Dealers Skeptical about Review Talks

After late last week both GM and Chrysler announced the end of settlement talks with their terminated dealers, those finding themselves in this situation now fear that the so-called review process is nothing more than a self-fulfilling process through which few will make it.

"They used flawed criteria to target dealerships for wind-down, and now they want to use the same criteria in arbitration," Jack Fitzgerald, Committee to Restore Dealer Rights leader was quoted as saying by Autonews.

As announced last week, Chrysler allows its terminated dealers to seek independent review from an authorized body. The carmaker said it would abide by the ruling of the arbitration panel and offer the revived dealers the right to join the new network.

GM on the other hand is trying a different approach, with accelerated wind-down payments to dealers, additional evaluation, but only in limited circumstances and only for dealers who purchased stock, land or dealerships from GM in the last four years. As GM said, the independent review of the dealers, although accepted, will only "be limited to whether GM selected the dealer to receive the wind-down agreement on the basis of its business criteria."

"Under their plans, a dealer would have had a better chance at winning the Powerball lottery than getting back in business,” Tamara Darvish, Committee to Restore Dealer Rights second leader told the source.

“GM's announced plan to address the issue of dealership closings is a positive step, but we do not believe it establishes a sufficiently meaningful process that provides for a reasonable opportunity for dealer reinstatement,” the National Automobile Dealers Association concluded, adding it will keep trying to contact lawmakers.