My parents live in a rural small town and not only did they lose their local Chevy dealer they lost the next 3 closest ones too. That is 4 dealerships closed. Their county alone had 3 and now has ZERO. If they want a Chevy they have to drive ~40 miles. Meanwhile there are two Subaru, two Honda, two Ford, and one of just about every other brand that is closer to them. My dad, a life long GM buyer, now says he probably will not buy a new Chevy because there is no dealer with in a reasonable distance.

As I mentioned in another thread, they also closed the ONLY Chevy dealer in Schenectady county NY (population ~150K) and home of the USA's best selling Hyundai dealer, Fuccillo Hyundai.

Ford, Honda, Toyota, and Hyundai must be loving this. Chevy now has the dealer structure of a Lexus or Acura. They have basically giving up on the blue collar customers in my area.

 

We already had this thread.

https://www.camaroz28.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=726065

Turns out I'm mean and GM knows best.

 

That was Caddy, this is a Chevy Thread

I thought they did all the closings back in June. They just closed a big one, which was the last in their county that really surprised me.

 

As much as the Cadillac dealership thing irks me, I find it RIDICULOUS that there could be that size of a population grouping left without a CHEVROLET DEALERSHIP within a 40 minute radius.

I really like to give the benefit of the doubt to the desicion makers, because I *KNOW* that I don't know everything about the situation, but, c'mon... this is bread and butter Chevy here, not Cadillac.

Sometimes I just roll my eyes, because it really just doesn't add up.

 

Where do they live? 40 miles seems like a reasonable distance to me. Especially if the population density is low. I drive that distance one way to work every day!

 

I suppose you might have a point, but I think you still are getting, at best, borderline on drive time here.

It sounds like there are plenty of other brands that feel this population warrants dealerships, though, and you'd have to drive past a lot of those to get to a Chevy dealer.

If you are shopping for something specialized like a Corvette, ya, most people would make that drive.

If you're looking for something in the way of a Cobalt, Malibu, Impala, or even a truck?? Probably not, if there are a dozen alternatives at arm's reach.

 

I agree to a point. 40 miles isn't terrible if you're living in the middle of nowhere. However, if the area was able to keep three Chevy dealerships afloat before the closures you'd have to assume that at least ONE could do fairly well there still.

 

There was 4 Chevy dealers that were doing fine. 2 of the 4 I could see getting rid of, but not all 4. If there is a Honda dealer there, then there should be a Chevy. The dealer in Bennington VT should have stayed and the one in Troy NY should have stayed. 3 of the 4 were not on the original list of closings. GM recently decided to not renew franchises.

It is even worse for those living in VT or NH.

 

Maybe they all had terrible ratings and GM wanted to ditch them while they could then let e new better dealer open?

 

Maybe. I'm thinking that they have to let a dealership open in Bennington, VT. It is about 40miles from Albany NY and has every other non luxury brand.

 

less dealerships = higher prices for us and more money for GM.
At least that's their theory.
Lot of unknowns there like if I wanted to pay more I'd buy another brand with a higher status then a chevy. Or am I really going to drive 40 miles when I see something else new and shiney closer.
Or will I resent GM for destroying my towns long time pastors hard work by closing his dealership.
Time will tell how well that theory plays out.

 

40 miles isn't bad. Also as said before, if they were crap dealerships (no matter how much they sold they could still be bad for the brand) it was the ONLY time they've had a chance to dump 'em.

 

They certianly lost their advertising fronts didnt they?

A Chevy dealer close to home town, Courtesy Chevy-Buick, was given the axe. Courtesy is right smack in the middle of town in the center of the main travel. Courtesy Chevy is now Courtesy Motors... filling up the lot fast with many great offerings from Nissan, Honda, and Toyota, lol... !!

Courtesy sits with 2 other lots. The Cartwright Ford lot is still a Ford dealer but their Chrysler-Dodge lot was let go. Cartwright Dodge is now like Courtesy Motors... what was a staunch site for showing Dodge and Chrysler's offerings is now a used car lot for mostly import makers.

 

From the lack of planning, with the rural dealerships, it would appear that GM looked at sales only, to determine which dealerships close or stay open. It also appears that GM targeted the small, family owned dealerships........... while favoring the large dealership networks.

The thing they did not do, is look at a map.

While 40 miles, one way, does not seem like much, if a buyer gets to drive by 5 dealerships, by other brands............ that may only be a few miles from home............ to get to a Chevy dealership??? Well, lets just say that alot of people are not going to do that.

Short of a Corvette or Camaro, there is no other Chevy that makes a compelling enough case (meaning it is so much better than anything else available) to people, for them to give up convenience.

Luxury brands can get away with this, due to snob appeal. Mainstream brands?? No.

 

That's what they did here. After two personal horror stories from the big dealership here, I vowed never ever to go back there again. I drive 11 miles to the next town over to another Chevy dealership.. It doesn't seem like much, but traffic easily double or triples the driving time, so it's quite annoying.

I personally can't imagine driving 40 miles for a Chevy dealership.