I know I'm a new member; and I don't normally do stuff like this at all. but please help. This is more than a well known dealer that has been open over 70 years; this is us sending a message to our goverment. we chave become famous in the last two weeks. Out of the 789 Chrysler dealers told to close; we are the only one fighting this! If you have received this as a chain letter, I sincerely apologize for contacting you in this fashion but I think you need to know this information before it is too late. If you don’t want to help, simply delete this message.
I hold one of the approximately 100K jobs that is set to be lost in the automotive dealership franchise closures dictated by the US Government.
YES SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE FOR THE ECONOMY
The fallacy with closing automotive franchise dealerships is that they make money for the manufacturer. “How is this you ask?” As an automotive franchise dealership we pay for all product up front. That is to say we purchase the vehicles from the manufacturer. We purchase parts from the manufacturer. We purchase specialty tools from the manufacturer. We maintain our storefront as dictated by the manufacturer. We update our service departments as dictated by the manufacturer on a regular basis. If we need additional bay lifts, that money comes out of our pocket. If we need additional training, we pay for it. Advertise? We pay for it.
SO WHY ARE YOU PAID SO MUCH?
We only wish we could compensate our employees as much as you’ve seen for factory workers. We are not part of the ‘factory’. We are not part of the corporate manufacturer office. Most, if not all, of us are non-union. We do pay our employees a living wage. Most of our employees deserve more but as the economy slumped so did all our employees wages and benefits. We do not make the $70,000 figure you have seen flying around.
IF YOU MAKE MONEY FOR THE MANUFACTURER WHY ARE THEY CLOSING YOUR STORE?
It is simple. The manufacturer stands to make more money BY CHARGING YOU MORE. “What?” Yes the intention of closing dealerships is to artificially raise the price of vehicles due to less competition. Once stores have closed who is to say that the franchise buy in won’t be significantly higher than it ever was in the past? That is likely. This will also mean higher costs past down to you.
WHO IS TO SAY THAT IN SIX TO EIGHTEEN MONTHS TIME THERE WON’T BE A CALL FOR NEW FRANCHISES AFTER THE CURRENT ONES HAVE BEEN CLOSED?
Yes this will likely happen but once you shut down a dealership franchise it is gone for good. The owners of that store will be bankrupt and have no startup capitol to answer this call. A well running machine will be lost along with all of its benefits and contributions to the local economy. It is a sad day in America to see first second and third generational family businesses forced out of business into bankruptcy when they did nothing wrong and did everything that was asked of them by the manufacturer except close.
I KEEP HEARING CONFLICTING INFORMATION
We have too. One paper had the dealer franchise closing story at the top of the page and Chrysler looking for new dealers story at the bottom of the page.
DOESN’T THE MARKET DICTATE WHO WILL CLOSE AND WHO WILL STAY OPEN?
Not this time. It is our government and the bankruptcy court.
FORCING FAMILY OWNED BUSINESS TO CLOSE
The public is being told that closing dealerships is necessary for manufacturer bankruptcy. Although horrible to think about, this would make some sense only if all dealerships were to close. If all stores closed, then we could clearly see store closures were market influenced. But all independent franchise dealerships have not been given the close notice.
In fact, the manufacturer has gone as far to ask that the stores they put on the list to continue to hold onto product so they can pick and choose at their leisure. We have been asked by the manufacturer to not dump everything to auction so we may satisfy a portion of our dept to our lenders. This makes sense for a brief second until you remember that this product has been purchased by us and our bank. It is not owned by the manufacturer. We have a responsibility to our bank to pay this money back. If we can’t we will be bankrupt. We can’t do this in the short amount of time given.
WHY ARE YOU COMPLAINING? YOU CAN JUST GET ANOTHER MANUFACTURER RIGHT?
It is not that easy. We have current product that must be sold. Our current manufacturer WILL NOT BUY ANY product back. Without a franchise agreement in place we are unable to sell this product. In other words we’re left holding the bag. This whole bankruptcy and partial dealer shutdown appears to have modified elements of a Ponzi scheme of macro-economic proportions.
SO YOU WANT YOUR OWN BAILOUT?!
NO! We absolutely do not want a bailout for automotive dealership franchises. We want the opportunity to sell product. Period.
SO ISN’T THIS MANUFACTURER BANKRUPTCY JUST A SOPHISTICATED METHOD TO GET AROUND FRANCHISE LAWS?
Yes. It appears to be orchestrated this way.
YOU HAVE CONVINCED ME. WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?
Please write to your governmental representatives. Please write to Chrysler. Make a stand. Not just for us; but for the US.
Contact List:
http://www.timberlinedealerships.com/wp ... ntacts.pdf
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** of mouth to those who don’t
** know and to those who want to
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Sincerely,
The Hard Working Employees at Timberline Chrysler Jeep Dodge Sprinter in Portland, OR
link-backs:
http://www.timberlinedealerships.com/save-our-store/
http://www.youtube.com/timberlinedodge