Story originally printed in the Tomah Journal or online at www.tomahjournal.com
Published - Monday, May 25, 2009
Local GM dealers are safe
No news was good news last week for local General Motors dealers.
Neither Tomah GM dealership — Vander Meer Chevrolet Buick and Larkin’s Pontiac-Cadillac-GMC — was among the 1,100 GM dealers notified Friday by the company that they will be dropped by late next year. Letters were sent to approximately one in five GM dealerships around the country late last week. The letters state that dealers had been judged on sales, customer service scores, location, condition of facilities and other criteria.
The doors will stay open at Tomah’s GM dealerships after both reported that they have not been contacted.
“As of now we haven’t heard anything,” said Tim Larkin, co-owner of Larkin’s Pontiac-Cadillac-GMC said Friday. “From what I know, if you aren’t contacted, they will supposedly renew your contract when it expires next year.
“We are just hoping and praying,” Larkin said. “We will get through the end of the day and see what happens.”
Larkin’s Pontiac-Cadillac-GMC will be affected by GM’s recent announcement that it will phase out the Pontiac brand by the end of next year.
Area dealer Don Brenengen was also relieved not to be contacted by GM last week. Brenengen’s five dealerships include two that sell GM cars — Brenengen Chevrolet in West Salem and Brenengen Chevrolet Buick Pontiac in Sparta.
Brenengen said that he hadn’t received one of the letters by late Friday morning, so he called his GM representative and confirmed his GM dealerships will continue.
“Our two facilities are going to be in great shape,” he said. “For us, it’s business as usual going forward.”
Steve Cahalan of Lee Newspapers contributed to this report.
All stories copyright 2006 Tomah Journal and other attributed sources.