mackinaw Posted December 19, 2023 Share Posted December 19, 2023 Behind a paywall, but the headline says it all. https://www.autonews.com/dealers/buick-dealer-network-shrinks-nearly-half-through-buyouts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang84isu Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 It's suprising how rapidly Ford, GM and Stellantis have divested from rural markets. Twenty years ago my hometown of 5,500 people used to have a standalone Chevrolet dealership, a Pontiac-Buick-GMC-Cadillac dealership, a Ford-Mercury-Lincoln dealership, and a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep dealership. The Chrysler dealership lost all its franchises during Chrysler's 2009 bankruptcy. The Cadillac franchise left around the same time. The Chevy dealership and the (by then) Buick-GMC dealership were bought by the Ford dealership and merged into a single dealership with five brands (Mercury was gone by that time). However, within the last year both Lincoln and Buick are gone, and now they are down to Ford, Chevy, and GMC. Eleven brands 20 years ago, down to 3 today. Two thoughts: 1) Forcing dealerships to upgrade to EV--and if they don't, pulling their franchise--in rural areas is a mistake. Rural areas will always lag because they don't have widespread EV infrastructure yet. It will get there, but it will take more time. I can see thinning some of the less performing dealerships, but in my state they literally pulled every Buick franchise that is not in a metro area. 2) Driving 1-2 hours to service your Buick or Lincoln is really going to limit any sort of sales growth outside of metropolitan areas, at least in the Midwest. You still see lots of new Buicks and Lincolns because they have (well, had) a dealership presence in these rural markets, unlike German, Japanese, and Korean brands. This just further erodes the brand loyalty in those areas and will make it more difficult for struggling brands like Lincoln and Buick to survive in the US market. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmc523 Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 Free article with some info: Nearly half of Buick dealers choose buyout over investing to sell EVs - Autoblog A certain (former) member will be devastated that so many dealers didn't opt into Evs.... 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrisgb Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 Is it mainly stand-alone stores (can't be very many)? Most are dualed with GMC and/or Cadillac; do they have to spend money on each franchise to upgrade, or is it a one size fits all? Six or eight level 2 chargers and training should be good to cover all of your GM nameplates. I think it's too early for a dealer to have to declare in or out. You spend a quarter to half a million on being e-certified, then don't get any product for 2-4 years? There's probably some that finally got the 2012 store makeover paid off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mustang84isu Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 It is happening to combined stores as well. My hometown's dealership was a Chevy, Buick, and GMC store, and four other Chevy, Buick, GMC stores within a 50 mile radius also are now just Chevy GMC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadManMoon Posted December 22, 2023 Share Posted December 22, 2023 On 12/20/2023 at 12:21 PM, rmc523 said: Free article with some info: Nearly half of Buick dealers choose buyout over investing to sell EVs - Autoblog A certain (former) member will be devastated that so many dealers didn't opt into Evs.... Yes sir! A sad move for not realizing the inevitability of the rEVolution! Sigh. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvrsvt Posted December 23, 2023 Share Posted December 23, 2023 The US Automakers have too many dealerships anyways....so I'm thinking they are glad this is happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atomcat68 Posted December 24, 2023 Share Posted December 24, 2023 On 12/22/2023 at 7:29 PM, silvrsvt said: The US Automakers have too many dealerships anyways....so I'm thinking they are glad this is happening. On the flip side, the surviving dealerships will be the "big conglomerate dealers" (the guys that own dozens of dealerships spanning multiple brands), and with less competition, the mark up games and shady crap will continue to get worse. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvrsvt Posted December 25, 2023 Share Posted December 25, 2023 On 12/24/2023 at 11:52 AM, atomcat68 said: On the flip side, the surviving dealerships will be the "big conglomerate dealers" (the guys that own dozens of dealerships spanning multiple brands), and with less competition, the mark up games and shady crap will continue to get worse. That is true also Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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