Some Retailers Want an End to Saturn Mandate for Stand-Alone Stores

[Charlie]

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[drupal=2869]Some Retailers Want an End to Saturn Mandate for Stand-Alone Stores[/drupal]

Robert Snell from the Detroit News: Stuart Lasser, who owns a Saturn dealership 34 miles west of New York City, sued GM on November 20 after the automaker rejected an attempt to subdivide his showroom and sell vehicles made by GM and South Korea's Kia Motors, according to federal court records. "All I'm trying to do is survive here," Lasser said in an interview with The Detroit News.

[eRic 02sc2]

selling another brand at the Saturn retailer would ruin it for me. it's bad enough that Saturn is selling rebadged vehicles now

[s-seriesguy]

What a moron. I don't know of any maufacturer that would be willing to allow a competing brand to be sold in the same dealership outside of their division.

[AuraDrvr89]

Kia and Saturn are not a combination that I would want. That's ridiculous.

[davidsky]

The guy knows his customers, smart
Kia is right on target.
I promise I knew nothing about this guy before I mentioned Kia in another thread.

[davidsky]

Originally Posted by s-seriesguy

What a moron. I don't know of any maufacturer that would be willing to allow a competing brand to be sold in the same dealership outside of their division.

Near me are
Kia/Toyota
Honda/Mitsubishi
Dodge/Mitsubishi
Audi/Suzuki
Suzuki/Subaru
Kia/Nissan
Mazda/VW
Hyundai/Toyota
Chevrolet/VW
There might be more
I completely agree with ending the mandate. Only brands that sell in such high volumes (Ford, Chevy, Toyota) that you can't fit anything else or brands that require a certain shopping ambiance (plus make enough profit that the dealer isn't losing money selling a few cars a week) require stand alone dealers.

[s-seriesguy]

Originally Posted by davidsky

Near me are
Kia/Toyota
Honda/Mitsubishi
Dodge/Mitsubishi
Audi/Suzuki
Suzuki/Subaru
Kia/Nissan
Mazda/VW
Hyundai/Toyota
Chevrolet/VW
There might be more
I completely agree with ending the mandate. Only brands that sell in such high volumes (Ford, Chevy, Toyota) that you can't fit anything else or brands that require a certain shopping ambiance (plus make enough profit that the dealer isn't losing money selling a few cars a week) require stand alone dealers.

Are these actually dealers that are operating out of the same building or using separate ones and using the same lot? Or are they just dealers that are a part of an automotive group or network?

[davidsky]

Originally Posted by s-seriesguy

Are these actually dealers that are operating out of the same building or using separate ones and using the same lot? Or are they just dealers that are a part of an automotive group or network?

Some are 2 brands sharing the same building, some are 2 buildings sharing the same lot. The Audi/Suzuki one is weird and they are in the same building.

[DeMAN]

(Buick Cadillac Pontiac GMC), (Mecedes), (Chrysler/Dodge) all shared a lot with different buildings. Guess which ones are gone from this lot...........

Saturns should be on the lot with a strong import. Kia and or Hyundai would be a good match with them.

[spencerb]

Originally Posted by s-seriesguy

What a moron. I don't know of any maufacturer that would be willing to allow a competing brand to be sold in the same dealership outside of their division.

My local dealer sells Chevy, Pontiac, GMC, Buick, and Cadillac out of the same showroom. You could argue those brands compete with themselves, but that's another topic altogether. They group the similar cars together on the lot. The Chevy/GMC trucks are together, the Acadia, Enclave, and Traverse are together, etc.

I know of a Toyota/GMC dealer that shares a showroom. They used to have Oldsmobile back in the day.

[VTHokie00SL2]

Originally Posted by s-seriesguy

What a moron. I don't know of any maufacturer that would be willing to allow a competing brand to be sold in the same dealership outside of their division.

Huh? I see it all the time. There's a Ford/Subaru dealer that I was at recently, for example.

[Kooler King]

It's common to see multiple GM brands under one roof, particularly in rural areas. It may be a regional thing, but it's uncommon around here to see a GM car line share the same sign & roof with a non-GM brand ... they are usually separated by different showrooms, even if they share a parking lot & dealer name.

It would seem that the investment & overhead to maintain unique & elaborate showrooms, service facilities, etc. solely for the Saturn brand would be extremely difficult to justify economically from this point forward. Many of the new Saturn facilities are far nicer than the older Cadillac showrooms. GM should allow dealers to consolidate their facilities & GM brands in whatever way makes the most sense to the bottom line. The only exception might be to not mix Saturn with Chevy.

The days of cakes and celebrations for customers buying a new Saturn are long over. However, if they keep the same Saturn pricing and 30-day exchange polices, etc. that made Saturn unique, then they might live on.

[bigbird]

"The days of cakes and celebrations for customers buying a new Saturn are long over."

In this time of economic restraint, are service dept's still providing free car washes with any service?

[Ashkicker]

A little hypocracy here!

Isn't this the same GM that allows Saturn dealers to sell Opels and Chevy dealers to sell Daewoo's?

[SW2Muck]

Reading the original article, it sounds like GM is doing this with other dealers as well as Saturn dealers.
Saturns have shared floorspace with other brands in Canada since their beginning. Why not here? If it means Saturn can survive better, why not?
As long as the service remains good, why should it matter if theres another brand on the same lot?

[JTO]

The Saturn dealers around here are mostly Saturn/Saab. They used to be Saturn/Saab/Isuzu. Must have a different agreement in Canada. Now that Saab is gone back to Sweden they will need another line, hopefully still with GM.

[davidsky]

Originally Posted by JTO

The Saturn dealers around here are mostly Saturn/Saab. They used to be Saturn/Saab/Isuzu. Must have a different agreement in Canada. Now that Saab is gone back to Sweden they will need another line, hopefully still with GM.

The local Saab dealer here is with Lincoln-Mercury.
A lot of these dealers had been selling an established brand for decades, say Ford, Chevy, Dodge, VW, Toyota and added a newer brand when they were introduced to the US- Hyundai, Kia, Suzuki, Mitsubishi

[s-seriesguy]

Originally Posted by spencerb

My local dealer sells Chevy, Pontiac, GMC, Buick, and Cadillac out of the same showroom. You could argue those brands compete with themselves, but that's another topic altogether. They group the similar cars together on the lot. The Chevy/GMC trucks are together, the Acadia, Enclave, and Traverse are together, etc.

Yes those are all GM brands too. It's not too uncommon to see that.

Originally Posted by Kooler King

It's common to see multiple GM brands under one roof, particularly in rural areas. It may be a regional thing, but it's uncommon around here to see a GM car line share the same sign & roof with a non-GM brand ... they are usually separated by different showrooms, even if they share a parking lot & dealer name.

That's they way I have always seen it whe it comes to GM dealers.

[GR898SL2]

Originally Posted by davidsky

I completely agree with ending the mandate. Only brands that sell in such high volumes (Ford, Chevy, Toyota) that you can't fit anything else or brands that require a certain shopping ambiance (plus make enough profit that the dealer isn't losing money selling a few cars a week) require stand alone dealers.

+1. Mercedes, or Bentley fit your latter criteria. Lower-volume marques like Mitsubishi, Kia, Smart, Mini would do well to partner up with a stronger brand for stability and variety. I find it odd that GM has taken pretty much everything unique away from Saturn save for its retailer arrangement.

At the same time, I understand both Mr. Lasser's frustration and GM's position. As a franchise holder (franchisee), he did agree to terms between him and the corporation (franchisor) and simply can't go and say I want to take on another brand outside of my franchisor to pick up the slack. Although in the case of Bob Maguire, GM rejected his request to pair up Saturn and Chevrolet showrooms he owns that are a short distance away from one another. There are going to be some interesting legal challenges from U.S. dealership owners moving forward.

[FGCA_XRL]

IMO if you want to sell other cars then just close the Saturn part and sell the other cars. It's a terrible business decision to sell multiple brands that compete with each other. One brand or the other will be on the losing end of it.

If you're not happy selling Saturns or not selling as many as you'd like, just shut the Saturn part down and do what you want.