Letter from a Dodge dealer

American Thinker ^ | 5/19/09 | American Thinker

[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

[mojitojoe]

Somehow I get the feeling that the extent of your real-world experience with running a business involves dixie cups, kool-aid, a hand-painted sign and your parents’ front lawn.

______________
LMAO!!!

[pgkdan]

Sorry but you’re wrong . The burden is almost all on the franchisee. He pays for the cars, he pays his taxes, he pays for his real estate. He builds and maintains his showroom, shops and offices. He pays his employees salaries and benefits. We’re not talking about JC Penney’s here.

[mojitojoe]

Her’es the germ of an idea..maybe others can help flesh it out..

He has 125 new cars in inventory. I assume that Chryler Financial provided the floor plan to buy them. So, in essence, Obama Motors now owns the cars. So, let’s deliver them to him, personally. Assuming he can get 125 sets of fdealer plates..let the 50 employees, and 75 Florida Freepers.. form a CONVOY and drive the cars up, perhaps with a Rolling Thunder escort..and park them right in front of the WH...and don’t forget tofill them with tea bags.....indeed, make stops at cities along the way for support and more tea bags..

That will sure get a lot of publicity..anyone remember the Ryder truck with the ballots in 2000?

Maybe someone can get this idea to the owner...

_____________
That is a great idea! We have to start fighting back.

[Las Vegas Ron]

They’re A-OK with the government closing down private enterprises. It’s a disgrace

Indeed, all sh!ts and giggles till it happens to or directly affects them. A disgrace is too kind a word

[takenoprisoner]

My point was and remains - he is IN a situation. Chrysler and GM needed to streamline their cost based infrastructure, and they are in the midst of doing so.

So the way to do that, in your opinion, is to close performing dealerships like George Joseph's?

[BlueNgold]

A bunch of the people replying here don’t know what it means to be a conservative. They’re A-OK with the government closing down private enterprises. It’s a disgrace.

So what would your opinion be if the government had been properly conservative and stayed out of this whole mess allowing Chrysler to fail a few months back?

I mean fail - shut their doors - sell off bad assets - toss out the UAW contracts - start over and try to get it right this time. That's what I think should have happened - that's what conservatism says should have happened.

But the consequences of a market based correction would have been much broader in order to achieve better long term sustainability. This dealer and thousands of others, instead of hundreds, would have been in this same position had things gone according to proper conservative market based hands off private business principals.

[El Gato]

feel bad for this dealer...he should pack up his floor plan and service parts and send it back to Detroit. Call up Toyota.

He already sells Izuzus, although I only saw trucks in his on line inventory. Izuzu also has some decent SUV type vehicles. They have cars too, but they are not very popular.

[Scotswife]

hmmmm....so - he incurred costs at the order of GM - who was bought out by Obama.
It only makes sense that if they grab his business they grab his debt as well...yes?

These people need to do as you say - deliver their inventory to the White House, and also forward their bank notes and bills to Obama as well.

[BlueNgold]

Performing is a relative term.
Just because his business was profitable doesn’t mean that he was performing well in terms of New Dodge sales.

Please read through all of my posts on this - I’ve already answered that question over and over.

[La Enchiladita]

It’s called change.

It's called nationalization: the end of private enterprise and the beginning of communist dictatorship. Ask any Cuban refugee who arrived in the U.S. in the '50s.

[pgkdan]

To me, people who railed against the Big 3, the UAW, and the bailout suddenly blaming the government for this man's woes, is akin to people like us, mostly the same people, saying the government needs to learn to spend less, but then suddenly getting mad at the government when it is our neighbor or family member who actually gets laid off.

Are you deliberately being obtuse or do you just not get it? Nobody is complaning about the private business between Chysler and this dealer. We're complaining about a federal government that forced Chrysler into bankruptcy, apart from the federal bankruptcy courts, and that is now in the business of closing profitable private businesses to suit it's own purposes. The government is closing these businesses. The government forced the deal we're seeing unfold. The government put it's boot on Chysler's throat and it's bond holders throats until it was able to confiscate their property and give it to UAW. That's fascism brother and that's what we're objecting to !!!

[Labyrinthos]

He didn’t say “The franchise I’ve spent 35 years building was destroyed”, he said it was taken away and given to another dealer.

I understad wha the said, but I would be shocked if the letter/notice said what he said is says. That is his emotional interpretation.

I'm also willing to bet that when Chrysler decided to close this particular franchise, the decision was made purely for economic reasons including sales volume, service volume, customer satisfaction, and credit history.

[Las Vegas Ron]

So what would your opinion be if the government had been properly conservative and stayed out of this whole mess allowing Chrysler to fail a few months back?

Here's an idea for a conservative government to fix the current economic woes of this country:

1. Let the auto companies go bankrupt and toss the unions out on their asses
2. Reduce or eliminate corporate taxes
3. Cancel the repatriation tax
4. Eliminate the IRS and install a flat or fair tax
5. Drill, drill, drill
6.Freeze government spending and start reducing it 10% each year until it is reduced to a Constitutional entity.
7. Get the he!! out of the insurance and financial business
8. Get out of my life and everyone else's and let me run my business as I see fit, win or lose.

Just a few thing to get things going, please fell free to add

[pgkdan]

So what would your opinion be if the government had been properly conservative and stayed out of this whole mess allowing Chrysler to fail a few months back?

I'd feel for the guy but that's the risks you take when you're in business. The market should have been able to deal with the whole damned mess...we'd all be alot better off in the long run.

[BlueNgold]

Ahhh, it is easy to tell the Bozo supporters
Who did you vote for? Bozo? I thought so. We need to put this country back in the hands of private enterprise and get the frickin' government out of business, period.

You couldn't be farther from correct.
I did not and do not support President Obama - I'm assuming that's what you mean by 'Bozo'.
I voted for Sen Thompson in the primary and Sen McCain in the general.
Please take a moment and read through all of my posts on this thread before you say such silly things - may I suggest a quick look through #266 - I think it addresses your concerns rather nicely.

Some food for thought - a hands off government that stayed out of business 'period' as you say - and I agree by the way - would have meant the full and complete failure of Chrysler months ago.

[BlueNgold]

See #266.

[RinaseaofDs]

If it were a standard bankruptcy, then there wouldn’t have been a letter from Mr. Joseph in the first place.

Fact is the executive branch is re-writing bankruptcy law as we speak. I just love the part about ‘forgiving’ $15.4BB of government provided emergency financing, and the additional $6BB start up money for the new company.

It’s breathtaking the laws that are being broken here. If I were Ford I’d sue them for anti-trust violations. If the government wants to get into a private business venture as an operator, then all players should get similar unlimited pools of resources to tap into at no expense.

[DallasDeb]

Wonder what the racial balance of the kept dealerships is.

[BlueNgold]

But, but, his letter says his dealership is profitable and that’s all we need to know...
Stop making sense.
Don’t you know that you are playing kill joy on an opportunity to blame everything on Obama?
You didn’t know the he personally went through the entire dealers directory at Chrysler and GM and started x-ing out white faces, and then he intentionally targeted the most successful dealers to get them out of the way.

We used to make fun of the left when they found a way to blame everything on Bush - Bush’s Fault became something of a running joke here on FR. It seems that many of us are falling into the same trap - objectivity in lost in our disgust. There is plenty to blame Obama for, daily in fact, but had someone like ME been in charge, things for the Chrysler dealers would likely have been a lot worse before they even thought about getting better. Chrysler would have been shuttered until the UAW, the Dealers, the wholesale parts suppliers, the truck drivers, and the floor sweepers were ready to make cars instead of careers.

One more time in case anyone missed it:
I do not support this President.
I do not support the auto bail out.
However, an objective look at the restructuring needed at Chrysler will show that fewer dealerships is a good thing for the business in the long run.

[sebastianWoof]

ENJOY THIS:
NEWS ~ NOTIZIE VELOCI ITALIA
Translated by Sebastiano Woofo
Granelli di Bardi, Italia
18 Maggio 2009

FIAT/CHRYSLER - NEW OBAMA CAR LINE

---

An internal Fiat company memo has just detailed some specifications for it’s new line of Obama Fiat/Chrysler vehicles.
Fiat executives have chosen “YO FangulYO “
as the ideal Obama line nameplate.

OBAMA CAR LINE TRANSMISSION TECHNOLOGY provides a redesigned transmission with a “Stimolo Riverso” gear which allows the car to be driven at 50 miles per hour in one second flat in RIVERSO.

DIGITAL HORN TECHNOLOGY
Innovative Italian engineers have replaced the car horn’s traditional sound with a new digital-horn loudspeaker.When a driver taps the horn the car’s speaker will shout out the car’s name”YO FangulYO “

A VOICE GENDER SWITCH is included.
It allows Drivers to select:
a “YO FangulYO “ male voice
or a
“YO FangulYO “ female voice. ///END///
Sincerely, Sebastiano Woofo