General Motors is apparently looking to have identified an additional 1,700 dealerships that it will plan to close in the near future in order to meet the June 1 restructuring deadline imposed by the Obama administration’s auto industry team.
The Detroit automaker has already closed 200 dealerships this year and it will seek to terminate franchise agreements with an additional 1,700 within the next six weeks. Though the dealerships won’t necessarily close by June 1, their fates as GM outlets will be decided.
The automaker is banking on a spin-off or closure of Hummer and Saturn to account for about half of the closed dealerships, according to Reuters. Otherwise, it will look at closing underperforming dealerships, mostly in major metropolitan areas.
Albeit on a smaller scale, the process will move similar GM’s decision to close Oldsmobile, which ceased operations five years ago this month. GM spent more than $1 billion closing and transferring Oldsmobile dealerships.
