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
Please excuse the typo
... being done as ...
I heard one commentator speculate that it has to do with dealerships on property owned by the auto company.
I was waiting to see if someone posed that question.
This is FreeRepublic. Please support your claims with evidence.
Outstanding. Explained very clearly.
I have been here long enough. My word is good enough. I seen it on FOX so shove it.
seperate lawsuit.
Whoa, ease up there cowboy... I’m not going to buy a bad car just to support American industry. My truck is a daily driver, unlike the “long list of American classic cars” that you have yet to purchase. And my truck was “Made in the USA” by American labor in an American plant—just not the bloated labor force of the UAW.
What a company did 60+ years ago is irrelevant—or do you want companies to pay reparations for supporting slavery 160+ years ago too? A true conservative wants the market to decide which products survive—and I suggest that Chrysler makes a worse overall product than many of its competitors.
I drove a Grand Wagoneer many years ago and absolutely loved it until the cost of maintaining it went through the roof. It was probably the same vintage as your Cherokee...so I know they DID make a good product once...just not now (or recently). I also owned a Dodge Ram truck that I loved until the transmission went out and Dodge wouldn’t replace it, even though it was the same problem they recalled bunches of trucks for. Caveat emptor.
It may be “irrelevant” to you, but not to those of us who have served our country in battle. Now run along and go peddle your Bravo Sierra to someone is doesn't know their American history.
Semper Fi,
Kelly
As to your response, excuse me if "I seen it!" does not quite fill in all of the blanks surrounding this rather complex issue and your rather improbable claim.
But since you have decided to be an ass in public allow me to retort.
"I seen it on FOX so shove it."
Were you watching the news while doing your English homework? That might explain why you cannot construct a proper sentence. I know what Ebonics is, but I'm not sure what to call your particular brand of illiteracy.
As to your "word", Ronald Reagan would not be impressed. He said "trust but verify".
I trusted you and asked for verification.
You provided none whatsoever.
Instead you responded with semi-literate indignation and placed the burden of proving YOUR assertions onto me. I shan't make the mistake of trusting you again.
“V” e r y g o o d!
Something’s not right. There must be more to the story.
Dealerships are being closed, not given away to perfect strangers.
This even may not be related to Obamatics.
To my knowledge what Toyota did during WWII was sell trucks to their government for use in the war...I don’t know that they held any prisoners of war or did anything that would be construed as illegal or immoral.
I was in the military 20 years ago—and I occasionally drove a government issue Dodge Ram 50 truck then. It was actually a rebadged Mitsubishi. Your beloved Jeep company didn’t have trouble doing business with them in the same era your Cherokee comes from.
While I honor your service, I’m done with you—PLONK.
It must be nice to be as ignorant of Japanese war history as you are since it doesn't require you to make a moral and/or patriotic decision or maybe you just don't care ...but don't waste my time posting remarks on a subject that you rightfully admitted "to my knowledge"... is lacking.
Class Dismissed
There is better ways to ask where it came from than the way you did. As I said I have been here quite a long time. Longer than you. No need to get a freepertude on me when I never said one word to you. And since it seems your not going to be respectful to me I am not going be respectful to you. So take your attitude and shove it!
Brevard county is pretty conservative - went for McCain 54% to 44% ... perhaps some employees did but odds are that better than half didn’t vote for the Obamateur.
So your length of time here makes you immune to the burden of proof? It allows you to spew unsubstantiated claims and then tell people who point this out to “shove it”?
The disrespect stared, and now continues, with you buddy boy. In two posts to me now you have instructed me to “shove it”. One can only assume what “it” is and what orifice I am supposed to violently insert it into.
So we have established that you make dubious comments without evidence, that you have a tenuous grasp on the English language, that you blame your deficiencies on others, and that you are fixated with shoving objects up undefined orifices.
Oh, and that you have been here a long time, which I guess is supposed to make you proof against accountability and criticism.
Look fool I searched FOX and they are not even listing interviews they gave with 2 brothers that owned Chrysler dealerships. I think the dealership they were talking about was mentioned on one of Cavuto’s shows or on one of Shep’s. I tried to find it even though now I don’t think you were worth the effort. And sorry I wasn’t DVRing it, I didn’t know there would be a freeper here as pathetic as you wanting demanding it. But your the one that started this ____. All you had to do is polity ask where I heard it. But you didn’t. Once again I well state that I have been here a long time. I would never say anything I thought to be untrue. I heard what I heard on FOX. And I don’t care what losers like you that just attack out of no where for no reason think.
Have a nice life.
“During World War II, Toyota manufactured mostly trucks for the Japanese war effort. As resources dwindled, they produced very simple vehicles-—even to the extreme of placing only a single headlight on the hood.” http://www.ehow.com/about_4613285_what-stock-symbol-toyota.html
Like much of what you have written, your “class” is long on opinion and short on facts...how about you not waste MY time responding, especially since your response was an ad hominem (look it up) attack. Thank you for disparaging my patriotism -you pompous ass. If I weren’t patriotic it wouldn’t matter to me, BUT I served my country too...and I don’t remember any classes on Japanese war history there—was too busy taking classes in physics and nuclear chemistry. Semper Fi? At least you can lift heavy things.
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