Kalifornia at it again

[jonnie]

Ted,

I think you can tow the all wheel drive Denalis, but you have to install a lube pump. Go to Remco towning and you can find out for sure.

John

[jonnie]

Ted,

I did the leg work for you. 2007 Denalis' have to towed with a trailer. 2006 and earlier can use a lube pump. I believe the change in transmissions is the problem.

John

[rickdesilva]

Jon
I feel a little better now. The subject of the automobile business is like talking about politics. I have a lot friends who had profitable dealerships and overnight were driven out of business and went bankrupt, its a shame what has happened to the car business and the local businessman.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I still have not had anyone explain to me how getting rid of a dealer (who is independently owned) benefits the car manufacturer.

Maybe you can help me here Rick. All I know as a mere civilian is now if will be more difficult for me to buy another Dodge pickup because the dealer most convenient to me, and which exceeded every Chrysler sales goal and won their service awards every year was one of the local ones that got dropped.

Next time I am shopping for a pickup it won't be a Dodge.

[Jerry Winchester]

Mel Torme

At least I didn't buy no stinking H3 with that mighty 5 cylinder engine.

No you dodged that bullet. You bought (a) a Jeep you don't like and (b) a Denali you can't tow.

So now you have two POS vehicles instead of a POS Hummer. Must be that East Texas math working in there somewhere.

[flyu2there]

I still have not had anyone explain to me how getting rid of a dealer (who is independently owned) benefits the car manufacturer.

Maybe you can help me here Rick. All I know as a mere civilian is now if will be more difficult for me to buy another Dodge pickup because the dealer most convenient to me, and which exceeded every Chrysler sales goal and won their service awards every year was one of the local ones that got dropped.

Next time I am shopping for a pickup it won't be a Dodge.

Jon,

Me thinks that they have illusions of grandure! Remember the VW Dealers in the past...sticker price is what you paid...period, thanks to manipulating the supply. I think Sautern tried that as well. Varborg, the East German wonder car, well hell, you paid what they asked for it or you didn't get one, you walked or rode on your co-op's tractor. The scary part is the co-ops tractor....is that where we are headed?

I have always disliked Ford but they are the only ones left that apparently are straight up......next car I buy will be a Ford, niet GM, niet Chrysler...

[edsaylor]

I spent nearly 40 years in the automobile business in many areas of the business. I was with Chrysler Corp. from 1963 till 1969, when I purchased my first dealership, a Chrysler-Plymouth dealer selling 3 cars a month. That was all I could scrape up enough to buy. I added Toyota 5 months later. That was a good little dealership,but too small, so after a few years, I sold it. Then moved to Biloxi and bought the Pontiac-Buick-GMC dealership. Later I bought the Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge dealership in Gulfport (next town). Along the way I also had Subaru and Suzuki. I can tell you for sure that the imports were MUCH BETTER quality than GM or Chrysler. Only problem with imports is their parts cost much more than most domestic parts.

In the 80's and 90's you would

not believe all of the quality problems! In 1984 we had to drive any new LeSaber or Electra or full size pick up at least 10 miles before delivery to see if the transmission would work. Many, many times we would have to pull the trans. out of my demo to deliver the vehicle and then hope the new trans we got worked in my demo till we needed it again. In 1989 thru 1991 the Chrysler 604 transmissions were failing so fast that we and all other dealers were having to have new transmissions flown in.

There were all kinds of problems until the early 2000's. Now GM has excellent products in their newer designed vehicles. I have an 08 Buick Enclave that is so good, I traded Donna's Cadillac for another 09 Enclave. Also have an extended cab GMC Sierra P/U with a V-8 that gets 18.5 mpg in town! The Buick Enclaves are towable behind a coach in either front wheel or all wheel drive. You only have to pull a fuse (or put a switch under the dash, which I did) to pull the Enclave. Then you have a very comfortable 7 pass. plush vehicle to drive. They are great. The GM today is not the old GM. They have gotten the message!

What has happened to the car dealers over the past year and a half is why I always introduce myself as THE HAPPIEST RETIRED CAR DEALER YOU WILL EVER MEET!!!

[phorner]

Ed,

Now I know why you're smiling every time I see you!

[rickdesilva]

I knew Ed would join in. I'm a few years shy of Ed's 40 but have been a dealer for almost 35 years. The Chrysler dealers hit list was, in my opinion, arbitrary. If you pissed off the zone office sometime you were out. They used the bankruptcy to accomplish "cleaning up" the dealer body. The Chrysler dealers had no choice. They were notified via a FedEX list that they were on the non-continue list and had a few weeks to wind down and get out of business. The adjacent dealers who made the cut were handed larger market areas with no compensation to the poor dealer that was forced out. The list was made public and it became a death sentence for anyone on the list as no one wanted to do business with a dealer destined to be eliminated. The GM dealers on the other hand have been given 18 months to wind down and the list has remained relatively secret. Not the best case scenario but better than Chrysler. There is currently a movement on the hill to protect the dealers rights but I don't know where its headed as it seems to me to be a little too late. The bottom line is that dealers don't cost the factory anything. We own/finance our inventories, the cars are paid for once they leave the factory. There are definitely too many dealers, but the market will weed out the weak ones in a down market. Needless to say this is a subject that is near to me as I have alot of hard working friends who are the fibre of their communities forced out of business. Thru the years and my various positions I had in associations, I had the opportunity to experience Rick Wagonner first hand and in January I take over as Chairman of the Auto Association (AIADA) that represents all the international nameplate dealers in the US, over 10000 dealers so I'm fairly wired in and spend too much time dealing with the DC mentality. I can go on for hours, Factory guys, UAW, overdealering, Obama Car Czars etc. For fun Ed and I can have a seminar at OKC. For the record I currently have 2 stores which my boys run (Hyundai and Subaru) I drive my product on a daily basis and besides a fews "toys" in the garage I love my '03 Diesel Excursion and love driving my '66 GT 350 on the weekends.

[rfoster]

Ed and Rick:

Thanks for the post. Ed -it always good to hear from you.

Interesting and troubling read. If we could Pat Peck to post- I would bet he is also very happy to be out of the biz.

Rick -My sympathy or Congratulations on your involvement- please keep us posted on what's going on. We have a Mickey Mouse Tenn Assoc, - that does not know what cash for clunkers is.

We (me and Micki) now have two used car lots that have survived the first 150 plus days of Obama.

Miles and Jamie are still kicking too!!

Any other car dealers on the forum?