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GM dealership cuts: Ellingson Motors is not affected
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
Chuck Ellingson and his employees breathed a collective sigh of relief on May 15 when the day came and went and there was no letter from General Motors. May 15 was “D Day” for about 1,100 GM dealers across the United States that received notification through the mail that their dealerships would be dropped within the next year.
“Around 3 p.m. when I got a call from a reporter from La Crosse asking if we received a letter, I wondered if maybe one of my employees was hiding some of the mail from me,” Ellingson said with a laugh last week. “There were a lot of people in the area wondering if we would receive a letter or not.”
When they read an article in The La Crosse Tribune that the Caledonia dealership was not among the 1,100 dealers, which constitutes about 20 percent of GM’s outlets in the U.S., they let Ellingson know they were relieved too.
“I don’t know if they read about it on the Internet, or in the paper, but I had a number of people come up to me during the Syttende Mai parade in Spring Grove congratulating me that we didn’t receive a letter. It’s good to know that folks want to see us remain in business.”
Ellingson said he hadn’t heard of any dealers in Southeast Minnesota or Northeast Iowa who had received letters. GM has not issued a list of the 1,100-some dealerships they plan to drop in October, 2010.
“At least GM is giving the dealerships some time to prepare for this,” Ellingson noted. “Because Chrysler filed bankruptcy, they really didn’t have to give their dealerships any time to prepare. They will be closing dealerships as of June 9 of this year.
“I’ve heard that Congressmen and Senators have been asking Chrysler to give their dealers more time,” Ellingson continued. “I know some of the GM dealers that did receive letters are appealing GM’s decision. They have until June 30 of this year to appeal GM’s decision. Some of those appeals will probably end up in court. So this could take some time.”
Ellingson said if GM does file for bankruptcy, it could make it tougher for the dealers to win their cases.
“Things are up in the air right now. We’re just going about our business. There’s not a lot we can do about it. But this certainly is a challenging time to be in the car business.”
For the dealerships that received the letters, it’s not the end of the world either. As Ellingson said, they can still sell used cars, take on a new line, and/or continue with their service work.
“If they have a good service department, that goes a long ways,” he said. “It sounds as if many of the dealerships that received letters are located in larger metro areas where GM felt they were too saturated. I don’t think there have been a lot of established dealerships in the rural areas affected by this,” Ellingson concluded.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
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they are an excellant dealer