Jeff - That's the best news I've heard all week. Congratulations.
I also thought it was cool that I heard about your good news from one of our members via PM yesterday morning -
Good news travels fast.
While I don't know the details of your situation I always got the impression your store was terminated because you were an easy mark. Chrysler needed to close a set number of dealers to satisfy the Task Force and the Business Centers had the dirty job of determining who got killed off.
In your case it was easy for the BC to justify your termination because you had a non-conforming facility. The BC knew you had plans for a new facility but they didn't care they just needed to hit a number.
Auburn Hills knew they could kill off your store and then issue you and 49 other dealers a LOI to get your store back. It was a PR stunt by Chrysler and it worked -
many Americans still think Chrysler offered their dealers an opportunity to get their stores back.
In my opinion, your store and countless others were killed off to appease the Task Force and help the President sell the message that Chrysler's bailout was a
"shared sacrifice." I'll go so far as to predict that Chrysler knew they were going to offer you a LOI when they killed off your store - they just needed one more kill to make the Task Force happy.
Your business was destroyed and you were left in the trenches trying to explain to your customers, community, employees and vendors how Chrysler's actions would impact their lives.
Congratulations on your success - it was a hard fought battle that never needed to happen.