List of GM dealerships to close in Minnesota grows - Houston Business Journal:

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The industry group said a survey of its memberss found that 109 of the 149 GM dealers in the statwe will either lose a particularGM brand, be forces to drop some competing manufacturer brands in theie GM stores, or lose thei r stores altogether. The number of outright shutdowns has amonth ago, GM indicated that 30 dealers would After the giant automaker’s plunge into bankruptct June 1, roughly 3,600 dealers nationwider received new sales agreements.
The ownerd of about 1,350 other dealerships were notifiedd that they needed to wind down asGM That’s in addition to the 1,100 that receivedf similar messages last month as part of GM’ws restructuring, which involves keeping only top dealers and The new agreements also may require surviving dealerss to upgrade their facilities. And there may not be very much dealers can doabouyt it, . (subscription required). GM expect s the closings to start this year and wrap up by the fallof 2010.
In a presxs release Friday, Scott Lambert, executive vice president of the Minnesotq AutoDealers Association, criticized GM’s decisionn to have dealers sign new sales agreements with the “Besides the tragic and inexplicables shutdown of profitable stores, GM seemd determined to use bankruptcy as an opportunituy to shake up everybody’s business,” he “It appears to us that ever y Pontiac dealer in the state was informed that Pontiacc as a brand will cease to exist. “I addition, GM is eliminatin g many Cadillac dealerships.
We believe they plan to reassign some of thesdefranchises elsewhere, which would be in violatiojn of state law regulating franchisd agreements.” Lambert also blasted GM’s decisionx to close so many stores, even some that are turningf a profit. “This company is lost right now. I just don’tr understand how you sell more cars with fewer he said. Susan Garontakos, a spokeswoman for the automaker, declinef to comment on the trade association’zs press release because she said the information abouty what was closing was confidential and because its such an emotionapl time for all of the parties She said the company selectedc which dealerships to close after a carefup analysis that beganin “The reality is we don’ t have enough customers buying vehiclesa and we have a lot of outlets that are in plac to support a much larger market.
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