Posted on 05/19/2009 10:29:47 AM PDT by American Dream 246
My name is George C. Joseph. I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida. My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business.
We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month. All depend on our business for part of their livelihood. We are financially strong with great respect in the market place and community. We have strong local presence and stability.
I work every day the store is open, nine to ten hours a day. I know most of our customers and all our employees. Sunshine Dodge is my life.
On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them. My new vehicle inventory consists of 125 vehicles with a financed balance of 3 million dollars. This inventory becomes impossible to sell with no factory incentives beyond June 9, 2009. Without the Dodge franchise we can no longer sell a new Dodge as "new," nor will we be able to do any warranty service work. Additionally, my Dodge parts inventory, (approximately $300,000.) is virtually worthless without the ability to perform warranty service. There is no offer from Chrysler to buy back the vehicles or parts inventory.
Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler's insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank.
HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?
THIS IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS NOT A GOVERNMENT ENTITY
This is beyond imagination! My business is being stolen from me through NO FAULT OF OUR OWN. We did NOTHING wrong.
This atrocity will most likely force my family into bankruptcy. This will also cause our 50+ employees to be unemployed. How will they provide for their families? This is a total economic disaster.
HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?
I beseech your help, and look forward to your reply. Thank you.
Sincerely,
George C. Joseph President & Owner Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu
I am series. Chysler has been marketing crappy cars for years. Chrysler has been negotiating crappy contracts with the Unions for years. Chrysler did not have to take the 0bama bailout and it should have told 0bama and the Unions to shove-it. Then it should have filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, where it could have shed debt and contractual obligations to the Unions and underperforming franchise owners, without the 0bama shake-down gang threatening to knee-cap Chrysler if it does not submit.
You’re missing the point..the only way this could have been done was by forcing Chrysler into bankruptcy..which allows them to petition the judge to abrogate the franchise agreement. However, the unions, with NO equity stake, got sweethe art deals out of it..it’s as though the bankruptcy laws and courts were turned upside down..
How many of these dealers donated to Republicans?
Ya think Waggoner getting the axe was an accident?
Do you see how he gave to Republican Candidates?
I did a search the other day, and found a dealer in my area who is not closing had given $$ to Friends of Rahm Emanuel.
Today, I looked for it again on google, and can’t find it.
I wish I had saved it to my computer, but I didn’t. Somebody hand me the tinfoil.
Franchises don't cost Dodge money, they make money.
True and false.
There are both infrastructure and manufacturing costs associated with each dealership. The dealership franchise system is designed to make profit for the manufacturers on margin - that does not mean it costs nothing, it means that it makes more than it costs. They are now looking for efficiency - meaning they think they can make a greater profit margin by streamlining their dealership network.
Economic fact of the day - it is possible in many business situations to post a lower gross and a higher net.
Examples:
A dealership must carry a certain number of new vehicles - that means production rates must be aligned to the minimum stock required.
At the end of each model year a certain number of cars/trucks at each dealership are converted to used because they could not be sold.
Less dealerships means less used conversions.
This means less loss for what they believe will be similar sales.
This translates to profit - net.
A dealership must also stock a certain number of ready parts - some of which are never used - unusable stock is an issue in any retail business.
Less dealerships means less ready stock required = less dead stock = same service for less overhead.
As far as the 'purchase' details of the franchise originally and the statement that it will be 'given away' - what I read this to be, based on my understanding of the business, is that he paid a franchise fee, and that someone else already in possession of a franchise will be expanded to cover his geographic region. I sincerely doubt that Chrysler is commissioning a new franchise free of charge to someone not already in the dealership network. (If I am wrong on that one then I will be happy to issue a public, massive, and groveling mea culpa on this particular point. If they are in fact 'giving away' a franchise by starting a brand new one with someone not already selling Chrysler products that would indeed be the height of stupidity.)
Random thought: I'm also guessing he'd be doing a lot less complaining if the other guy were the one on the list and he were the one being given expanded territorial coverage.
Again, I go back to this:
Most of us here were on the 'let Chrysler fail' train before the bailout.
If you never said 'let them fail', then I apologize for assuming.
Had Chrysler been forced into a standard bankruptcy due to their own managerial incompetence and poor negotiating skills with the UAW - where would these dealer be?
It is my contention that had that happened as it should have that there would be a lot more, not less, stories like this.
He has 125 new cars in inventory. I assume that Chryler Financial provided the floor plan to buy them. So, in essence, Obama Motors now owns the cars. So, let's deliver them to him, personally. Assuming he can get 125 sets of fdealer plates..let the 50 employees, and 75 Florida Freepers.. form a CONVOY and drive the cars up, perhaps with a Rolling Thunder escort..and park them right in front of the WH...and don't forget tofill them with tea bags.....indeed, make stops at cities along the way for support and more tea bags..
That will sure get a lot of publicity..anyone remember the Ryder truck with the ballots in 2000?
Maybe someone can get this idea to the owner...
I doubt that Chrysler is actually giving the franchise to another person. More likely, Chrysler is eliminating under performing franchises, which has the effect of expanding the sales and service areas of the remaining franchise owners.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25362840/race/president
Brevard County went for McCain by nearly 10 points. You can look at those employees and tell they probably are Republicans. If he had been black, bet you anything you want to bet, he would not have gotten that pink slip.
Next round of tea parties at former successful car dealerships closed by Obama.
We need to find out if they are catering to minority and dealers in counties that voted overwhelmingly for the Kenyan Marxist. I can assure you this dealer did not.
it has to do with the conservatives’ natural respect for culture, tradition, and values. The left disdains this reverence and equates this with the nationalism of the Nazis.
Actually, it has more to do with the communists in the Soviet Union calling the other leftists (fascists) who didn't agree with their specific methods "rightists."
Hitler didn't like culture, tradition and values - at least, not in the sense you would imagine. The Nazi youth were fed propaganda and taken from their families at young ages (can you say kindergarten?). They were told to trust the state, not their parents. They spied on their parents and reported on them.
Many on the left know exactly what they are doing is fascism, and they know exactly what they are doing when they call conservatives fascist. The sheep just plod along with them.
Looks like Ford got a jump on them, eh?
On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them.
Rush touched on it today...
How many of these dealers donated to Republicans?
Ya think Waggoner getting the axe was an accident?
Do you see how he gave to Republican Candidates?
As I and other people have frequently pointed out, maintaining franchisees is not without expense. I’m honestly baffled that people think that maintaining a franchise network is a no cost proposition.
Just as a double whammy, Isuzu discontinued the sale of passenger cars in the United States earlier this year. Unless he's selling commercial trucks, he doesn't sell Isuzu, either.
Many dealerships are unionized. I wonder what % of the ones that got axed are union shops?
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