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Automotive News & Views Dude, where did all the dealerships go?
650 messages, Last post on Nov 08, 2009 at 5:47 PM
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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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Replying to: gagrice (Jun 01, 2009 8:54 pm)
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Replying to: dtownfb (Jun 02, 2009 6:45 am) What are you talking about? They WERE involved. Their decision was a resounding 'NO'. At which point they were circumvented by the executive branch, which never should have happened.
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Replying to: boaz47 (Jun 02, 2009 9:22 am) But I think in retrospect my question was answered: the dealer attrition is coming almost exclusively among domestic-brand dealers, where there is plenty of room for attrition given the expected size of the "new" GM and Chrysler. The third part of my initial point was that dealers are an important component of the local business community fabric - they support little league teams and charitable causes, you name it. In that respect dealer attrition hurts local communities and families. But then, it doesn't do so any more than other small businesses which are also presumably failing in this down economy.
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how do I post my own topic?
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Replying to: zionswrath (Jun 02, 2009 10:25 am) Check out the Help link at the bottom. You're posting fine; if you want to start a new discussion, check out this help link. |
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Replying to: whatugiv (Jun 02, 2009 10:05 am) I rarely use the dealer after sale so price is the most important. My impression of dealer service is mixed. Mostly mediocre. I can only remember two dealers throughout the years I would give a thumbs up. Drew Ford/VW and Bob Stall Chevrolet. Toy/Lex dealers are near the bottom. I like independent shops that do not have a huge complex to support. |
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Replying to: nippononly (Jun 02, 2009 10:23 am) Once again we have come to an agreement. And that is the point the dealer is not more important than the old paint store that was put out of business by Lowes or Home Depot. There never was any reason to worry about how they survived or even consider bailing them out. In the system we have they should be allowed to fail and then be replaced with whatever comes to replace them. To me this would apply to foreign or domestic dealers. If Suzuki were to leave the country what have we lost? If they were replaced by Fiat would anyone notice in their daily life? Cars are simply a product like a washing machine. They do us a service by taking us from a place of employment or to a place of relaxation. It doesn't matter who makes them because they have no soul they are machines and should be sold like machines. Anyone who can sell a toaster could sell a car and if we didn't have an obligation to return to the dealership we could get the machine serviced at any local service center that works on machines. The whole system was designed to make us dependant on the dealership because so much of the profit was in the service. Maybe we can take the camel trading part out of things with fewer dealerships and move into the future with the rest of the retail industry. Truthfully this has been a great time if you have the money to be a consumer in the car market. For the first time in years we have been able to walk out of a dealership simply because we didn't like the coffee to buy something down the street because they gave us coffee and a sweet roll. |
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