Chevrolet Franchice For Sale in Napa Valley, CA

[XDCX]

I enjoy reviewing Dealership Listings and the following one I received via email last week caught my eye.

Here's the email I received:

For those who have never been to Napa Valley, in my opinion it's one of the best spots in the entire state of California. The scenery is beautiful and the weather is ideal since the summers never get too hot due to the ocean's influence.

Concerning the listing, what caught my eye is the fact that dealership's been operating for a year without a floorplan - that's not an easy feat. While I know there were a number of stores that lost their floorplans due to curtailments in 2008 and 2009 I was under the impression the market for new floorplans was more favorable now.

[XDCX]

While I'm not 100% certain, I think the Chevrolet dealership that was offered for sale in this thread is the same one featured in this news report - click here

I remember when I first posted this thread I did a quick search of Chevrolet Dealers in the Napa Valley area and Epps Chevrolet's location and new vehicle inventory position seemed to be a perfect match. (The dealership featured in the ad didn't have a floorplan and there were no new cars in inventory at Epps Chevrolet.)

Sadly, Epps Chevrolet had to file bankruptcy even though they identified another dealer who was going to inject cash into the business and take a 55% equity position. GM indicated the dealer who was willing to invest in Epps Chevrolet did not meet their standards for sales volume or customer satisfaction and rejected the proposal.

It makes me wonder why GM would allow a dealer to operate for a year without a floorplan and then kill him off once he's found a buyer.

On a final note, I read the reader comments following the story and they were all positive toward the dealership - that almost never happens.

[steve_biegler]

So so sad. The support of the people posting shows what a good job they did. Too bad that they couldn't hang on. The fact that Epps was going to stay on as management and more than likely retain the high csi numbers I think GM just wanted an excuse to close the store. They would have found flaws in ANY person trying to help.
THE BIG GET BIGGER AND THE SMALL GO AWAY. Makes me ill.
An article from the same paper as above link. If you read it it will give you a glimpse of more to come. A small business trying to make it but with customers just worried about the "best price" using their smart phones to find stuff at the store on the web for less money. Nor sure if all this technology is good or not.
http://napavalleyregister.com/star/n...cc4c03286.html

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by steve_biegler

So so sad. The support of the people posting shows what a good job they did. Too bad that they couldn't hang on. The fact that Epps was going to stay on as management and more than likely retain the high csi numbers I think GM just wanted an excuse to close the store. They would have found flaws in ANY person trying to help.

I really wonder what GM was thinking? Why would they allow a dealer to hang on for over a year without a floorline and then kill him off once he has a buyer/investor in hand? If they knew they wanted to close the point it would have been more humane to kill him off when he first lost his floorplan instead of giving him a false hope.

Maybe there's more to the story than what's been reported in the newspaper but based on what I've read it's sad to see a community lose a dealership they really seemed to like.

Originally Posted by steve_biegler

THE BIG GET BIGGER AND THE SMALL GO AWAY. Makes me ill.
An article from the same paper as above link. If you read it it will give you a glimpse of more to come. A small business trying to make it but with customers just worried about the "best price" using their smart phones to find stuff at the store on the web for less money. Nor sure if all this technology is good or not.
http://napavalleyregister.com/star/n...cc4c03286.html

Thanks for adding the link - that was an interesting story.

Concerning people going to their local store and scanning bar codes with their smartphones searching for a better price, I think we're still at the beginning of that wave. As more people get smartphones and the applications become faster and easier to use it's pretty east to predict the future.

I read just the other day that Best Buy is struggling with the same problem - people go to their stores to see and test an item and then go home and order it from a cheaper retailer on the Internet.

[Moshe @ Performance Brokerage Services]

We worked real hard as the brokers, trying to help Mr. Epps. A wonderful dealer, a real gentleman who was heavily involved in the community. General Motors not approving the potential partner was just absurd. The potential partner is a very experienced, established multi-brands dealer including Chevrolet! Unfortunately Mr. Epps was forced to file for chapter 7, after numerous promises by GM (for over 2 years) to help him out including their "commitment" to keep the point open. We wish Mr. Epps the best, in his future business endeavors.

[XDCX]

Originally Posted by Moshe @ Performance Brokerage Services

We worked real hard as the brokers, trying to help Mr. Epps. A wonderful dealer, a real gentleman who was heavily involved in the community. General Motors not approving the potential partner was just absurd. The potential partner is a very experienced, established multi-brands dealer including Chevrolet! Unfortunately Mr. Epps was forced to file for chapter 7, after numerous promises by GM (for over 2 years) to help him out including their "commitment" to keep the point open. We wish Mr. Epps the best, in his future business endeavors.

It must have been heartbreaking for Mr. Epps to see his opportunity to revitalize his store with a partner fall apart at the last minute. To work that long and that hard to put a deal together and then have it be rejected for arbitrary reasons just isn't right.