Posted on 05/19/2009 10:29:47 AM PDT by American Dream 246
My name is George C. Joseph. I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida. My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business.
We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month. All depend on our business for part of their livelihood. We are financially strong with great respect in the market place and community. We have strong local presence and stability.
I work every day the store is open, nine to ten hours a day. I know most of our customers and all our employees. Sunshine Dodge is my life.
On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them. My new vehicle inventory consists of 125 vehicles with a financed balance of 3 million dollars. This inventory becomes impossible to sell with no factory incentives beyond June 9, 2009. Without the Dodge franchise we can no longer sell a new Dodge as "new," nor will we be able to do any warranty service work. Additionally, my Dodge parts inventory, (approximately $300,000.) is virtually worthless without the ability to perform warranty service. There is no offer from Chrysler to buy back the vehicles or parts inventory.
Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler's insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank.
HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?
THIS IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS NOT A GOVERNMENT ENTITY
This is beyond imagination! My business is being stolen from me through NO FAULT OF OUR OWN. We did NOTHING wrong.
This atrocity will most likely force my family into bankruptcy. This will also cause our 50+ employees to be unemployed. How will they provide for their families? This is a total economic disaster.
HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?
I beseech your help, and look forward to your reply. Thank you.
Sincerely,
George C. Joseph President & Owner Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu
I like your bumpersticker phrase there,
but I’d like to make it a little more pointed - to point at the liberals who are actually fascists.
Fascism: It Sucks Even When Liberals Do It
Another avenue worth looking into is which dealers have unionized work forces and which do not.
Welcome to A Socialist America.
Obama has just told this man to get the **** out of Dodge.
I've been trying to figure that out too. If the individual dealerships don't sell enough products, they will fold on their own.
"It's a dog eat dog world and I'm wearing Milk Bone underwear". (Norm)
I really do not doubt that political ideologies are being examined, and probably skin color as well.
0bama is a fascist. And collectivists of all stripes will punish their political opponents whenever possible.
He’s also a racist, and he will take any opportunity to punish whitey that he can.
As I commented earlier on an another related thread, thousands of GM and Chrysler dealers are being boarded up. The owners of these dealerships, while certainly in some cases may have been dem supporters, are probably about as overwhelmingly Republican-leaning as any other group you could find in this nation. I know some auto dealers in my area, and they tend to be active in community affairs and generally support and contribute to GOP candidates to state houses and Congress. The dems know this well, and are gleefully using this “crisis” to decimate the ranks of supporters of their opponents. Can’t let any crises go to waste, after all.
My recommendation to the anguished dealer penning this letter: immediately initiate discussions with Toyota, Subaru, or any other import maker who might be interested. Ultimately I think this move will hurt GM and Chrysler -— many customers will have to now drive further to buy a car or have a car serviced. How many reliable GM or Chrysler buyers who now are confronted with a twenty or thirty mile drive to the nearest dealer will decide instead to finally swallow hard and reluctantly test drive a foreign make at the formerlyu GM or Chrysler dealership two miles down the road? I know I will. From personal experience, I know that Honda makes a phenomenal car, and they make many of them in the United States.
Go for it, Mr. Joseph. Next time I drive down I-95 I hope to see big signs for Joseph Sunshine Honda-BMW or something as I approach Melbourne.
Sue the manufacturer for breach of contract.
“HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?”
America no longer operates under a free market economy.
OBAMA - HOPE - CHANGE
Why isn’t Ford closing dealerships? This is being mandated by Lord Obama!
There was a story the other day where one of the top selling dealerships was being shut down.
How are they "cost free?" As I pointed out in my other post, it's not like Chrysler is walking to the mailbox and picking up checks.
As another poster pointed out, Honda and Toyota have far fewer dealerships than the Big 3, yet their sales are equal or better than the Big Three. Ford, GM, and Chrysler have all been eliminating or merging dealerships. You think all these companies have no idea what they are doing?
I have an even better question. If thinning the herd is good for the private sector? How come we are not thinning government?
Now you’re talking!!!
Ford has been doing so over the past several years.
Everyone in the area could go buy an Izuzu from him.
How many voted for Obama?
Was that the brothers from NJ I think that owned 2 dealerships?
Bullsh*t Barry. If the guy wasn’t making any money he wouldn’t have made millions in renovations at the insistence of Chysler4...he wouldn’t have $300,000 in parts inventory and he wouldn’t have a lot full of cars that he can now not sell.
I feel sorry for the guy, but Chrysler is bankrupt, and by all rights all dealers should be closing, and in all likelihood will all be closing before too long.
This was not too hard to foresee, really. Too bad he didn’t see it coming.
Barak: “Your dealership has been returned to its rightful owners.”
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