Sunshine Dodge faces shutdown
Last week I wrote that Chrysler would not renew its franchise agreements with 789 Dodge dealers. This week, the owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu in Melbourne, Florida, has written a letter demanding to know: “HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?”
The owner of Sunshine Dodge is George C. Joseph, and his “letter to the editor,” which I found posted on Prison Planet gives a very real, personal perspective on the meltdown of the auto industry.
Who needs Chrysler?
While Chrysler’s actions aren’t directly shutting down dealerships like Sunshine Dodge, that’s the inevitable outcome — not even guaranteed loans will help — and Joseph explains why in his letter:
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.
Just think, there are 788 other Chrysler dealership owners facing the same situation.
Adding to unemployment
Joseph expresses his concern for himself and his family, who he says will go bankrupt because of this. He adds that the 50 employees who work for him will now be unemployed.
“How will they provide for their families?” Joseph writes. “This is a total economic disaster.”
Insult to injury
Unfortunately, that’s not all. Joseph writes:
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.
He also emphasizes that before Chrysler made this decision, Sunshine Dodge was doing just fine:
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.
A call to action
If you are sensitive to caps lock, you’d best stop reading now. Joseph ends his letter with some lines obviously meant to highlight his anger, resentment and disbelief over what is happening to Sunshine Dodge:
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.
…
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.
A prediction, if I may
Seeing how popular “Letter from a Dodge dealer” has become, I think it won’t be long before we hear from other owners of franchises that will meet the same fate as Sunshine Dodge. You can read the full letter at Prison Planet.
Too late. Sunshine is now Gator.
Chrysler corp is a business with too many employees, (dealers). Chrysler needs to have a reduction in force. Hmmm. Should Chrysler terminate the most productive employees who make lots of money for the company? Or should they get rid of the poorest producers? Mr. Joseph is obviously better at letter writing than at selling new cars. Sunshine Dodge put the emphasis on selling used cars with larger profits and barely complied with the policies of Chrysler; doing as little as possible to maintain the franchise while making huge profits on used vehicles and secondary financing. It is a fact that Sunshine Dodge had become one of the country’s poorest selling Dodge dealerships since the change of ownership from father to son. It is not all that unusual for second generation business owners to fail.
I cannot believe we have let this happen. Socialism at its ..best? I did not vote for this man but was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and the respect that comes with the office. Now it seems my fears have come to be realized. Only six months in and already he is trying to make it near impossible for hard working true Americans to earn a living. Soon it seems, we will all “own” a part of the big three (and everything else). I am afraid this is only the beginning. I can only wonder if my house is going to be taken for the common good. Will I be able to own anything or is it all to belong to Big Brother and I am allowed to use some of it?
This is only the beginning. The current administration is using extortion tactics with the big auto makers to force them into a system of government control. Its their way or the highway. Had enough…Begin now to throw all liberal Democrats out of office. What is happening to this countrydid not happen over night. It has been festering for years and the last administration sat back and did nothing. God bless American..We need him more than ever.
I am saddened for this company and their 50 employees, however, to blame President Obama for this is ludicrous. Everyday in my Industry I see hard working people layed off because the hospital is not being paid by the big Insurance Carriers and the private HMO’s. The President is desperately trying to bring balance back to this horrible situation. One, I should not need to remind you….He Inherited! Lastly, STOP WHINING ( I believe I heard that from a Republican Senator recently?
Mary, get a grip. This whole thing was set up by Jimmy Carter and the Fair Housing Act. Then little Billy Clinton topped it off by authorizing his HUD and Treasury Secretaries to water down the financial requirements of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac so they had to take just about anything sent to them. That started the greed/gravy train by the major lenders which resulted in the mess ‘inherited’ by the current excuse maker in the Oval office. True, the Bush administration should have instituted a regulatory office for all this, but the truth of the matter is that the dismantling of the American economy by the socialists now in office and Congress was set up long ago by previous Democratic administrations. This is all verifiable, if you will just let your factual instead of emotional side take over.
Holly, the reason this is happening in our country is because Obama is a terriost and is satanic. Remember Satan is the most beautiful thing in the world.This man has sold his soul to the devil. We the people have to revolt against this terrorist and his cronies. The best way to start is for everybody to call and e-mail their congressman and senators daily with your complaints about where this terrorist is taking our country. Ask them do they want to keep their job? If so, they had better turn their backs on this Marxist Socialist man or start looking for another job.If all of us and I mean all American bombard Pelosi, Reid, and our own Congressman and Senators they may turn on him. We all have to get involved and not just stand on the sidelines. Get everybody you know out to a Teaparty on July 4th.
Posters: The government did not do this!
It started in the 1970’s when car makers and the union dropped the ball and never recovered it.
The legacy costs and poor quality caused then to be uncompetitive.
Auto plants are being built in New York, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Americans work there but they are foreign owned building product the dealer here can sell…
This is not America anymore! This administration is going to do exactly what they want to do, chuck our Constitution!!!! As long as leaders get their big pensions and excellent health care benefits — forget about those who paid all their lives! Get rid of the people who don’t pay taxes, and this country will be fine!
WHEN WILL AMERICA WAKE UP AND HOLD ACCOUNTABLE ALL THESE BIG WIG CEO’S THAT HAVE MILKED THESE COMPANIES DRY WITH THEIR YEAR IN BONUS CHECKS FOR MILLIONS OF DOLLARS AND NOONE SAYS ANYTHING. THEY KEEP TAKING UNTIL THERE IS NOTHING LEFT AS IT IS NOW WITH CHRYSLER AND OTHER COMPANIES TO COME. WHO IS PAYING FOR ALL OF THIS? THE LITTLE GUY, THE HARD WORKING MEN AND WOMEN THAT BUILT THESE COMPANIES INTO THE EMPIRES THAT THEY ARE. START AT THE TOP AND CLEAN HOUSE AND PUT THE COMPANIES IN THE HAND OF THE WORKING PEOPLE THAT MADE IT WHAT IT ONCE WAS. FIRE ALL OF THEIR BUTTS AND TAKE BACK THOSE FAT BONUS PAYMENTS AND PUT THOSE MILLIONS BACK WHERE THEY SHOULD HAVE STAYED. I CAN’T PRINT WHAT I WANT TO PRINT TO FINISH BUT I THINK I MADE MY POINT. A NOTE TO ALL DEALERS–FIGHT-FIGHT-FIGHT. DON’T LET THEM DO THIS TO YOU!
OKAY ALL YOU OBAMA LOVERS, YOU GOT YOUR CHANGE. THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF THE DOWNFALL OF THE USA. WE HAVE ALREADY BEEN DOWN RATED ON OUR CREDIT RATING AND SINCE OBAMA BEEN IN OFFICE WE HAVE SPENT MORE MONEY THAN ANY OTHER PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE US. LET’S ALL PRAY HE IS OUT IN 2012, UNFORTUNATELY THE DAMAGE WILL BE DONE TO THIS GREAT COUNTRY. POLITICS AS USUAL… NO SO MUCH WORST!!!
This is just the beginning of what is to come. The government just takes a bit here and a bit there, and before you know it they have their hands in everything. It is just unbelieveable how gullible and uninformed people are. Their day will come when they get hit with higher income taxes, gas taxes, bailoutt taxes and on and on. The only thing to put a stop to this is revolt. If no one paid their taxes and Washington received no money for all their programs and pork, it would make a huge statement. They certainly cannot put the whole country in jail. I feel so sorry for these people and all the years they have put into this dealership to have it pulled out from under them. Just wait until Universal Health Care makes it way into the system!
I think it is a shame what has happened to Chrysler and its dealers in genaral. However I have very little pitty in this case, when my wife and I bought our first new car from sunshine dodge about 8 years ago we wanted an option added after the sale (that I offered to pay for) after several calls to the sales department and the service department I was told no it couldn’t be done by every person that would take my call. When I omplained to Chrysler they suggested I try Titusville CDJ. I went to their service department and asked about the option and was told it was absolutly possible and they could have the parts the next day. With a lack of service like I experianced at Sunshine it is no wonder Chrysler wants them closed. I am a small busness owner and if my customer aren’t happy they don’t come back. I don’t think that the bankruptcy of Chrysler is Obama’s doing this started when chrysler was sold to Mercedes and was consquently gutted and dumped to curb some years later. Unfortunatly they never recovered. Which is a shame because I love my dodge car and truck (my wife and I have had 5 now 3 used 2 new and i swear by them).
Just a matter of time before they’re taking our homes and giving them to “minority” citizens like they did to Sunshine Dodge.
Have people totally gone to stupidville or what? Why is happening in this country? Why is all the BS happening with Obama’s administration/Chicago thug politics? This makes me sick to my stomach. Who is John Galt?
I don’t see how this is any different than going through a personal bankruptcy, charging up all your cards–knowing you are going bankrupt all along. That’s what they did.. urged all dealers to take inventory to help the company, made them upgrade thier dealerships. Slow on paying claims until they went into bankruptcy…. That is only the start of it. How will it help? Consolidatiing many dealers in an area to one will not help them sell more cars as a company, more parts or anything. One dealership will not be able to stock all the cars, parts and service the vehicles of all the ones around it they shut down. It will lower the profits of the company. And…it will just be harder for customers to purchase vehicles, get service and parts and lenthen the unemployment lines which will affect everyone. Mostly the bigger dealerships were the ones not on the list, so say goodbye to your family owned personal service like you get from George and others in this town!!
My heart goes out to all of you hard working people who has played by the rules for all these years. Obama said he wanted to spreed the wealth like he told joe the plumber. Their your business has been taken away from you so that the unions can be paid back, and the wealth can be spread around, doesn’t seem fair to me . best of luck dealers! fight this all the way .
Wow… I can see where this guy’s coming from. Franchise owners should not have to suffer for the troubled automaker’s decision to fall out. They should really consider how this is affecting franchise owners and formulate another way to approach and resolve this dreadful issue.
I don’t think it’s a sham. As I understand it under the rules of bankruptcy Chrysler can do exactly what Mr. Joesph says they are doing. In effect he is an unsecured creditor of Chrysler and considering that secured ones have been offered something insulting like ten cents on the dollar this is quite believable.
This must be part of that “Change” thing Obama talks about.
This is a sham. There’s no way that this is legal. If they got the inventory to sell, and had to pay for it, then they should have been recompensed for the loss of inventory, period. It’s become kind of obvious how large corporations treat the people that create the wealth of that company, with a complete lack of gratitude. The whole thing works as a machine, but each part is integral – you need employees running the factories, engineers to design the product, and you also need salesmen to sell the stuff. Each is as important as the next, and certainly more important than protecting the next order of ivory back scratchers, Oriental rugs, or whatever else may have been put in jeopardy. I know that the company is in bankruptcy, and that they were going to close dealerships, but the dealerships slated for closing should have been compensated far better than not at all. I had designs on buying a Jeep Rubicon, and I don’t think I will now.