GM, NADA and NDC Dealer networks clarify issues

[Bruce Nunnally]

"The consolidation of GM's dealer network nationwide is a very difficult, but necessary part of GM's overall reinvention efforts. During testimony last week before the Senate Commerce Committee on this topic, the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) expressed concern over some specifics in GM's Participation Agreements for our dealers. In his corresponding testimony, GM President & CEO Fritz Henderson committed that GM would meet with the NADA and come to an understanding over these concerns. We are happy to report that after meetings last Friday and Saturday with both NADA and GM’s National Dealer Council (NDC) leadership, we now have a better collective understanding of the issues. As a result, GM will be sending our dealers a letter clarifying various subjects in the Participation Agreement, most notably dualing with competitive makes and performance standards.

"To date, we are very pleased with the overall dealer response to the proposed agreements. Nearly 90 percent of GM dealers have signed or verbally agreed to the participation agreements, while almost 75 percent have done so with the wind-down agreements. In both cases, we expect to have at least 95 percent of the signed documents on hand ahead of our Friday, June 12 deadline.

“While these efforts are extremely difficult for all involved, we believe that the GM dealers moving forward with the company strongly support actions to improve their long-term competitiveness and business opportunities.

"We value the input and relationship with all of our dealers and their hard-working representatives from NADA and the NDC. We will continue to evaluate all GM dealers against a common set of performance standards to ensure that our selection process is fair and robust. It is important to remember that despite the difficulty of these circumstances, the majority of GM dealers support and recognize the necessity of these changes to our dealer network.”