Closing dealerships

[Ghoste]

Well my only personal would be my example of the two GM dealers in my hometown.  Unless both are lying about sales performance the weaker one remained open.
As for the reasoning you aren't alone, no one appears to know for sure.
Two debates going at once.
Yes I would have to admit that since I am not a member of either corporations board of directors I cannot verify that they haven't drastically reduced the number of presidents and vice presidents within their structure.  Hell for all I know they have even reduced the board of directors to a single member.  Somehow though I cannot release my skepticism of them making too drastic attacks on this level.

[nh_mopar_fan]

Well, that's kind of my point.

Yeah, it's kind of hard to NOT have a CEO. So, it's turnover not termination.

They are replaced.

Same for the board of directors. But it makes no sense to eliminate those spots at that level. You eliminate the people who screwed up and you replace them. Unless, of course, the whole thing goes down in flames and everyone loses their job.

That's the reality of it.

Yeah, I agree that there are plenty of examples where the top guys screw up and stay while they people out on the line pay the price.

[Ghoste]

I was being facetious about the board of course.  What about presidents and vice presidents?  That is more of the level where I predict little to no job loss.
Basically what I am saying is that of the tens of thousands of white collar jobs they are eliminating I see it being more of the clerical staff, engineering, sales and warranty support, IT and such.  If they are going after the decision making groups and doing it by eliminating the positions I would be very surprised.  I would also be surprised if any such positions weren't reinstated in the near future.  That could also happen in the group I predict will take the hit but I doubt it would rebound as quickly.  They can outsource IT and engineering and what not to India but we need the executive vice presidents to stay here.

I still can't get my mind around the dealer closing program.   

[hemi-hampton]

I assume/ Speculate the one near me might of closed because there was another one less then 1 mile away. Possibly a dealer 10 miles away had worse sales then this one & stayed open but maybe they needed one 10 miles away instead of 2 next to each other? Make sense to me but just my LEON.

[Ghoste]

I agree, that makes sense even to me.

[89MOPAR]

 Well they closed a few dealers that are more than 1/2 hour away from me.  At least they were on the published list to be closed.
The local Chysler/ Jeep    and local Dodge  were slated to stay open !
  I was happy !
I like the guys at the local Dodge parts Dept.  They cut me some deals consistently.

  Driving past the other day { Bremerton Dodge }  the lot was empty, the building was empty, they were pulling letters off the building.
  Got home and called them -  The owner decided to retire and closed the business - even though they weren't on the list.
  He sold the Dodge franchise to the local Chrysler/ Jeep dealer.   My parts guys : one went to Tacoma , the other is taking " some time off to decide what to do"

  Sad, i thought we had escaped the bullet.

Some of you may not care if Ma Mopar survives,  I do.  Owner of a  2003 Hemi Ram 4x4, 80,000 miles and not a glitch or problem with it.
Plus say what you want about reproduction parts , or things with the Mopar stamp.  I'd rather have the option of getting factory parts, or finding factory NOS thru the dealer, or buying a Mopar filter vs a Fram.   
   Good luck if you own an AMC, Studebaker, Isuzu, etc - other companies that have folded in USA.  Less factory support means less opportunity for all of us....

[bakerhillpins]

I didn't say white collar workers, I said at the very top.  Those white collar workers they are getting rid of would fall squarely into the part a few posts up about dealership support.  White collar workers covers a huuuuuge area encompassing, well basically anyone not carrying a union card.  As far as highlighting the fact that they don't get the same benefits as the blue collar employees losing their jobs I'm afraid you won't get me crying any extra blues for them.  Job loss is job loss period and both parties suffer.  Traditionally the salaried automotive workforce didn't run the same risks of job loss or layoff as the line workers so the fact that they are taking that hit now doesn't make me feel extra sorry for them.  Read that carefully, I don't feel extra sorry for them.  I am not by any means pleased about it.  Again, job loss is job loss.
Go to the top floors of those two corporations and count how many heads are cut.

Yea, that was my point as well.

[Troy]

How many upper level managers are there really? Let's say there's 10. You'd only need to let 1 go to equal 10% of the work force. Depending on that guy's job - say VP of International Sales - you'd have to replace him or split his duties among others. If you have 12 plants making cars and 2 plants shut down how many managers do you have out of work? I'd imagine less than a dozen if you're counting all shifts. Certain positions like MIS directors, most VPs, anything at the 'C' level, and board members cannot be reduced. Again, that's a really small number to begin with.

My perspective comes from a recent job where the "shop" employees all thought that everyone who sat at a desk played Solitaire and surfed the internet all day. Management or not, they (shop employees) couldn't see why the company needed all those other people when they did all the work. Most companies hire for positions that they deem are necessary. Without oddball circumstances, no one is going to keep a bunch of people on the payroll if there isn't a need - including (especially?) managers.

Troy

[Ghoste]

Wait a minute, are you implying that people on the floor might make false assumptions about a job they haven't done?  How can that be because there are often seems to be no shortage of experts who know how lazy and incompetent blue collar workers are.



On a more serious note, much of the level of managment you mention are the ones I would of course think of when talking of white collar workers losing their jobs.  The ones I pick on and won't lose their jobs are the ones at the very top.  As far as how many there at that level, I don't know.  Let's say you are right and it is 10.  I'm pretty sure none of those ten will lose their job and what would they make on average, 10's of millions of dollars a year?
But I digress into a judgment of a job I've never done correct?  All I ever wanted was for somebody to explain the rationale being applied to closing dealerships. 

[bakerhillpins]

All I ever wanted was for somebody to explain the rationale being applied to closing dealerships. 

Yea, that was my fault. Sorry. 

[2Gunz]

You have to keep in mind that the person choosing which dealerships to close has zero
personal knowledge of the individual stores. And most likely never even see a
picture of it.

So they may have closed the "better" store in your eyes. But the "better" store cost
more money and/or didnt fit into the plan.

[Ghoste]

I understand what you are trying to tell me but I still defy anyone to explain to me what the "plan" is or to show me how an extensive dealer network costs money.  I get the idea of reducing the number of corporate people required to service the dealers but in the computer age, how many area service reps or regional sales managers do we really need anyway.  I also understand the idea of not having dealer redundancy within a couple of miles vicinity of each other.
What I don't see, (besides this great and mystical "plan") is how making it more difficult for consumers to purchase your product is reducing the manufacturers costs (aside from above).