Thread: Anybody left?
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Old 09-28-2021, 05:06 PM   #4
DealerEx
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Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 548
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Yes...not many now days but still a few...mostly those who went through the great purge of 2009 and the CDJ dealers most of all. The 709 and their friends will always be around as long as the forum is. There's just not much left to say about it...it destroyed lives and legacies and will never be forgotten by those of us that were dealers and either saw ours or our friends life's works taken away by the whim of our own government, and how eagerly the bastards in Detroit jumped on the opportunity to do away with so many of the dealers who had carried the company through the tough times. They intentionally targeted many of the small single point dealers who had been with them for many years...some for multiple generations...in favor of larger chain operators and corporate dealership groups. Those smaller family owned dealerships that they had no leverage on (no big loans from CFC to fund new facilities, etc...) were viewed as a thorn in their sides rather than a group of hard working, self sufficient businesses that didn't need or heed their advice on how to run their stores. Those dealers who had signed the updated dealer agreement in 2003(?) without carefully reading the paragraph buried deep in the contract (which was most of the dealers) found out that they had pledged all of their assets (both corporate and personal) as security for their floorplan agreement were bankrupted when they couldn't get rid of their inventory in the 3 weeks between the day they were notified they were "not being carried forward". I know of one dealer in my area that committed suicide by cop when he realized he was losing his life's work and business and his home (under the old agreement the factory was obligated to buy back all new inventory, parts and special tools even if the dealer had violated his obligations under the agreement and was terminated for cause). But under the new agreement they could claim all assets- both personal and business assets - to satisfy their claims even though the dealers had nothing to do with the financial meltdown that was bankrupting the manufacturers. I know dealers that lost not only their businesses and had to eat the parts and special tools that the factory refused to buy back in violation of the dealer agreement, but their homes, land and other assets because the factory had talked them into building new facilities, and in one case I'm familiar with an entirely new dealership in a growing metro area that they financed for them and then terminated him and blocked him from selling it by refusing to approve several different buyers that wanted to buy it, until he could no longer make the huge note payments and they foreclosed on him then immediately gifted it to one of there chain operators. It was disgusting to see how they destroyed 709 of their "partners".

Last edited by DealerEx; 10-09-2022 at 07:55 PM.
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