What actually happens to excess dealerships?

[crw]

Each of the big 2.5 are saying that they will shed dealerships. That sounds good.

But what happens next? You have a luxury mansion with big doors to drives vehicles in and out. Offices, big lots that can hold lots of cars. Auto service areas. What business moves in?

Won't many of them become dealers for other brands???

Every year I look at the Car and Driver 10 best, and note that only three or four of them can actually be purchased in my town. We have all Ford, GM and Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan, Subaru, Mitsu, Mercedes, Honda and Hyundai. No VW, Mazda, Infinity or Lexus. No BMW. I'd like to see some of them represented.

On the other hand, I don't see any dealers going away in my town because "they are the only option for ____ ", and the economy is locally very good here.

 

[wavinwayne]

Bill Heard Chevrolet closed down a couple months ago. Most of the vehicles they had for sale are still sitting on the lot.

 

[Cutehumor]

Originally Posted By: wavinwayne
Bill Heard Chevrolet closed down a couple months ago. Most of the vehicles they had for sale are still sitting on the lot.


there is one right by my place. it's called freeland Chevrolet I think

 

[astraelraen]

There is no Infiniti in all of Idaho, it's kinda sad I would love to buy one of their cars.

There are only two Mazda Dealerships and one VW in the Treasure Valley.

Idaho isn't big enough for some of these "niche" dealers.

Just drive to SLC, you'd get a better deal anyway

 

[brianl703]

We've lost a VW dealership as well as a Suzuki dealership here within the last 6 months. Both are currently sitting empty.

The VW signs have all been stolen but nobody seems to want the Suzuki signs..

 

[Johnny]

Here in Wausau we have the following:

Ford, Lincoln, Mercury Dealer
Chevrolet/SAAB Dealer
VW, Audi, Nissan Dealer

All of the above owned by the same man.

Volvo, Subaru Dealer

GMC, Pontiac, Buick, Mazda Dealer

Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep Dealer

Mercedes, Toyota, Hyundai Dealer

Honda, Cadillac Dealer

If GM does away with SAAB, I could see the Chevrolet dealer buying out the Volvo, Subaru dealer. Not sure what will happen to the others.

They are all very good dealerships and have a good reputation.

 

[BrianWC]

My uncle and his family shuttered their Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge dealership in the early 80's and switched to selling mobile homes. When the bottom fell out of that they leased the property to an above ground swimming pool and jacuzzi dealer. I'd guess any business that has "big" things to sell could use the layout.

 

[Steve S]

What happens to any empty building?

 

[Boomer]

Land may have more value than the land plus the building. Tear the building down and offer it as a green site. Hopefully, these folks did not contaminate the site in such a way as to call for site remediation and EPA involvement. This will drop commercial property values all over if enough of these sites become available.

 

[BrianWC]

Originally Posted By: Steve S
What happens to any empty building?


Is this a "sound of one hand clapping" question?

 

[crw]

Yeah, I could see driving along the El Camino Real in Silicon Valley, where there's a big dealer on every block. Some of that will need to contract. But there is certainly a market for that property.

 

[IndyIan]

Maybe some inventories will be auctioned off? Is GM/Chrysler usually the creditor for a dealer's inventory or a bank? I doubt many dealer buy cars up front.
I wouldn't mind a new 1/2 price Cobalt or Vibe or HHR.
Ian

 

[opus1]

In my city, 2 dealers closed in the last 5 years or so, one outright and one just moved down the road to another city. In both cases, the lots became independent used-car lots.

In the town where my Mom lives, the L-M dealer closed up and the building is now a sporting equipment store. Truth be told, the building was kind of small to be a car dealership, so this change doesn't surprise me.

 

[bretfraz]

Around here, defunct car dealers go one of a few ways:

*The store is bought by a used car outfit, something like Just Right or JD Byrider.

*I've seen a couple stores converted to churches.

*One store that used to sell Lincoln-Mercury was sold and now sell muscle cars, hot rods, custom boats and the like.

Of course, plenty of stores are bulldozed and built into something else, as was mentioned above. It all depends on property values and such.

I'm not too worries about a few hundred car dealers closing down. It's all the Circuit City's, Linens and Things, Hi Fi Buys/Tweeter stores, CompUSA's and so on and so on..... Add a few WalMarts and you have significant blight of unused retail space on your hands.

 

[brianl703]

The VW dealership here was in a building that looks like a single-story office/warehouse "flex" building.

The Suzuki dealership was in a building that's pretty small and I heard that there are plans to turn it into an upscale carwash.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: crw

But what happens next? You have a luxury mansion with big doors to drives vehicles in and out. Offices, big lots that can hold lots of cars. Auto service areas. What business moves in?


That depends on what makes money in that specific location. In regards to who closes and what happens, I'm not sure how that works. I know dealerships are independently owned businesses. I don't know exactly how much power their specific brand has over them. i.e, what happens if they don't 'sell' them cars to sell?

Joel

 

[mrsilv04]

I suspect our local Ford dealer is in trouble. They used to keep around 50 used cars on hand, now it is around a dozen.

Their new car lot, which used to be filled, is only about one third full.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
I doubt many dealer buy cars up front.


thats how dealers get the cars to sell.

where i live there was a lincoln, mercury. mazda dealer (where i work) and a ford dealer 2 doors down. the ford dealer shut down, we bought the ford franchise. we hired techs and bought their inventory. anyone we didnt hire was told good luck. warranties from the previous dealer were not honored since they were through that owner and not ford. not including corporate warranties like NVLW, ESP, SPW, etc.

the ford dealer was 3 times our size. the land it was on sits vacant, since it closed a year and a half or so ago. they cannot build homes on it (you can fit about 100 or so condos on the plot at about $1mil or so each) due to zoning and environmental damage from being a dealer for so long. a large lexus dealer chain bought the land, but the city will not let them build because their plans do not fit into the spanish style that everything in this town is supposed to have.

 

[eljefino]

It depends on what brands have open/avialable franchises. If Toyota 5 miles away has the rights to a 20-mile radius there's no way another Toyota could move in. There's a real sleazy used car dealer that sells new Suzukis around me, of course now they call themselves So-and-so-Suzuki. Of course the money is in the used cars but the credibility is in having some sort of new car marque.

If GM goes under, the brand names would be in limbo, so if a dealer feels calling themselves "joe blow chevrolet" is in their interest, there's noone there to sue them-- or, conversely, they could use their prior franchise contract in their defense.

 

[firemachine69]

No car dealership has gone under in my neck of the woods.

Yet.