No cars, not just Chrysler

Not far from me there was a large Oldsmobile - Pontiac - GMC dealer.
Now it's trying to survive with only GMC. Can't get a Buick or
Chevrolet dealership and GM won't let them take on a not-GM brand.

 

I don't know how the legal/business relationship works, but near here we
have "XYZ Oldsmobile - GMC," "XYZ Nissan," "XYZ Dodge" and "XYZ Hyundai"
all in a row with no fences between -- obviously all part of the same
family of companies -- so there must be a way of getting dealerships for
brands in addition to GM.

(This particular group of businesses lost its Dodge dealership too, in
addition to losing Pontiac.)

Perce

 

You are correct. The car store near me doesn't have the area to do
this. They wanted to get one or two of the newer foreign makes. They
could have, BUT, they could not be housed in the same building of lot
with the GMCs. I guess the fence separating them legally makes them
separate lots. I'm wondering if they would need separate buildings for
service/repair.

 

What do you consider as a newer foreign make?

DAS

To reply directly replace 'nospam' with 'schmetterling'
--
[...]

You are correct. The car store near me doesn't have the area to do
this. They wanted to get one or two of the newer foreign makes. They
[...]

 

In our area a gentleman who started as a GM salesman in his youth,
eventually owned several GM dealerships.
A number of years ago he got out of his GM dealerships, one by one.
He changed his last GM dealership to Suzuki a few years ago.
So he saw the light and chucked GM in time.

He now has 7 car dealerships, only a Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge dealership left
of the big-3.

 

Ones that haven't been sold in the states as long as Honda, Nissan,
Subaru and Toyota.

 

Remember when they actually HAD Peugot, Renault, Alfa and Fiat dealers? I
had a teacher friend who had a Peugot 405 that needed a new tire, wheel size
was 14.5"! She went to a junkyard and got four 15" wheels in order to buy
cheaper tires! I remember the seats were always comfortable in French cars
however

 

The nearest experience I had with Peugeot was when I was in the Navy.
Someone I was stationed with (in the states) bought one of the diesel
wagons that everyone was excited about. That was in the '72-'74
time-frame. My recollection is that his individually and pretty much
everyone's in general experience was a disaster (engine or engine
controls problems?) - I know his was constantly in and out of the dealer
with never any fix for whatever the problem(s) was (were). IIRC, it was
so bad that Peugeot ended up buying back all of them in the U.S. That
had to be quite a marketing and money hit for the company in the U.S.

 

remember these ugly ass things?


http://www.diseno-art.com/images/Fiat_X1-9.jpg



glad they have improved their line up.

 

My brother had one of those for a short time, always a problem, stayed
parked more than it ran!

 

But not bad-looking, especially when compared with some American cars... ;-)

Pete E Kruzer has still not suggested any brands or models falling under
"newer foreign makes". I do not live in the US so don't have such details.

DAS

To reply directly replace 'nospam' with 'schmetterling'
--

 

Hyundai, Isuzu, Kia

 

In CDA we've had Hyundai for many years, except when they left for a
while after their crappy Pony failure.
Kia is just another Hyundai isn't it?
Isuzu has also been around for years, in a "small way".

Looking behind the name I'd say the new VW Golf and Jetta diesels are
very new in design. Even have a 6 spd double clutch auto to go with
their modern diesel which I prefer to a hybrid.
IMO very strange the station wagon version is called a Golf rather than
Jetta which it is closest to in size.
The dealer told me all Golf hatch backs now come from Germany. That
should avoid the assembly problems we have experienced with Mexican VWs.