Sad day for this Dodge Dealer
 

I have several friends that have car dealerships and they sell pretty much all makes offered in the US. Lately they have been hit hard and one of them sent me an email from one of their fellow dealers.

It's a sad day when you've done everything right, been a productive contributor to not only your company but to your community and one day the rug is pulled out from under you and there is nothing you can do :(

Here's his email. I left out the names.

Letter from a Dodge dealer
May 19, 2009

My name is xxxxxx. I am the sole owner of xxxxx Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in xxxxxxx, Florida. My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business.
We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month. All depend on our business for part of their livelihood. We are financially strong with great respect in the market place and community. We have strong local presence and stability.
I work every day the store is open, nine to ten hours a day. I know most of our customers and all our employees. xxxxxxx Dodge is my life.
On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them. My new vehicle inventory consists of 125 vehicles with a financed balance of 3 million dollars. This inventory becomes impossible to sell with no factory incentives beyond June 9, 2009. Without the Dodge franchise we can no longer sell a new Dodge as "new," nor will we be able to do any warranty service work. Additionally, my Dodge parts inventory, (approximately $300,000.) is virtually worthless without the ability to perform warranty service. There is no offer from Chrysler to buy back the vehicles or parts inventory.
Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler?s insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank.
HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?
THIS IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS NOT A GOVERNMENT ENTITY
This is beyond imagination! My business is being stolen from me through NO FAULT OF OUR OWN. We did NOTHING wrong.
This atrocity will most likely force my family into bankruptcy. This will also cause our 50+ employees to be unemployed. How will they provide for their families? This is a total economic disaster..
HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?

Sincerely,
xxxxxxxx
President & Owner
xxxxxx Dodge-Isuzu
THANK A DEM FOR VOTING FOR OBAMA WHO IS DESTROYING OUR FREE MARKET ECONOMY

uh it can happen because he bought a franchise?

While is is a drag I would have to agree. That is what happens when you ignore the fine print.

sad, sad state of affairs:2 cents:

50-70 employees at a Dodge dealership? Exactly how many people does it take to sell no cars?

Dodge should have to buy back his inventory if they want to take away the "Dodge" franchise name. :2 cents:

In a "free-market economy" there never would have been bailouts.

There never should have been bailouts. Many people say that we are capitalists and "capitalism has failed"... we aren't capitalists. We are some odd mix. That odd mix seems to fail again and again... the executives pad their pockets on the work of the average Joe (tax dollars) all while laughing to the bank.

It's no coincidence that each and every one of The Big Three needed "help" at the same time. They ignored market trends, they ignored what PEOPLE wanted, and in the end it's the PEOPLE that get screwed by massive job losses, lost tax dollars, and a deteriorating confidence.

"Too big to fail." There is no such thing.

I don't really feel sorry for the dealership, they have had 35 years in business, some good some bad. Nothing lasts for ever. I am sure they put away plenty for retirement, if not then that's their fault.

I do however feel a little sorry for the employees...

sales people, sales managers, financing dept, parts sales people, mechanics, cashiers for parts & service, etc...

Most dealerships also have a shop. My dad works at a Chevrolet dealership and they have 50+ employees, a good majority work in the shop.

I heard that Rick Hendrick, who has the NASCAR race teams, has a Chevrolet Dealership with 150 bays for working on cars :thumbsup

This hasn't been free market since the government started to own private businesses. Socialism is fucked.

:2 cents: dodge won't be the last to fall either...

I don't think this is about ignoring the fine print.. If you read the dealership has been in his family for 2 generations. Dodge is giving the dealership to another dealer, which means they likely aren't pulling it from him because of a bad market.

Seems there is likely more to the story, but still a very shitty deal for this guy.

Someone should reply and remind him that the auto crisis and bailout plans started under Bush.

I was right there with him until the last line turned the whole thing into a political side-show. Then it turned into a facepalm moment.

It's called risk and it's how some entrepreneurs get rich or go really fucking broke. Too bad. Sooooo sad.

Businesses that make bad choices deserve to fail. This dumbass dealer chose to keep selling Dodges - fucking idiotic and it's no one's fault but his. Dodges have sucked for 30+ years, he's an idiot and deserves to go under (as does the entire Chrysler brand and dealer network).

Chrysler has too many dealers. Realize this - even after they close the 25% of the dealers they've decided to boot they'll still have far more dealers (about 2400) than Toyota (about 1400). Toyota sold over three times the number of cars per dealership last year than Chrysler.

Sucks to be a dealer of GM or Chrysler products, but again, it's no one's fault but their's.

Why pull the name(s)? This 'email' from your good friend in Melbourne has been floating around the net for a while now. I first saw it a couple of weeks ago on reddit.

http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/0...ge-dealer.html

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/...ge_dealer.html

It doesn't really matter who it started under. They both would have done the same thing and people are going to blame the opposite party that they "represent" regardless of who's "fault" it is.

Uneducated people (we all are) complain to their representatives to do something. The representatives, so fearful of losing their position as opposed to doing the right thing, fall to the whims of their constituents and do what they ask. Rinse and repeat. Stupid policy after stupid policy.

Decisions based on emotions almost always turn out bad.

Oh wait, so the last line about Obama and shit is not even in the original letter? Nice. Now I get it.

Obama had NOTHING to do with that. That right there shows why he shouldn't be in business. yes yes the economy was just hunky dory until a black man was elected President THEN it went all to shit.

How come he doesn't blame Chrystler for being incompetant for running a business poorly and making shitty cars for DECADES? He hates dems but he would love if those same dems bailed out Chrysler so he can stay in business. Fucking hypocrite. Gues what dude MILLIONS of other people lst thier jobs. You think because you run a dealership you're special and deserve special treatment. You signed a CONTRCT to sell Chrysler cars. Now you're shock they chose to shut you down. Maybe you should have READ said contract BEFORE you signed it. I 100% sure in it it says they can shut you down.

I hear you. But it looked like the comment was in the letter when it was added by the poster or emailer to the threadstarter or whatever. Just figures someone would use someone elses misery to forward their own agenda.

Oh snap! I just read the first couple lines of his post and thought to myself...

http://www.stubradley.com/pictures/n...it%20again.jpg

I don't know the dealer but according to his email his dealership was " financially strong with great respect in the market place and community "

He didn't go out of business, it was taken away. There is a big difference.

So in the end WE are to blame. If a representative does the right thing which is often time the HARDER choice we don't re-elect him thus telling his replacement to tow the line and do as we say even though we often don't know what's good for us. That's why we have representatives. We bitch about pork but when our representatives decides to eliminate OUR pork we vote him out for not doing enough for the area. Well the reality is the only pork our representative can do anything about is our own.

By CHRYSLER not Obama

Ultimately, yep, we are the ones at fault. It's a vicious cycle.

Why no names in that?? If he sent it to his customers then he is not hiding. So why no names??

Something smells a bit rotten here.

Bullshit... all Chrysler did was raise the minimum sales quote to maintain a dealership and his dealership didn't meet the requirements. It's pure and simple math and doesn't have anything to do with Obama.

because he took a astroturf email that's been floating around the internet and is claiming it to be from his "friend."

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=...meta=&aq=f&oq=

I don't know this Dodge Dealer but I was sent an email with this letter in it from one of my Car Dealer friends. I assumed it was just a personal rant so I left the names out. In the email I received, the Obama remark was in there as I copied here and appeared to be part of the letter. I don't know if it was added later by someone else or deleted in the blog posts.

I guess I'm just a sucker for a sad story :)

Of course there is more to the story. Corps don't pull successful franchises from their owners. And just because he is the second generation owner does not mean that the fine print did not spell everything out to the original owner.

Yeah, I am sure Chrysler said, "Screw it, let's give someone else a chance. He is doing well, but we need to spread the wealth."

the email is a fake. the kind of shit a dumb relative forwards to you along with cat jokes. the end.

Why would Dodge take a car dealership away from one person and GIVE it to another? Let's forget about the contract that was signed by the original dealer....What about the building? What about the LAND? None of that shit has anything to do with a contract with Dodge....

If Dodge wants to end the CONTRACT, that's all they can do.....They don't have the power to take the actual building and land and give it to someone else.

Probably A LOT more to the story, and probably negative towards the current owner, but hey... when does facts ever get in the way of a good ol' Obama bashing? :2 cents:

Sad story but it sounds like there is a little more to the story than just this letter. You can't blame it on Obama although he is an easy scapegoat for this sort of thing.

Chrysler deserved to go bust, they have not put out one car that is worth buying as an alternative to a Japanese made car, plain and simple. If you can't keep up with the competition you go out of business. The fact that they are transferring ownership of the dealer to another dealer sounds a bit strange but if they were not meeting the sales quotas required to run a dealership then the only people to blame is yourself. You signed a contract with Chrysler and I am sure there is some fine print that says if they want to pull out than they have every right to do that.

I don't get that part. He says he's the sole owner but then they are going to take it away and give it to someone else? Doesn't he own the showroom floor, shop, and the equipment? How can they take that from him?

It's interesting to watch things unfold from the outside... I wouldn't want to be involved in any business right now that has the government meddling it's dirty hands in.

You beat me to it.

Have you not been to a car dealership recently?

The Ford dealership I do business with is huge. At any given time they must have at least five to ten sales people on the floor, which must mean they have two dozens sales people. Then figure in finance people and support staff, the repair department must have a dozen people plus five or six just to deal with customers in the repair department, a few accountants to keep track of everything...... This doesn't include the detail department to keep all of the cars clean and then detail cars when they are sold, plus people move cars around. God only knows what else they have.....

google it. it's a fake email going the rounds. nothing to understand. it's not real.