Gillman dealerships surviving Hurricane Dolly, skyrocketing gas prices and now GM's dealership consolidation.
"Gillman's safe and Gillman's still gonna be here in this community."
Vice President Scot Dupons is confident the recent announcements by GM will not affect Gillman dealerships in Harlingen and San Benito.
Administrators from General Motors gave a statement to the media over on star.
Mark LaNeve says, "we did send out numerous letters yesterday to approximately 1,100 General Motors dealerships, not franchises, dealerships.”
Dupons says he has not and won't get one of those notices, but feels for those who did.
GM saying the notices are not termination letters, but do inform certain dealerships of GM's future plans.
LaNeve, "The notice essentially stated that their dealerships would not be part of those plans and in essence we didn't plan on renewing their sales and service agreement when it expires in 4th quarter of 2010."
Dupons says dealerships who are spared are relying on consumer confidence to keep sales going and right now the public is scared to buy..
"They don't know if you're gonna be around and they wonder about their warranties and who's gonna repair their cars, but personally, I don't think our dealerships are gonna be affected by it."
Dupons credits the large market that his stores service for staying afloat.
"I can't imagine General Motors would allow 100,000 people to not be represented with their products."
With a growing population, Dupons believes most valley dealerships will keep on trucking.
"There are 1.5 million people here , 8 Chevrolet stores, 2 Honda, a couple of Toyota stores, that's a lot of customers."
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