[olddog]

GM just shut down a local dealership by force. Rumor has it threats were made by the owner of the dealership and law enforcement was called.

Rumor I heard was that GM's finance arm had floated all the loans for not only the cars on the lot, but the dealership's property, buildings, etc. I will add this dealership has existed on this spot over 30 years and at least another 20 years at its previous location. He sure does have a nice house, huge boat, and a race team for his son, but couldn't manage to pay the place off in 30 years. I can tell you the owner of that dealership had a reputation for arrogance, and they never ever found the cause and fixed a single thing I ever took to them. I am not sad for this one to go. I hope they cut the poor performing dealers and keep the good ones.

Bottom line is that dealerships cost the company money. I'm no expert, so I can only speculate on how it is all tied together. However if you are supplying the financing there has to be costs. It would also require a larger volume of cars in the pipeline to float twice as many dealers as you need. The working capital tied up nation wide has to be huge.