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GM mailed notifications to 1,100 of its dealerships last week, which were to arrive on Friday, but neither of the local dealers received one, according to Marty Bratt of Garvin and Bert Miller of Webster.
“To the best of our knowledge, …
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Nearly 2,000 new-car dealerships received bad news last week, but local dealerships were not among them.Neither Garvin Motors in Powell nor Webster Motors in Cody were notified that General Motors was terminating their franchises, and the parent company of Powell's Fremont Motors outlet was not on the list of dealerships dropped by Chrysler.
GM mailed notifications to 1,100 of its dealerships last week, which were to arrive on Friday, but neither of the local dealers received one, according to Marty Bratt of Garvin and Bert Miller of Webster.
“To the best of our knowledge, we're OK,” Miller said. “We have received no notification, and we didn't really expect to.”
While Chrysler provided a list of 789 dealerships with which they were cutting ties, GM did not do so, but notified the dealerships individually. Bratt said he did not know of any area dealer that was notified.
“I'm not going to call them and ask,” Bratt said.
The other GM dealership in the Big Horn Basin, Big West Autoplex in Worland, did not receive notice either, according to press reports.
Five Chrysler dealerships in Wyoming were on the list, but none were in the Big Horn Basin. Those terminated were in Torrington, Jackson, Laramie, Rock Springs and Riverton. Rimrock Chrysler and Underriner Jeep, both located in Billings, were eliminated by Chrysler.
Fremont Motors, which holds franchises for several makes of cars and operates dealerships in eight Wyoming communities, was not affected, nor was Worland Ford-Chrysler.
GM dealers may not be in the clear yet, though. The 1,100 letters that went out last week are only the first step, affecting the lowest-performing dealerships, and GM intends to cut up approximately 2,600 franchises in all. Some of those will be dealerships that sell only Pontiacs, a brand the company is discontinuing, or lines the company plans to sell, such as Hummer, but others may be eliminated in the future.
Bratt said he could not predict what would happen in the future because the criteria he had seen from GM was only “generalities.”
“It's all out of your hands, so all you can do is move forward,” Bratt said.
