management and Board of Directors lead them down this path. We can debate this until the cows come home. The fact is this is the ONLY way GM has a chance of staying in business. We have debated at length on numerous boards that GM, Ford and Chrysler had too many workers, too many plants, too many dealerships, and needed to make significant changes. it's happening now. Most of us don't like how it is being done but neither GM or Chrysler had the time nor the resources to do it in a humane manner. If the government had turned their back on GM and Chrysler, both companies would have filed for Chap.7 bankruptcy by now and we would probably see Ford in Chap. 11. ALL GM and Chrysler plants would be closed. All dealerships would be in the process of closing as they sell off any inventory. The UAW pension fund would now be in the government pension plan (tax payer paid, of course). All of this at a time when the Dow was hovering around 7000 and there was still talk of nationalizing the banks. Timing is everything. If this had happened 2-3 years ago, no big deal as either company could have raised the funds needed or sold to a group of investors. but it's June 2009 and we are 16 months into a deep recession with unemployment expected to top 9%. Whatever happened to Cerberus? I haven't read anything about them during this entire process.
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Replying to: dtownfb (Jun 02, 2009 6:45 am) They gave up their interest early on in the process. They did not want to throw good money after bad. They still have controlling interest in GMAC. Which we gave them a few Billion to bolster the lending for those wanting to buy cars. ALL GM and Chrysler plants would be closed. I thought they were. Didn't Chrysler shut down all their plants in December? DETROIT — General Motors said on Thursday that it would idle 13 of its 21 North American assembly plants for much of the summer, as it tries to reduce inventory at its dealerships and show the Obama administration that it is serious about shrinking its business enough to be viable. The closings will start as soon as May 4 and cut production by 190,000 vehicles. A pickup truck factory in Fort Wayne, Ind., will shut down for 11 weeks, and a sport utility vehicle plant in Arlington, Tex., has nine down weeks scheduled. The question, will any of those ever open again? As long as we supply the cash why would GM want to open plants back up. Under BK they have NO obligation to provide vehicles to the dealers. I think just leaving them shut down will be the best option. Give Ford a chance to gain market share and profitability. Just write off the loss from trying to bail out GM and C. Maybe Fiat can do something with Chrysler. It is doubtful they would be dumb enough to re-open any UAW controlled plants. As far as the GM pension plan. It was in fairly good shape. If PBGC takes it over which I am thinking they will, the cost to the tax payers will be minimal. The UAW gold plated health care will be gone unless VEBA gets some money from the tax payers. I think that will be one of the cornerstones in Obama's health care plan. The retirees will not like going from what they now get to a very poor government plan. |
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Is the dealerships are simply in the same boat as the rest of us. The dealerships were never asked to bail out the tax payer. The manufacturers were never asked to help the tax payer but when the fertilizer hit the fan the tax payer, who is in just as much trouble as the dealers and manufacturers is being asked to feel sorry for the dealers and manufacturers and bail them out. Is the dealership family more important than the father, mother amd children in every other family in the US? We are being asked to shut up and pull together to weather this storm and we are asked to reach deep and bail out dealerships and manufacturers and banks and wall street. Does anyone else see this as upside down? Not that many years ago the government made filing personal bankruptcy much more difficult than it has been ever. No private tax payer filing bankruptcy would be allowed to keep as much as GM and on top of being forgiven their debt would be given government money to operate. In personal bankruptcy you migh be forgiven you debts and you creditors might be forced to forgive your debts but they sure wouldn't be asked to give you billions more to keep going. And no government employee could even help a person fill out the paperwork to file bankruptcy let alone work out the details for a person. The creditors wouldn't be asked to feel sorry for the person filing bankruptcy and they wouldn't feel sorry for any agents that represent the person. Yet we are being asked to feel sorry for dealerships and manufacturers? This sounds like Alice in wonderland. The fat cats see the rest of us paying more for fuel, food clothing and struggling with credit so suddenly they put on a hat and dark glasses and get a tin cup and ask us to help them out. This is just plain crazy. This is not how our system was supposed to work. We are supposed to be capitalists and as such a company, dealership or bank should survive and be profitable of go out of business to be replaced by another company, bank or dealership.
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