Car dealers fight cutbacks

WASHINGTON — As General Motors and Chrysler prepare to shutter thousands of dealerships, car dealers from Georgia and across the nation are rolling into Washington to try and get Congress and the White House help them stay in business.

“We’re planning on visiting members of Congress, senators and essentially anybody who’s willing to listen to our message that dealers are absolutely critical to the viability of auto makers,” said Bailey Wood, spokesman for the National Automobile Dealers Association. “Closing dealerships does not make GM or Chrysler any more viable.”

GM and Chrysler are expected to announce later this week that they’re canceling contracts with as many as 3,400 car dealers nationwide as the automakers struggle to survive. The companies say cutthroat competition between too many dealerships is one reason they’re losing money.

Minority-owned dealerships could be hit the hardest, said Atlanta-area dealer Greg Baranco, whose Baranco Buick Pontiac GMC in Lilburn has suffered a 70 percent drop in sales over the last year.

“Minority dealerships are the most vulnerable because they’re the newest dealers and often in the least-attractive markets,” said Baranco, who plans to speak on behalf of minority-owned dealerships while in Washington this week.

“Their capitalization isn’t as strong because they’re first generation whereas majority dealerships are second and third generation,” he said. “We fear it’s a matter of last in, first out.”

Baranco is among 150 car dealers converging on Washington to lobby Congress.Thursday, representatives of the group are scheduled to meet with President Obama’s auto task force overseeing government investments in the car companies.

The auto dealers group saysmore than 180,000 salesmen, mechanics and others could lose jobs if as many dealerships are closed as expected. “And it’s not like those people are going to be able to go to the dealership down the street to get a new job, because they’re already laying people off too,” Wood said.