GM denies strong-arming dealers to speak out against House bill seeking to overturn dealership closures
07/14/2009, 2:12 PM
By Drew Johnson
Several dealer groups and one U.S. Senator have accused General Motors of coercing dealers into signing a letter that opposes a bill that would overturn the automaker’s decision to close about 2,400 stores, but the Detroit automaker says in no way did it strong-arm retailers into sign the document.
GM openly admits it called several dealers to inform them of the bill, but says dealers were never forced to sign any documents opposing the bill. “The calls informed dealers of a Web site where they could log their concerns about the legislation if they wanted to do so,” GM spokesman Peter Ternes told Automotive News. “There was no strong-arming.”
However, a number of dealerships have complained to dealer associations about GM’s forceful tactics, accusing GM’s management of “heavy-handed pressure tactics and veiled threats”. Some dealers even reported being told that non-compliant stores would be put on a list by GM.
Although the man in charge of the dealer calls, Mark LaNeve, was not available for comment, Ternes presented an email from GM’s sales chief, dated July 7th. “Please make sure the field only asks the dealer to look at it and sign if he agrees. Please don’t pressure the dealers. That is not the intent,” LaNeve’s email said.
Although about 1,500 dealers have signed a petition against the bill, we suspect we haven’t heard the last on the subject as the legislation is gaining momentum on Capitol Hill.



07/14, 2:24 PM
posted by:
junior is awesome
Wow, when will all of this madness end.
07/14, 2:34 PM
posted by:
carstuff
Pissed off dealers.
07/14, 2:39 PM
posted by:
idrinorbarsaku
Thats gm for you! They will never do anything good enough to get my money!
07/14, 2:54 PM
posted by:
Lariat Luxury Locomotive Liner No.3
Subtle coercion? You bet. A lot of major American corporations play the game this way. Another one is asking American employees to sign against are H1B1 visas changes—Americans are supposed to sign to fight against the new laws seeking to enforce and limit these visas while it is Americans who are being the ones replaced at their jobs by those with H1B1 visas! (Hewlett-Packard is one of subtle coercion employers regarding H1B1 visas).
07/14, 3:04 PM
posted by:
Uncle Butch
Ford would never do any of dat kinda stuff, I am dissappointed in dat der GM
07/14, 3:33 PM
posted by:
blue1996
thats funny i am an employee at a dealership that they want to close even though we have been profitable for the last 17 years but they didnt call me to tell me to sign for the bill not to close the dealerships screw gm and all the dedication i have given these guys for the last thirty years of my life i think its time to sell my suburban and my corvette and buy an import and i just found out that because we are not going to be a chevrolet dealer that gmac now wants to pull are floor plan and we have never been late on anything thay really suck so much for the american dream
07/14, 3:35 PM
posted by:
skyaficionado
Wake up, if any corporate entity can get away with it, they’ll do the same sort of thing. If any kind of advantage can be gotten with a little bit of pressure on the right people, they’ll take advantage of it. If they don’t, some other company will. What do you think lobbyists are?
07/14, 3:35 PM
posted by:
NoCones
Well they tricked people into buying their awful cars for a good number of years, seems like more of the same connivery me. If they aren’t any good at producing/marketing cars, gotta be good at something, right?
And LLLL3, ya, big corps do do this sort of thing. And they get away with it because they are talented at it. Yet again another thing GM fails horribly at.
07/14, 4:37 PM
posted by:
elmdodge
being a chrysler dealer for 50 years it was always veiled threats, only now they have auto task force
endorcement., they never really had any teeth before just a bunch o factory never sold a car in their life corporate brownnosers.
07/14, 9:07 PM
posted by:
DrFill
Just when I was starting to respect them…….
DrFill
07/14, 9:08 PM
posted by:
DrFill
GM: “We didn’t strong-arm anyone!”
Wink-wink
DrFill
07/14, 9:33 PM
posted by:
carstuff
30 dealers have complained out of about 7500. Yep, big story here.
07/14, 10:31 PM
posted by:
chevydealer09
As a chevy dealer that is being terminated(??? small town, never lost money, 5th in my state in CSI, 1st in my state in required Chevy training standards), the newest one is I also received a phone call from GMAC today…..informing me that although GM has given me til October 2010 to wind down my business, THEY (GMAC)want me to wind down much sooner..they will be shutting down my floorplan….even though my audits have been perfect, and my new inventory is only 30 units, and my used inventory is nothing over 90 days old. As a bank, They couldn’t get a dealer that is in better shape inventory wise!…They are giving me until the end of 09 to move the rest of my new car inventory, or they are going to demand full payment on all of my inventory, which I have also been forced to personally guarantee……keep in mind that I am still doing 15k of warranty work a month for my customers, have almost 100k in parts they have made me purchase and won’t take back and have been profitable in my used car department, which they also floorplan. Collusion, no way! Wink wink! Congress, are you reading? This is absolutely insane, immoral, and unethical, and the absolute height of hypocracy! If GM had any type of morality, they would at least make sure that their terminated dealers could have until the promised date of October 2010 to sell their remaining parts and vehicle inventories, as well as service loyal customers who purchased cars with factory warranties, without having to travel up to an hour to get work performed. As terminated dealers we can’t order any other new car inventory, we have personal guarantees protecting GMAC, and have cash equity in every preowned car that GMAC floorplans for dealers. Enough is enough!
07/14, 11:48 PM
posted by:
DrFill
Sounds like you’ve got a problem!
Sounds like you are good, low-volume, Chevy dealer
That, and a dollar should get you a bag of chips
Joining a losing team, to become a dealer, sounds like a bad career move.
If you didn’t know that a few years ago, here’s your wake-up call
GM is stumbling in the right direction (by the Gubmint’s charity, no less)
They have the products to make it to the light at the end of the tunnel
Raw talent GM has, and some sense of urgency begat these products, and new visions of efficiency
But if any company can enter a tunnel on one side, exit the way it came in, and then claim a moral victory, GM can.
DrFill
07/15, 9:29 AM
posted by:
zfenderguy
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire
07/15, 6:04 PM
posted by:
carstuff
Chevy, sorry for your situation but the fact that you have only 30 vehicles in stock means you are very small. In fact I never knew that there were dealers out there that only kept 30 vehicles in stock (unless I misunderstood you).
I can see why they needed to close your dealership. It must cost the OEMs a bunch of money to keep you in business.
Sorry for your situation again and I love the rural dealerships but there must be some minimum sales to stay in business.
I guess I can compare you to a Burger King franchisee that sells $500 of product a day. I am sure the company would shut them down.
07/15, 7:47 PM
posted by:
elmdodge
car stuff you do realize that msr were part of franchise agreements and most companies could not justify the terminations so they had to come in the backdoor with bankruptcy null and void all agreements and only keep the factory ass kissers
07/15, 9:53 PM
posted by:
chevydealer09
CARSTUFF. i currently have only 30 chevys left, I usually ran an inventory of 100 new vehicles in stock….GMAC cut our inventory limit to 60 units in September 08, which was based on my sale rate of 20 units a month, and they wanted no more than a 90 day supply of inventory on the ground. I have not had any new orders other than camaros hit my ground in 100 days, and can no longer order any other units upon receipt of the termination letter. I hope this clears it up for you…and thank you for the sorry!
07/15, 9:58 PM
posted by:
chevydealer09
By the way, it is interesting to note that GM offered me a whopping 180k to close my doors(a no negotiation number, accept it or get nothing!) and they offered idiot Wagoner 8.6 million. I also read they are spending 1B of our taxpayers money to develop units in Brazil! ????? If congress doesn’t reel in these complete idiots that are running this company, this is going to be a complete and utter disaster. Props to Chrysler for paying back 1.5B. The difference between Chrysler and GM is that Chrysler actually wants to pay back the country, whereas GM couldn’t give a damn…..they already want to offer a IPO….what a slap in the face to former shareholders. SOMEBODY punish these idiots!! Fire them all!
07/15, 11:38 PM
posted by:
DrFill
Good post, Chevy
DrFill
07/16, 11:15 AM
posted by:
injunraiv
Chevy;
Wait until they give your point to another area dealer, we’ll see how livid you are then!
Sorry to hear about your troubles…