Monday, November 2, 2009

GM to restore a limited number of dealer franchises

General Motors Co. CEO Fritz Henderson had told lawmakers that it was close to announcing it plans to restore a limited number of dealer franchises that were mistakenly terminated but would not provide compensation to any dealers, according to Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich.

The congressman said that Henderson addressed the Michigan congressional delegation and declared that an agreement will be announced very soon. Hoekstra said that during the conference call, Henderson had said that GM wants to review plans to shut down 1,350 dealerships by October 2010 to see whether any errors were made. No additional compensation would be provided to rejected dealerships since they’ve received financial assistance when the wind-down plans were announced. Hoekstra commented that the plan sounded vague and inadequate. He cited an example; he said that GM claimed it would reopen some franchises if errors were found. The problem is that GM didn’t enumerate what those errors might be.