General Motors has begun notifying over 1000 dealerships that their franchise agreements will not be renewed.
However GM has said that it will not make the complete lists of dealership to be closed public. The company has however said that it will inform its dealers via phone and/or letter.
The Federal Express letters started arriving at the end of last week and a British Newspaper (The Independent) tracked down a copy of one of these letters sent to a GM dealer in Central Nebraska.
Below are the important excerpts of the letter from GM:
"Based on our review and current and foreseeable market conditions
and your dealership’s historical performance, we do not see that GM can
have a productive business relationship with (name of dealer) over
the long term. Generally speaking, we would not expect our contractual
relationship to continue past October 2010…..
….we are prepared to give you until the end of the month to submit any information you would like to us….
….The restructuring plan also includes addressing GM’s dealer
network in order to maintain GM’s long-term viability. Part of that
restructuring is a planned reduction in the number of GM dealerships"
The letter does appear to leave the door cracked for possible "further information" mitigation but the dealer who received this letter told the British Newspaper, "he does intend to submit a rebuttal to GM’s letter announcing its
intention not to continue its franchise agreement beyond October 2010.
“I want to continue with them” Stanczyk said.
He noted that he has always been in good standing with GM.
