GM reportedly accelerating the closure of 1,700 dealers

[Intrepidation]

June 1, 2009 is turning into the equivalent of General Motors' D-Day, and every day seems to bring new events that are being planned in advance of it. GM had more than 6,000 dealerships at the end of last year, and in the initial viability plan it offered to the government, the automaker pledged to close 25% of those over the next five years. As with the rest of the plan, the Auto Task Force said "That isn't enough."

So GM has turned the big guns on its dealership closures, having seen 200 of them shut down this year already. It is not waiting for attrition to rid itself of others, but pin-pointing under-performing locations and "could move to terminate franchise agreements." And GM is doing so with a different payment scale than it had when it closed down the 2,800 Oldsmobile dealerships, which ran up a tab of $1 billion.

Also, it appears, the bell tolls louder for a GM bankruptcy. Tucked in the article was this line: "The issue of how many U.S. dealerships GM can support has been one of the hot-button issues for U.S. officials as they drive GM toward a stepped-up restructuring that many observers have now concluded will include a bankruptcy filing."

Autoblog

[GMTruckGuy74]

A lot of GM dealerships have closed around me in southern New Jersey in the past year, and many have been Chevy dealerships (which I think there are too many of anyway <compared to Toyota delarships>). There's been a few I know of too in the Bucks County, Pennsylvania area.

[Oracle of Delphi]

Only the strong survive ...

[Camino LS6]

LaNeve denied this one too...

What to think?

[Oracle of Delphi]

Have you noticed how quiet Lutz has been ???

[Z-06]

LaNeve denied this one too...

What to think?

I guess some Angie Tempura with a tremendous hate for GM and ample amount of time is just sitting there and blogging these news.

[Camino LS6]

Have you noticed how quiet Lutz has been ???

Well why not?

With the retirement announced, why should he spout off?

I'd be on vacation if I were in his shoes.