DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Corp has told U.S. dealers it is accelerating its timetable for closing about 1,700 dealerships as it rushes to meet a June 1 deadline to restructure under U.S. government oversight, people with knowledge of the discussions said.

In a series of meetings with key dealers including representatives of the National Automobile Dealers Association, GM executives also said about 200 dealerships had closed in the first quarter, according to people briefed on those talks.

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I hate this in one respect as I know some good smaller dealers will get hurt!

On the other hand I know a couple dealers locally here I hope are on the list. They are so poorly run they need the boot.

I hope my Chevy dealer makes the cut they have served me well and I have made sure to fill out my surveys and gave them high marks. I know this will help them.

 

We have 5 Chevy dealers in abnout 30 mile area here. We really don't need that many but the problem is the good ones are the ones on the edge of the area and are the small ones. I can see the big guy surviving because of who he is not what he does and I need to wait for an appointment there and they don't get the work done right anyway.

 

We should see also some merging in brand soon like if GM dump Pontiac what will happen to a good Pontiac dealer? close or become a Chevy dealer. Same thing will happen here in Canada.

 

Just in my area the Olds dealer that bought a Buick/Pontiac dealer a few years before the end of Olds just bought a Chevy dealer.

Also GM is working to merge a Buick dealer into a independent new Pontiac dealer and close the Chevy dealer already in the Buick dealer. GM is making them some offers to work out the deal. There is already a 2 Chevy dealers near by so there is no need for this small one that moves few cars.

 

I fear for my job as I work in what is in effect a single line Buick dealer.Our other car lines are all foreign and GM is not happy about this.Three miles up the road is what at one time was the largest volume Pontiac store in the world.Having also taken on GMC,they're ripe for placing Buick there too.The mood around our place is mighty grim.

 

same here thats what happened to mine up the street from my house. its ashame he is afraid he might have to close down it was a family owned business for many many years

 

The reality is there are too many dealerships. I was amazed a few years ago when Toyota was having a sale at all 57 dealers in southern California. I thought at the time do we really need 57 Toyota dealers? I am sure there are way more GM dealerships. The bottom line is the remaining dealerships should be more successful and profitable in the future, hopefully the best people in the business will be fine. Maybe some of the shady dealers we hear about on this forum will be gone. I feel for any of you that are working at a dealership now.

 

How does closing dealerships help save GM money? Aren't they franchised?

Is this so GM can reduce inventory and not look like there's a shortage?

 

It reduces SFE payout money. If you have 4 dealers that reach the SFE sales goal they each get $125,000 per quarter, which is $1,000,000. Now close 2 or 3 of those dealers and the payout is reduced by that amount. This is just one example there are many more such as web site fees, advertising money, training expenses etc...