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

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The industry group said a survey of its members founrd that 109 of the 149 GM dealers in the stater will either lose a particularGM brand, be forced to drop some competint manufacturer brands in their GM stores, or lose their storesz altogether. The number of outrighyt shutdownshas grown; a month ago, GM indicatedx that 30 dealers would close. After the gian t automaker’s plunge into bankruptcy June 1, roughly 3,600 dealera nationwide received newsales agreements.
The ownerse of about 1,350 other dealershipas were notified that they needeed to wind down asGM That’s in addition to the 1,10p that received similar messages last month as part of GM’ restructuring, which involves keeping only top dealers and The new agreements also may require surviving dealers to upgradre their facilities. And there may not be very much dealerz can doabout it, . (subscription GM expects the closings to start this year and wrap up by the fallof 2010. In a presws release Friday, Scott Lambert, executive vice presidentt of the Minnesota AutoDealers Association, criticized GM’s decisionn to have dealers sign new sale s agreements with the manufacturer.
“Beside s the tragic and inexplicable shutdown ofprofitable stores, GM seema determined to use bankruptcy as an opportunity to shakw up everybody’s business,” he said. “It appearsa to us that every Pontiac dealert in the state was informex that Pontiac as a bran will ceaseto “In addition, GM is eliminating many Cadillac We believe they plan to reassign some of thesed franchises elsewhere, which would be in violation of state law regulatingy franchise agreements.” Lambert also blasted GM’s decisionss to close so many even some that are turning a profit. “This company is lost right now.
I just don’t understand how you sell more cars withfewee outlets,” he said. Susan Garontakos, a spokeswomajn for the automaker, declined to comment on the trade association’s press release because she said the informationj about what was closing was confidentia l and because its such an emotional time for all of the parties involved. She said the company selected whicy dealerships to close after a careful analysis that beganin April. “The reality is we don’r have enough customers buying vehicles and we have a lot of outletsx that are in place to support a muchlargee market.
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