With the complexities of modern vehicles, it takes a lot of cash flow just to justify paying for all of the training and equipment to service the vehicles. And it costs the small dealers as much as the large ones. Ergo, some of the small dealers simply can't afford it.
Twenty years ago, I was briefly Service Manager for a small local Ford dealer. The Sales Department didn't have that much inventory. They couldn't afford it. I was trying to support the entire business with the service department and it didn't work. I had it headed in the right direction, but I had too little, too late.
On payday, it was a race to the bank to get your check cashed before they started to bounce. I went to work at the usual 7:30 one morning, and about 8:15 it dawned on me the phone wasn't ringing as it usually did that time of day. I picked up the phone and it was dead. It had been shut off. We managed to get the bill paid so it was turned back on.
The place was finally sold, and I was job hunting because the new owner brought his own management people. He offered me the body shop, but I'd had dealings with him before and didn't like him or his terms.
Much as I hate to see the small, friendly dealers crowded out, and much as I have fond memories of that situation, I have to ask it. Is this really the kind of operation you want working on your new $30,000 vehicle?
That particular dealership has since been bought again by someone well-heeled enough to put up a whole new building and operation out by the Interstate, five miles from the original.
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Today's Featured Article - Harvestin Hay: The Early Years (Part 2) - by Pat Browning. The summer of 1950 was the start of a new era in farming for our family. I was thirteen, and Kathy (my oldest sister) was seven. At this age, I believed tractor farming was the only way, hot stuff -- and given a chance I probably would have used the tractor, Dad's first, a 1936 Model "A" John Deere, to go bring in the cows! And I think Dad was ready for some automation too. And so it was that we acquired a good, used J. I. Case, wire tie hay baler. In addition to a person to drive th
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