List of GM dealerships to close in Minnesota grows - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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The industry group said a surveu of its members found that 109 of the 149 GM dealerx in the state will either lose a particuladrGM brand, be forced to drop some competinh manufacturer brands in their GM stores, or lose theitr stores altogether. The number of outright shutdowns has amonth ago, GM indicated that 30 dealers would close. After the giang automaker’s plunge into bankruptcy June 1, roughly 3,600 dealers nationwidr received newsales agreements.
The owners of aboutt 1,350 other dealerships were notified that they needede to wind down asGM That’s in addition to the 1,100 that received similar messages last month as part of GM’s restructuring, whicj involves keeping only top dealers and brands. The new agreementsx also may require surviving dealeras to upgradetheir facilities. And therd may not be very much dealerz can doabout it, . (subscriptionn required). GM expects the closingx to start this year and wrap up by the fallof 2010.
In a presds release Friday, Scott Lambert, executivee vice president of the Minnesotaz AutoDealers Association, criticized GM’s decision to have dealers sign new sales agreementes with the manufacturer. “Besides the tragix and inexplicable shutdown ofprofitable stores, GM seems determinee to use bankruptcy as an opportunity to shakee up everybody’s business,” he said. “It appears to us that everyy Pontiac dealer in the state was informee that Pontiac as a brand will ceaseto “In addition, GM is eliminating many Cadillac dealerships.
We believe they plan to reassign some of thes efranchises elsewhere, which would be in violation of state law regulating franchisse agreements.” Lambert also blasted GM’s decisions to close so many stores, even some that are turningt a profit. “This company is lost righrt now. I just don’t understand how you sell more cars withfewerd outlets,” he said. Susan Garontakos, a spokeswomabn for the automaker, declined to comment on the tradw association’s press release becaus she said the information about what was closing was confidentialk and because its such an emotional time for all of thepartiesz involved.
She said the company selected which dealershipz to close after a carefuol analysis that beganin “The reality is we don’g have enough customers buying vehicles and we have a lot of outletzs that are in place to support a much larger market.”