Another Small Dealer Is Done

Another small dealership closes, this one Foley Chrysler Plymouth after more than 50 years of selling cars on an acre lot in North Quincy, MA.

Owner Bill Foley, 69, says shuttering the place is tough. He bought it 34 years ago. At least many of his 35 employees found jobs at other dealerships, he says.

”I'm ready for retirement myself. I feel bad that we couldn't keep it going by putting someone else in here,'' he tells The Patriot Ledger, a local newspaper.

Many small dealerships are becoming an endangered species in an era of big facilities, multi-store dealership groups and increased competition. The National Automobile Dealers Assn. says that in 1986 there were 7,600 dealers that sold fewer than 150 cars a year. In 2006 there are 3,415 stores like that.

Conversely, only 4,525 dealers sold more than 750 new cars a year in 1986; now there are about 6,450 with that kind of volume.