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Old 01-11-2016, 10:51 AM   #1
XDCX
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Default Elliott Auto Group of Staunton, VA has closed

News reports indicate that Elliott Auto Group has closed their two dealerships in Staunton, VA. The auto group has a Chevrolet/Cadillac store and a Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram store it two separate locations.

For a link to the news report - click here

A different news report indicated Elliott Auto Group had been serving customers in the community since 1962.

As I've mentioned in other threads I'm surprised to read about the closing of a new car dealership in an environment of record sales. While the closing of new car stores remains rare I still surprised that a buy/sell couldn't have been structured if the stores were not performing well.
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Old 01-11-2016, 10:58 AM   #2
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Default Not a small/rural operation...

I was intrigued so I did a quick check and found the following information from the Dealership's website:

-- 110 New and 41 Used vehicles in inventory at the CJDR store
-- 74 New and 41 Used vehicles in inventory at the Chevrolet/Cadillac store

When I read the headline that there was an Auto Group that closed down I assumed it would follow the pattern we've seen of late where the store was in a small/rural market. Given the inventory levels of both stores I remain surprised that a buy/sell couldn't be structured.
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Old 01-11-2016, 11:47 AM   #3
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Default It appears the store was in-play

I did a little more digging and found a news report on 12/14/15 indicating that the store's General Manager wanted to confront rumors and indicated that the dealership would not be closing.

Here's a link to the news report - click here

According to the report, the owners of Valley Honda, Carter Myers Automotive, were not available to answer questions about a possible purchase of Elliott.

Seems too bad that the store had to close and the employees had to lose their jobs if a buy/sell may have been in negotiation. I wonder how much the value of a store drops once it's no longer an ongoing operation?

At some point the factories will pull their franchise and that leaves the owners/creditors of the store with a much less attractive asset to sell.
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Old 06-25-2016, 06:07 PM   #4
ohiobuckeyes
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Well now we have a twist which has not been reported. Looks like the dealership was in the mist of a buy/sell with another dealership.

Here is the link to the story. Link
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Old 06-28-2016, 08:16 AM   #5
DealerEx
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From that article it sounds like the bank holding the notes on Elliot were pushing him to negotiate with the second dealer group from out of town rather than the local dealer. Maybe the local dealer has had a conflict with the local bank in the past and they didn't want him having all the stores in town.
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Old 07-12-2016, 04:17 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ohiobuckeyes View Post
Well now we have a twist which has not been reported. Looks like the dealership was in the mist of a buy/sell with another dealership.

Here is the link to the story. Link
Thanks for updating the thread - I agree that's an interesting twist.


Quote:
Originally Posted by DealerEx View Post
From that article it sounds like the bank holding the notes on Elliot were pushing him to negotiate with the second dealer group from out of town rather than the local dealer. Maybe the local dealer has had a conflict with the local bank in the past and they didn't want him having all the stores in town.
I agree 100%.

It would be interesting to know more about the relationship M&T Bank had with the two different buyers who were negotiating with the seller. Clearly M&T Bank would be looking out for their own best interest but it's unclear to me exactly what their agenda may have been. (In fairness, it's possible M&T Bank didn't have an agenda and despite the allegations they didn't exert any influence concerning the subject buy/sell.)

Concerning the lawsuit, I'm no attorney but I'm guessing that the seller of the two dealerships might be somewhat "judgement proof" and I'm not sure if the remaining parties that have "deep pockets" would ever be found to be liable.

I do feel for the first buyer who lost his deal - it will be interesting to see if the lawsuit ever makes it to the court house.
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