Team keeping Cadillac franchise

Team Chevrolet is offering rebates and incentives to help encourage car sales. A row of Cadillac CTSs sit on the dealer lot. Photo by Andy Mooney, Salisbury Post

Dillard

By Scott Jenkins

sjenkins@salisburypost.com

Team Chevrolet is among the 661 dealerships to have franchises reinstated by General Motors, Team owner Thom Dillard said Monday.

In Team's case, the dealership had applied for arbitration after GM took away its Cadillac franchise. Dillard said he got a call Friday from GM saying the dealership will keep selling Cadillacs.

"We're thrilled," Dillard said. "We just want our customers to know they can still buy and service their Cadillacs in Salisbury."

Last year, Team was among 2,000 dealerships nationwide that lost GM franchises as the company reorganized in an effort to return to profitability. But Congress passed a law requiring an appeals process for the dealers.

GM executives said Friday the company would save time and money by restoring franchises and avoiding arbitration with more than half the 1,100 dealerships that appealed the automaker's decision.

The company said the dealerships would receive telephone calls by the end of the day Monday and letters outlining qualifications for reinstatement. Dillard said his company won't be getting a letter because it already meets all the qualifications, including working capital and facilities.

"Of course, we built a new building for them," he said. "I think we qualify for all the conditions they set forth, plus we had good legal representation."

The news wasn't as good for a Concord dealership. Ben Mynatt was stripped of its Chevrolet-Cadillac franchise and despite a community-wide campaign to have it reinstated, the business did not get a call from GM on Monday, said General Manager Todd Rakes.

Rakes said GM's reinstatements mainly benefitted dealerships that had lost Cadillac franchises but retained others. Though Ben Mynatt has another Concord store selling GM products, as well as a Nissan dealership in Salisbury, its Chevrolet-Cadillac franchise is a standalone business.

"As of right now, we're going to continue to fight in arbitration," Rakes said.

Dillard said GM made the cuts to Cadillac dealers trying to align its franchise numbers with those of Lexus, BMW and Mercedes, but "they realized they cut too deep, and so they're reinstating their good dealers is what they're doing."

He said Team has been selling Cadillacs all along and wasn't supposed to wind down those sales until the end of the year. In addition to Chevrolet and Cadillac, the dealership also sells Buick and GMC models, two franchises it bought from Salisbury Motor Co. last year.

"So if GM makes it, we sell it," Dillard said.