These dealer closures hit pretty hard around here. It is now a 250 mile drive to get to the closest Dodge dealership for any sort of warranty work. I'll be keeping my Challenger till the day I die, and there is nothing left on the Jeep that is OEM, and covered under warranty, so it doesn't matter. But my next truck will likely be a brand other than Dodge.

MOPWR2U

 

Sounds like you just may need to move....

 

Here's the full list on another site:

http://assets.bizjournals.com/cms_me...er_closing.pdf

The Central Texas dealers being closed are:

Chuck Nash Jeep Eagle, 1035 N State Highway 123, San Marcos
Allen Samuels Dodge Chrystler Jeep, 1625 N Valley Mills Dr., Waco
Immel Motors, 1279 S. US Highway 87, Fredericksburg
Jeff Hunter Chrysler, 1440 W. Loop 340, Waco
Kirk Jackson Motor Co. 1130 S. Colo. St., Lockhart
Waco Dodge 1220 N Valley Mills Dr., Waco

Luckily none of those are in Austin, so it has no effect on me. Poor Waco.

 

What the deal was, if a dealership was selling less than 40 new Dodge's a month they were closed. It was strictly a business (financial) decision by Chrysler. The fact that our local Dodge dealership had been in business for 75 years, and that Dodge was the only brand vehicle they have ever sold had nothing to do with it.

I'm not moving to a big city, so Dodge just lost future business from one of their best customers. This decision has effectively turned the Dodge brand into a city boy truck, which is a shame. It may take a few years, but the number of Dodge trucks that are operated on farms and ranches around the country is going to decrease dramatically.

 

I read a recent article on the closings, and it was basically saying that the larger cities will be seeing more closing than rural areas. There reasoning was because of so many dealerships competing against each other in close proximity was bad for profits. They cited examples where foreign cars dealers did not saturate certain areas to prevent the dealers from cutting each others market share. I see from the closings list here in Wisconsin this seems to hold true with the dealers listed.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...0r4&refer=news

 

Of the two dealerships closing here, one is in a urban area, and the other is in a densely populated shopping/suburban area. The strategy of the closings might also have something to do with land values. The land where these two are located is at it's peak value, so if they own it they will get more for it, or if they are leasing they will save more. The dealership where I bought my truck that is staying open is located in a small outlying town that has not seen nearly the expansion that it will in future years.

 

Well luckily the dealer who I bought from escaped the cut (Ron Carter Dodge of Texas City) but he dealer who I first dealt with when I was looking was cut (Rogers Dodge of Alvin, Tx)
Funny thing is though that Rogers Dodge was three times the size of my dealer, I would have figured the sold the most vehicles but I guess not. I was figuring my dealer was gonna get cut and I was gonna lose the 16 free oil changes he threw in the deal when I bought the extended warranty, but luckily I was wrong.

 

Is this list a list of the dealers that will die or live? My local dealer is not on that list. That sucks because if KIDD Chrysler Dodge Jeep closes, there will be only a Ford and GM dealer in my town.

 

That must be the cut list as my dealer is not on the list but he told me this afternoon that he made the cut! Pretty happy fella as he stated some of those on the cut list were getting hosed!!!

 

Yeah, I Googled it and figured it out. My dealer made the cut! Lately I have seen that business is getting better every time I pass the dealership. Last week, I saw a car carrier un-loading 5 brand-new Rams to the dealership. That has to be good news for them.