Now that I am finally home I took my Suburban in for service and the owner was there. We've become friends over the years, she runs a great little operation that GM has been trying to force her out of for years. But what she shared that has happened since I'd last visited with her five months ago is ... criminal.
GMAC has been the financing arm for floor planning vehicles for them for years. Of course GM dumped GMAC and they became their own entity and promptly joined the others reaching to the governement for a hand out. I wrote before how they had changed the terms and raised the rates. But this last summer they took it to a whole new level.
They came into this dealership and told her they had 'updated' documents for the changeover they were making and she needed to sign new agreements. She is street smart and her Dad started the dealership a few decades ago, so she said no, she'd read them first. They assured her it was 'routine'. In checking it out she realized they were now saying, to continue them floor planning her vehicles she would have to sign over to them every single thing she and the other two owners - owned. As in personal bank accounts, savings, home you name it. She refused.
They informed her to sign it or they would terminate her floor planning and she owed them for every car on her lot. Imagine that? She refused and they sent notice as of August 31 it was over. Even in our world of increasing car sales, Auto Czar's and the new GM, she was on her own. And for banks these days, despite the condition of the auto industry and all the government money being handed them they consider floor planning cars a bad investment.
She worked tirelessly with a local banker who knew the industry, with some friendly folks in the Minority Dealers group and got connected with the SBA, Small Business Administration. Seems they had done something good for a governement agency and had put in place a floor planning deal when the bankruptcies first happened. Bottom line they all worked together and got her, her own floor planning deal with a local bank backed by the SBA. She'd done it and nobody could believe it.
Tune in tomorrow and see as Paul Harvey used to say ... the rest of the story. See GM's unbelievable response and the criminal part. I'll give you a hint. When she called her Regional Representative she said, "Well it cant be approved". When this lady said well it is and I want to order 2010 cars ... the Regional person from GM said, "Exactly what is the SBA?"
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