Don’t forget the lessons learned during dealer reinstatement arbitrations  General Motors has published dealers’ Retail Sales Performance Reviews for the calendar-year-to-date June, 2011. The report has also been posted on GM’s DART website. T

Before the credit crisis, many dealers felt an investment in real estate was relatively riskless. Retail real estate prices had steadily increased for years. Few considered the possibility of a national decline in real estate prices. Manufacturers to

It appears that all the push back from dealers has paid off. At the time I write this article, General Motors is issuing two-year extensions to the deadline for dealers to complete their Essential Brand Elements facility upgrades. It is not yet clear

A few times each year, I ask one of my law partners to prepare a guest article for this column. BSM partner, Robert Bass, has graciously provided an article addressing an important but often forgotten aspect of any franchise sale transaction – valu

I’m not a gambling man, but I bet if I asked 100 dealers on the street what they thought about STAR, the majority of them would think I was asking about science fiction, entertainment or even some sort of new hybrid. However, what I would really be

Dealers often assume that dealership real estate is a good investment. In this low interest rate environment, why wouldn’t you buy your property, particularly if you have the capital for a down payment and can get financed? Commercial mortgage rate

I wrote in last month’s column that the expected limited availability of vehicles across all linemakes, and in particular Japanese manufacturers, was going to be serious concern on several fronts. At this writing, Toyota’s production is currently

So, I get a call from a good-sized import client I had restructured in service about ten years ago.  “Quick service is out of control…customer retention is down, the repair order count is behind year-to-date, cars are lined up–shop

Kia’s trained technician warranty reimbursement policy So one of your long-time, highly experienced Kia technicians has allowed some of his training to lapse, but he continues as usual to perform warranty repairs according to all Kia repair procedu