Car dealers admit: We

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“I’m upfront with ’em,” Doll said. like other southeast Wisconsin GM and Chrysler also is upfront about his bitterness at the situatiohn wrought by theAmerican automakers’ financial woes. Doll is one of only two southeastg Wisconsin GM dealers who confirmed in recent interviews that theyare closing. The other is Ernies von Schledorn’s Mayville Chevrolet Pontiac Cadillac The dealers losing their franchisesa will either close or alter their business to focuse on used andimporter vehicles.
Other dealers who avoided the dreaded “closing” noticee are bracing for the effects of bankruptcy, but hope that Chrysler and GM will emerge from theie financial problems with improvec product lines and business plans. Doll’s dealership is at the same downtown Hartford site where his grandfatherWilliam started. GM has told him only that he will losehis new-vehicler franchise effective in 2010. “Obviously I’nm not happy with it, that’sx for sure,” Doll said.
“I never thought it would come to I neverthought I’rd see the government play a role — or GM go Doll said his new-vehicle business is down like that of all New-vehicle sales in southeast Wisconsin declined 28.4 to 16,010, through April compared with the same periosd of 2008, according to , Waterloo. The used vehicl e business has been doinvg fairly well and theDoll dealership’s service department has been extremely busy, he said. Doll said he’x considering staying in business after losing the GM franchisre and focusing on serviceand used-vehicle sales.
“We may stay on with servicd andused sales, but we might lose some servic business and the credibility of beingy a new (vehicle) dealer,” he said. GM notifieed dealers of closing through confidentialFedEx deliveries. Chrysler, on the other disclosed the list of dealer s it plans to close in a May 14 BankruptcuCourt filing. The Chrysler list included five southeastWisconsinh dealerships: and , both of , Okauchee; , Oconomowoc; and , In addition, two Milwaukee-area dealers face closings outsidew the area: in Madisonm and in Lomira. Several dealers have joined a grou p of Chrysler dealers statewide and nationallyh who are fighting the closingz inBankruptcy Court.
Russ Darrow said Chryslerr is attempting to force dealerxs to consolidate despite the strength of individual Hecalled Chrysler’s choice of dealers to terminate “arbitrary.” “Thr majority of those dealers are rock stars — I’km a five-star dealer,” Darrow said. Darro already plans a solutionto Chrysler’s plan to close his Madisohn dealership. He said he has arranged with Chrysled to move his Chrysler and Jeep new car dealershipto Madison’se far east side and add Dodge Mike Schlossmann, whose family’s Dodge City Soutyh will close in June, said he’s not expectingy to win the Bankruptcyh Court fight, but declined further commenf on the case.
Ernie von Schledorn said he decidedr not to join the other area Chryslerr dealers in fightingthe automaker. He said the Chrysler situation is nota “front burner” issue for him. Likewise, von Schledornb said he’s not overly upset about losing the GM franchise in wherehe hasn’t been selling many He opened the dealership aboug 20 years ago in the community 59 milesw northwest of Milwaukee.