Motor Mile loses Power dealer as GM consolidates

Scottsdale's Motor Mile lost another auto dealership last week when AutoNation Inc. closed down Power Pontiac/Buick/GMC.

The store, at 6640 E. McDowell Road, fell victim to the auto retailer's agreement with General Motors Corp. to consolidate stores, said Marc Cannon, senior vice president of AutoNation. The national chain, parent company of the Valley's Power dealerships, also closed Power Chevrolet at 2646 W. Camelback Road in west Phoenix.

"It's all part of a consolidation plan that GM rolled out, to reduce the number of dealerships in the market," Cannon said.

Cannon said the two dealerships announced their closure the previous week and closed operations as of Sunday.

Power's three other Motor Mile dealerships remain open. They are Power Subaru, Power Chrysler/Jeep and Power Isuzu/Hyundai, all clustered northeast of 64th Street on McDowell Road.

The two shuttered stores had 75 to 85 employees between them, and 40 to 50 of those employees will move to the company's 12 other Valley locations, he said. Others have requested transfers to dealerships in other parts of the country, and some have been laid off, he said.

Cannon declined to give specifics of what would happen to the properties, saying only that they "will be strategically used down the road." AutoNation will make arrangements with GM for the dealerships' inventory of cars and trucks, he said.

AutoNation remains the top operator in the metro Phoenix market, Cannon said, with three Chevrolet stores, a Pontiac/Buick dealership and a Chrysler dealership among its remaining locations. It remains committed to the Valley market and sees opportunity for growth, Cannon said.

"Our dealerships are very much in the black and doing quite well in comparison to the market," he said.

The Power Pontiac closing is the fourth shutdown along southern Scottsdale's dealership row since the spring. It follows:

•  Bill Heard Chevrolet, which abruptly closed its 2-year-old sales location at 8705 E. McDowell Road and its service location at 7224 E. McDowell Road in mid-September. Its parent company, Bill Heard Enterprises Inc. of Columbus, Ga., later filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

•  Scott Toyota, which moved from 6850 E. McDowell Road to the Riverview auto mall at Dobson Road and Loop 202 in Mesa.

•  Scottsdale Nissan, which left its spot at 7000 E. McDowell Road, also for the Riverview mall.

The moves reflect the woes of the auto industry nationwide, said longtime Scottsdale auto dealer Virginia Korte.

"This isn't unique to McDowell Road," said Korte, whose family operated Ray Korte Chevrolet on Motor Mile for decades and owns the property occupied by the former Bill Heard service site. "It's an unfortunate event across the country."

AutoNation Inc.

Business: Largest U.S. automotive retailer, with about 240 dealerships in 16 states.

Headquarters: Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Founded: 1996, when chairman Wayne Huizenga invested in an Atlanta waste management company. It became conglomerate Republic Industries, then specialized in auto sales and changed its name to AutoNation in 1999. AutoNation launched the Power brand in metro Phoenix in 2005, covering the Lou Grubb, Brown and Brown, Pitre and Tempe dealerships.

Employees: 25,000 at the end of 2007.

2007 results: Net income of $278.7 million on sales of $17.7 billion.

Stock: Trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol AN.

Web site: www.autonation.com.

Power Pontiac/Buick/GMC dealership on Motor Mile in Scottsdale shut down.