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Lewis' days as GM dealer numbered
Published 6/13/2009 in Local News : Business
By EMILY BEHLMANN
Lewis Motors in Garden City will continue selling Nissans, but the dealership won't be selling General Motors models Chevrolet or Cadillac for much longer, dealership owner Jim Lewis said.
The dealership is one of 1,323 around the country that GM plans to shut down. GM filed for Chapter 11 protection on June 1, and the company hopes to emerge from bankruptcy as a new company in 60 to 90 days.
Lewis said his Garden City dealership has come to an agreement with GM to continue selling Chevrolets and Cadillacs at least through the end of 2009, and possibly as late as October 2010. The decision of when exactly to stop selling will be made at a local level, he said. He said he hopes to sell out of his inventory of about 70 Chevrolets and Cadillacs.
Warranty work will continue on GM vehicles until Lewis Motors stops selling them, and the business will continue to do service on all makes and models of vehicles as it does now, Lewis said.
Meanwhile, the dealership will remain a Nissan dealer, and Lewis said he's looking for at least one more franchise to bring to Garden City.
He said the fact that his dealership sells Nissans stood in the way of making an agreement with GM to keep its Chevrolets or Cadillacs.
One of GM's new rules for its remaining dealerships is that the automaker's vehicles can't be sold on the same site as those of another manufacturer.
News that Lewis Motors would be losing its GM affiliation came as a disappointment, Lewis said. He said he's been frustrated to hear various changes in terms from GM in the past couple weeks, and finally, he decided to move on.
"I was done," he said. "I'm just gonna be a great Nissan dealer. We don't know if GM is going to be around very long."
He said that at least as long as Lewis Motors can continue to sell GM vehicles, the change will have no effect on the dealership's personnel. After the company loses its GM vehicles, Lewis said he hopes to keep his current staff busy with Nissans and a new Garden City franchise, or at least allow them to transfer to his Dodge City or Hays dealerships.
Lewis said he thinks GM's goal is to have just one GM dealership in a community the size of Garden City, and until this point, there had been two, Lewis and Western Motor.
Currently, though, only Lewis has been selling Chevrolets.
"We're hoping for the community's sake that there will be a Chevrolet dealer in Garden City," Lewis said.
GM has stated that the company judged dealerships based on their sales, customer service index, capitalization and profitability. Sales accounted for 50 percent of the score, and customer service was worth 30 percent. Dealers scoring less than 70 received a wind-down agreement.
Troy Nanninga, general manager for Garden City's other GM dealer, Western Motor, wouldn't comment on Friday on how GM's bankruptcy could affect his dealership. Western Motor also sells GM's Buicks, GMCs and Pontiacs. It also is a Honda dealership.
Western Motor already has been hit with the loss of its Chrysler affiliation, according to a filing last month with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. The list included 789 Chrysler dealerships. Western Motor had been selling Chrysler's Jeep.
Lewis said his Lewis Chrysler Dodge Jeep dealership in Hays weathered the Chrysler cuts. His other dealerships, Lewis Toyota in Dodge City and Lewis Ford Lincoln Mercury Toyota in Hays, also will continue operating as usual.
Garden City's Burtis Motor, meanwhile, also will retain its Chryslers, according to owner Jack Kirchoff. Burtis Motor also sells Ford, Lincoln and Mercury, along with Dodge and Chrysler.
What do you think of GM's decision to eliminate dealerships? Talk about it at SWKTalk.com.
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