‘A Dodge dealer’s perspective’ on the government closing his business
Published: June 23, 2009
Updated: June 23, 2009
Recently, 1,889 Dodge/Chrysler and GM dealers saw their franchises simply evaporate.
Al Bilton of Bilton-Behr Chevrolet in Holly Hill, S.C., said, “I do not receive one dime from GM to keep my dealership open. I pay for every car, truck and part I order. I do not think that closing my Chevrolet dealership and putting good, hardworking people out of work relieves our national economic crisis.”
Detroit-area Dodge dealer Marvin Tamaroff wrote the following opinion piece, which is still posted on his dealership’s Web site. The dealership now sells only used and foreign cars.
To reflect current reality, the future tense he wrote it in has been changed to the past. He and the other Chrysler-product dealers lost their fight when the Supreme Court turned down their case, but his voice still deserves to be heard.
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“A Dodge Dealer’s Perspective”
By Marvin M. Tamaroff
Under President Barack Obama’s direction, Chrysler used the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to terminate 789 Dodge/Chrysler dealer franchise agreements arbitrarily, capriciously and without due process of law.
Many of the Dodge/Chrysler dealers were profitable, employed quality employees, support their communities and provide the necessary competition to ensure that customers received competitively priced vehicles. By reducing the number of dealers, you are certain to reduce competition. The undesired effect will be increased prices for cars.
Additionally, Chrysler took away my franchise without compensating me for its value. I have invested millions of dollars to acquire the Dodge franchise, the dealership facility and the real estate. Chrysler transferred my franchise and all the goodwill I created to a Chrysler competitor across the street free of charge.
This occurred despite my Tamaroff Dodge dealership continuously achieving high sales, high customer satisfaction ratings, a 5-star dealer status (Chrysler’s highest award), and over 22 years having built a loyal customer base.
It is like Crystal Night in Nazi Germany in 1938, but instead of the Nazis seizing private property without due process of law and compensation, Chrysler and President Obama are using the power of a federal bankruptcy judge to run roughshod over the rights of Dodge dealers. Chrysler and Obama are purposely avoiding all state laws and some federal laws designed to protect the dealer from the overwhelming power of the manufacturer.
Furthermore, where was the due process for an unconstitutional taking of my franchise rights without just compensation?
I am a World War II veteran and former POW who risked my life to defeat national socialism and Hitler’s tyrannical Nazi regime. Never in my 82 years (50 years as an auto dealer and mechanical engineer) would I have anticipated the president of the United States and an appointed federal bankruptcy judge seizing my property and potentially causing me to go into bankruptcy, and in the process acting as instruments of fascism.
President Obama: Is this the change you promised the American people?
To add insult to injury, Chrysler, at this date, will not buy back any of the dealers’ new car inventory — inventory they pushed on dealers in the last 90 days, threatening that if they did not purchase the cars they would be remembered come “termination day.”
The worst point about this is the painful effect of laying off our people, many of whom have been with our company since the beginning. They are like family. It is like throwing your kids out on the street, with no job, no money and no health care.
Obama is directly responsible for orchestrating this ill-conceived plan.
If the executive branch and judicial branch can successfully complete this illegal seizure of property and transfer of wealth from one dealer to another, then is any American’s private property safe from government seizure?
Sharman’s column appears each Tuesday on the editorial page.
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Reader Reactions
Yes, we did rjma, and I’d hoped by now you’d know better than believing all the Al Gore type stuff (garbage) put out to discourage getting our own resources. There’s more oil than you said, it won’t take more then 2 years to get it, and there’s lots more places then just off shore where our country has oil. The private oil companies gave up years ago, not because of supply (or demand) but because of 10 years of litigation ahead of them for each site they went after with environmentalist and politicians they’d have to get through. I was on the coast of NC when they gave up there. So why can’t Obama create jobs by going after our own resources and having them owned “by the people”? Those would be better jobs then repaving roads like he’s doing now.
EL: You write to defend yourself, maybe to impress the people in your office, who knows, who cares. The answers and solutions are out there. Sharman has pointed to many of them since I’ve been reading, and when I stated one, you just keep talking the same ‘ol same ‘ol, as if you have no ears. (Are you sure you are not running for office?) I’m sure your fellow-office workers know by now you are full of it.
The “if he did sentence” I wrote you obviously didn’t comprehend again. It was to show your reaction to any solution Sharman would offer, not to imply he never offered one.
Yes, you do need help with your chronic hate. Why can’t you just contribute to the discussion like rjma and others?
In my eyes, the only thing that will make Obama any different then any President we’ve had since Carter, is if he gets medical insurance coverage affordable and every citizen covered in the U.S. without being stuck with tens of thousands of dollars to pay in medical bills, even after insurance pays all they are going to pay.
Other then that, he’s been no different then anyone else I’ve seen in 30 years, so why should we have anything great to say about him, yet?
The only common thread I see in Sharman’s drivel has been Obama=bad. OW, would you PLEASE find something real to say and maybe point out all these solutions Sharman has offered? You say he has offered solutions and then you put “if he did offer a solution” in the very next sentence.
He gets credit when he earna it. No one except for you and your followers thinks he deserves any.
BTW- I see you’re back to that stupid “hate” garbage. You ran out of substane early rhis time didn’t you?
So I see that Wade and Mike are now working together as co-conspirators. OW- Didn’t we go over all this offshore oil drilling last year. While I said back last summer that yes we ought to be able to drill without causing irreparable harm to the environment, it simply will not make a dent in what we pay at the pump. Oil is a world commodity. Our offshore oil would add at best a few more % supply. That would translate to maybe a few cents at the pump. The vagaries of the market make that difference meaningless.
He has EL, you just can’t see it. And he does one article at a time. In this case, his “WE THE PEOPLE” article that would be the solution and who it is that needs to change. And once we wake up and realize that we have to vote better people in, rather then the same ‘ol same ‘ol, then maybe the solutions will be implemented.
You can mention all the President’s you want, but we are in the ‘here and now’ and now is the time to do something about it.
Your history of the President’s is good in a nutshell, but once again, is not different then Sharman’s because you don’t mention what we have to do as a solution that is any different than Sharman has in the past. You just don’t want to admit it, as that would not go along with your personal agenda. And then if he did suggest a solution, due to your hate of him, you’d do the opposite so you would not have to give him any credit.
Would you PLEASE find something real to say??
How does reducing the number of dealerships help the car manufacturer? It seams counter-intuitive. If you are a manufacturer, wouldn’t you want your product in as many stores as possible? If you sell you product to Kohls and Target, how would you increase sales by stopping sales to Target?
These dealerships should get together, form a co-op. and import cars from China.
The government should do what Mitt Romney suggested and get out of the car industry today.
OW you run on and denigrate other people’s intelligence while actually demonstrating very little of your own. You did not really offer a solution, you just spouted what others say. However, I do agree that like it or not someone has to smack big business in the head and start dumping the thieves. If it takes a little socialism then I can live with it.
Jimmy Carter said we needed to be energy independent and he got voted out while the Saviour Ronnie came in and blew that energy independence thing right out of the water. Where are we now? Bush ignored it. Clinton Ignored it. W really ignored it. Why doesn’t Michael comment on that? Sharman’s “story” mentioned ONE president and offered NO solution. Typical for Sharman.
Wade, sadly, difficult decisions have to be made. When dealerships sign up for these types of franchises, this is unfortunately, one of the bad things that can happen ...in the fine print.
My problem with it, is the transparency! How are the dealerships chosen that are closing? What criteria is used to make the decision? If this administration is not open and clear to the American people as to what he’s doing, he is going to go down with the same criticisms that we’ve all had for previous administrations.
It’s high time some of these big businesses that we’ve had to bail out in the past, has some oversight and regulation. What do you think has hurt our economy? It’s big business run a muck!!
EL, if you could read and understand, you’d be so intelligent. You first asked for solutions. Since you hate people mentioning a problem and no solution, I asked for yours. So, do you have any? Well, I believe the answer to that would be “none”, as usual.
But in your own words, does lie some of the solutions, but since you just spout what others say, you don’t get the full picture.
Yes, Obama or our government, should do what other countries and states and done, and “take over” or regulate new oil industries, and thus we would as a nation, have more control over what goes on and have plenty of our own oil. After all, the natural resource does not belong to any particular oil company, thus they can’t sell it where ever they want, nor keep all the profit, and thus can’t keep doing what they’ve done, which is keep us dependent on oil. All we have to stop is 1/3 of our dependency on Arab oil, and we’ll break the back of those that are striking our economy down.
The answers or solutions have been there for years. We just haven’t had the government we have needed since the first oil crisis in the early 1970’s doing what they should have been doing.
For some reasons, Americans keep electing people that don’t have our best interest in mind.
I told you a while back that I probably would surprise you on what I actually do believe, and that I don’t think Obama is doing that bad of a job. I believe in a form of socialized medicine much like Obama is proposing, in order to give competition to the doctors and insurance companies. But, unfortunately, he’s also part of the establishments hands that do not want change, just say they do to get elected. As a lawyer, do you think he’ll go for tort reform so doctors don’t have to pay so much in malpractice insurance?
Yes, the solutions have been there all along. This Sharman story is just another example of what happens to innocent people when the solutions are not implemented in time.
Guys, you are missing the point.
THE FEDS ARE CLOSING PRIVATE BUSINESS, running rough shod over any contract laws…how can they do that? and it’s right there for all to see and noone is speaking up! If they get away with it..what chance do us little guys have?
The auto industry is secondary to the story in my mind!
Give me a break OW, “solutions offered for years and rejected”? Which one is your partisan hack boyfriend offering? Why, I beleive the answer to that would be “none”, as usual.
The private oil companies will drill for it and sell it wherever they can make the most profit (unless you are suggesting Obama take them over??). The arabs will reduce their production, thus keeping the price up, and make the same profit for doing even less. More oil is not the answer. Reducing our dependency on oil is.
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