VIRGINIA BEACH
The first auto dealership to fall casualty to General Motors Corp.’s bankruptcy in Hampton Roads is Hall Pontiac GMC Buick.
The Virginia Beach dealership closed a week ago. Hall Automotive, which owns the region’s largest group of dealerships, received a “wind down” letter in June, when the auto maker filed for a fast Chapter 11 reorganization, said Fred Miller, Hall’s president.
In the letter, GM told the dealership it would terminate its franchise by October 2010. At the same time, though, GM took away Hall’s dealer number and left it unable to order new vehicles, Miller said.
Hall sold the most GMCs of the region’s dealerships in 2008, according to sales data compiled by AutoCount, a division of the credit reporting company Experian. The dealership also had high customer satisfaction marks, recently met GM’s upgraded showroom requirements and was strong financially, Miller said.
“I was hoping that they thought they made a mistake,” he said.
Hall never formally appealed its position on the “wind down” list, Miller said.
The dealership continued to sell its remaining inventory and ran out of cars by August, he said. Hall then asked GM for an Oct. 5 shutdown, and a computer glitch moved up that date by 10 days, he said.
GM instructed dealers not to tell customers or the news media if they faced closure, Miller said.
Hall owns the property on Virginia Beach Boulevard and is looking to move another of its existing franchises to the site, Miller said. The company moved all of the dealership’s 32 employees to other Hall stores.
Hall remains a GM franchisee with a Chevrolet dealership in Chesapeake and a Hummer showroom in Virginia Beach, though GM is selling the Hummer brand.
“I’m not leaving voluntarily; they’re asking me to leave,” Miller said. “At the end of the day, there wasn’t anything I could do about it.”
Carolyn Shapiro, (757) 446-2270, carolyn.shapiro@pilotonline.com
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We need new car makers in
We need new car makers in America. It'd be cool to have a car where all of the electronics information is published online, so it doesn't require reverse engineering to build tools for the tuners. New designs from new companies without the top heavy management of the "big three."
more republican lies
Those republicans will make up any lie to try and discredit Obama.
Dealerships closed because of political support?
No.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/chrysler.asp
Hall
Hall Automotive has totally lost all my business, my families, my friends, and anyone else I can tell my story to.
I know politics is involved in these closings, that is why I will never buy an American made car again, so I went to Hall Honda to look at the new Honda Insight. I was about to purchase the car, when I saw a brochure that talked about a student discount of $750 on ALL new and used cars sold at Hall Honda. I showed them my transcript that showed a 4.0GPA. The general manager told me, "The dealership has the discretion of giving that student discount, but since the Insight is a new car, the student discount does not apply. The brochure stated "All New and Used Cars, with no disclaimers attached." Don't advertise something and not stick by it. I contacted the BBB about this, and Hall told the BBB that that discount is available on All new and used cars. So, the statement they gave to the BBB was incorrect, since I couldn't get it on the Honda Insight. In my opinion, that is a shady practice. I don't feel bad at all that this dealership had to close.
You are so right. Don't feel
You are so right. Don't feel bad at all about the people that will eventually lose their jobs over this dealership closing. Those employees were absorbed by other dealerships, but eventually, some people will have to be let go. From the lot attendants, to the people in their corporate office, the dealership closing will have a snowball effect on our economy. Those people will lose their jobs, and in turn, not have money to spend to keep other people in their jobs, but hey! they should have given you your $750.00. Right? Screw em!
Strange
Clever New Methods Of Graft & Political Dirty
Tricks.
This could be a scandal of epic proportions and one that makes Nixon's Watergate or Clinton's Monica Lewinsky affair pale by comparison.
Why was there neither rhyme nor reason as to which dealerships of the Chrysler Corporation were to be closed?
Roll the clock back to the weeks just before Chrysler declared bankruptcy. Chrysler, like GM, was in dire financial straights and federal government graciously offered to "buy the company" and keep them out of bankruptcy and "save jobs."
Chrysler was, in the words of Obama and his administration, "Too big to fail," same story with GM.
The feds organized their "Automotive Task Force" to fix Chrysler and GM. Obama, in an act that is 100% unconstitutional, appointed a guy named Steve Rattner to be the White House's official Car Czar~
literally, that's what his title is. Rattner is the liaison between Obama, Chrysler, and GM.
Initially, the national media reported that Chrysler had made this list of dealerships.
That is not true. The Washington Examiner, Newsmax, Fox New and a host of other news agencies discovered that the list of dealerships was put tog
Again, on May 27, 2009, The
Again, on May 27, 2009, The Washington Examiner and Newsmax exposed the connection. Amazingly, of the 789 dealerships closed by the federal government 788 had donated money, exclusively, to Republican political causes,
while contributing nothing to Democratic political causes.
The only "Democratic" dealership on the list was found to have donated $7,700 to Hillary's campaign, and a bit over $2,000 to John Edwards.
This same dealership, reportedly, also gave $200.00 to Obama's campaign. Does that seem a little odd to you?
Steve Rattner, the guy who put the list together. Well he happens to be married to a babe named Maureen White. Maureen happens to be the former national finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee. As such, she would have access to campaign donation
records from everyone in the nation, Republican or Democrat. But of course, this is just a wacky coincidence, we're certain.
Then comes another really wacky coincidence. On that list of dealerships being closed down, a weird thing happed in Arkansas, North Louisiana, and Southern Missouri.
It seems that Bill Clinton's former White House Chief of Staff, Mack McClarty, owns a chai
Strange
Eight dealerships located near the dealerships owned by McClarty and Johnson were ordered shut
down. Thus, by pure luck, these two major Obama supporters now have virtual monopoly on Chrysler sales in their zone.
Isn't that amazing? Go look in The Washington Examiner, the story's there, and it's in a dozen or so other web-based news organization, this isn't being made up.
Now if you thought Chrysler was owned by Fiat, you are truly mistaken. Under the federal court ruling, 65% of Chrysler is now owned by the federal government and the United Auto Worker's union-
Fiat owns 20%. The other 15% is till privately owned and presumably will be traded on the stock market. Obama smiles and says he doesn't want to run the auto industry.
As horrifying as this is to comprehend, and being as how this used to be the United States of America, it would appear that the president has the power to destroy private businesses and eliminate upwards of 100,000 jobs, just because they don't agree with his
political agenda.
This is Nazi Germany stuff, and it's happening right here, right now, in your back yard.
There are voices in Washington demanding an explanation, but the
Stramge
Benjamin Franklin had it right when he said, "All that's necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
Car Czar No More
An amazing thing happed as this story was going to press. Obama's Car Czar, Steve Rattner, resigned on July 13 and was promptly replaced by former steel workers union boss Ron Bloom. According to CBS
News,Rattner left "to return to private life and spend time with his family."
Treasure Secretary Tim Geithner said, '" hope that he takes another opportunity to bring his unique skills to government service in the future .. "
By the way, Rattner is under investigation for a
multi-million dollar pay-to-play investment bank scandal in New York. Uh-oh!
But, we're certain that had nothing to do with his resignation. And, according to several news sources out there, there are rumors he's being investigated for what could be pay-to-play scandal involving the closing of Chrysler and GM dealerships.
____ Really? Again, that couldn't have anything to with his resignation- that's ridiculous! Like CBS said, this guy just wants to spend more quality time with his family.
Obama has thirty-two personally appointed "czars" that
Not necessarily a top seller
Selling the most GMCs in the region doesn't necessarily mean they were a top GM seller. The GMC trucks and vans are basically the same thing as Chevy with a different label. An honest comparison would be sales data with Chevy and GMC.
Hall Loses GM Franchise
Hall's loss of the GM franchise has nothing to do with politics, Omama, or donations to the Dems. It is perfectly consistent with the decisions the Big Three have made for years. The pattern is obvious - there is NO LOGIC to any of their major decisions. Remember the Norfolk Ford Assembly Plant? It was consistently one of Ford's top producers and was known for its quality vehicles, its good relationship with the union, and its efficiency. So when Ford decides to move that capacity to Mexico, do they shut down a poorly performing plant? Of course not. They shut down their one of their very top plants. I suppose they were trying to keep their competitors guessing!
Closing up
Having purchased a lemon from this dealer and having the dealer do absolutely nothing to resolve the issue along with Pontiac----well--I guess the chickens have come home to roost. How does it feel to give your best for the giant betrayal? Feel sorry for the sales staff and service crew though.
"GM instructed dealers not
"GM instructed dealers not to tell customers or the news media if they faced closure, Miller said."
Really? I find that very hard to believe when the list of closing dealers was posted on the Internet back in June. I personally used it as a negotiating when we bought our new car that month.
Never
I will never again buy a car from a company that took taxpayers' dollars.
HEY!!!!
....I own a part of GM...and NOONE asked me about this!!!
In TV commercials, The chairman of GM, Ed Whitaker, urges you
to buy a GM product and try it for 60 days (read the fine print). Yet, "GM instructed dealers not to tell customers or the news media if they faced closure." Now THAT'S really going to engender trust and faith in GM. You don't know if the dealership promising you all these great things is even going to BE THERE in 60 days. And to think ..... WE own this company.
It doesn't matter what
It doesn't matter what dealer you purchase the vehicle from, the guarantee is from GM, not from the dealer.
True,
True. However see who gets serviced first. The customer of the dealership or the outsider with a warranty?
As long as the money is
As long as the money is green I'm sure they will take it.
Hall closes
I wonder who's presidential campaign he contributed to ? Do the words ''AUTO CZAR''ring any bells ?
Should have donated more to the Dem party!
Wow so they close a top selling dealer....I wonder why....hmmmm
Politics???