Dealer Closings

[jachevy28]

Two Chevy dealers in our area closed today, claiming because of the bailout restructuring. Is this happening everywhere? If so, could be bad news for people who ordered from these types of places...this is from the newspaper:

Simpsonville Chevrolet on North Industrial Drive in Simpsonville shut its doors Thursday for the final time, and its interim operator called it a direct result of General Motors agreement with Congress as part of its bailout package.

The dealership, which is owned and operated by General Motors, received notification at 10 a.m. Thursday that it would be closed. It shut its doors by 10:30 a.m. and left 28 employees without a job, said Stan Michaels, interim operator.

“GM has a deal with this bailout and they had to come up with a game plan with Congress to get this money,” Michaels said. “They’re eliminating, at least in this case, the dealerships that they own.”

The dealership sat mostly quiet this morning as some employees packed belongings into cardboard boxes. The 54 used cars on the lot will be sold to other local dealerships while GM will purchase the new car inventory and distribute those vehicles to other Chevrolet dealers, Michaels said.

The news came as a shock to Michaels because he said the dealership had been viable even in the sour economy because of its location next to Interstate 385 and its history in Simpsonville. The dealership had been in Simpsonville for eight years as Simpsonville Chevrolet. It operated under a different name prior to that, he said.

“We did extremely well here, but that’s the small picture,” Michaels said. “They have to look at the big picture.”

Customers with warranty or service needs could take their vehicles to any other GM dealer in the area, Michaels said. Some employees will be on site for the next month to clear titles to recently sold vehicles and to liquidate the inventory, he said.

Michaels hoped other dealerships would hire his workers and said he’d already fielded calls from some area dealers that were looking to hire.

“Hopefully the dealers in this town that are looking for people - sales, office, service, mechanics – will give me a call,” he said.

[Txturbo]

GM actually owns some dealerships?

[tjbusa]

appears so, “GM has a deal with this bailout and they had to come up with a game plan with Congress to get this money,” Michaels said. “They’re eliminating, at least in this case, the dealerships that they own.”

This sucks

[Vash]

Consolidation. It sucks but it's the right thing to do for now. Better to have a smaller GM than no GM.

[skipj3]

Wow what a shame. i bought my silverado there back in '05 @ Simpsonville Chevy and a Corvette and another silverado @ Kevin Whitaker on the motor mile. KW is closing there store in Travelers Rest, SC http://www.foxcarolina.com/automotiv...84/detail.html

[jachevy28]

And what I didn't make clear in the first post was there was another one that "closed", or merely went from two separate locations to one "superstore". They sent me an email (still on their mail list) that said that was due to the bailout as well, but I don't think they're owned by GM in this case. Odd, they were both sudden.

[69 Hugger]

Something like 1200 closed by 2012

[skipj3]

KW is a shocker to me. to have 2 stores that close to one another tells me they did lotsa bidness. Simpsonville was a lot smaller in comparison to KW and Bradshaw, so i could see them closing. They weere straight shooters whenever i was there, so, so sad. but hey! CHEER UP ITS FRIDAY!!!!!

[NAHURRY]

you know..I went by KW today in travlers rest and seen that the lot was half
empty, and last week it was full...I didnt catch the news but I had a bad feelin about it when I saw this....Terible!

Skip, were did you order from?

[skipj3]

No i have not ordered yet. You?

[NAHURRY]

Originally Posted by skipj3

No i have not ordered yet. You?

yes, I ordered from Bradshaw in greer...KW wouldnt accept any orders in
oct. they kinda played dumb which really suprised me as big as they are.

[jachevy28]

Originally Posted by in a hurry

yes, I ordered from Bradshaw in greer...KW wouldnt accept any orders in
oct. they kinda played dumb which really suprised me as big as they are.

Another guy I know that ordered from Bradshaw talked to KW to order in Oct. and they were actually rude about it. No pre-orders (at least then). I get the feeling they are gonna order for VIP's and/or order for stock and sell to the highest bidder.

[RPO_Z28]

So if a dealer closes and has, let's say, 12 pre-orders for Camaros, what happens to those cutomers and their ordered cars?

Can someone chime in on this?

Not a hijack but it seems thread appropriate.

[jachevy28]

I'm guessing they're SOL, but I'm also going to assume that those dealers allocations might eventually be spread to other local dealers in the area, so maybe they could latch on to one of them. No proof on that.

In this case, not a big deal, I think the one place wasn't taking any orders, and I'm willing to be the other one only got allocated 2 or 3.