Dumped GM, Chrysler dealers endure grieving process

DETROIT -- Nearly 2,000 car dealers spent the weekend asking themselves: What now?

Many dealers plan to fight by filing appeals with the manufacturers or mounting legal battles in court. Others say they'll switch to selling only used cars and continue doing repair work for their customers.

They could make more money selling and servicing used cars but would provide fewer jobs. And before dealers can do anything, they have to work through grief, anger and shock.

"It's sort of like finding out your girlfriend's been cheating on you; my heart is broken," said Chuck Clancy, a Chevrolet dealer in Cartersville, Ga., who got the bad news from GM on Friday. "I wasn't expecting this at all."

Allan Rose, who owns Rose PontiacBuick GMC in Gloversville, N.Y., said he didn't know how to feel after receiving GM's notice that his franchise won't be renewed.

"It's been extremely stressful," he said. "I'm an unflappable individual. I've been through a lot of very, very difficult times; through an oil crisis, a bank foreclosure, losing my building, been threatened to lose my franchise twice, and I'm still here.

"But this is the worst," he says. "By far, the worst." Rose says he'll file an appeal with GM.

GM has 5,969 stores now and says it will cut that to approximately 3,600 by the end of 2010.

Legally, it's hard for an automaker that's not in bankruptcy to break its franchise agreements with dealers.

The automaker says the 1,100 dealers closing are the company's worst performers. Mark LaNeve, vice president of sales, service and marketing for GM, says the group made up just 7% of GM's sales last year. The automaker scores dealerships not just on sales volume, but also according to customer service satisfaction rates and how much working capital they have available.

Some on the list sell just 35 vehicles a year, he said.