Washington, D.C. – The owner of a Sylva car dealership testified today at a Congressional panel chaired by Rep. Heath Shuler about the critical role that auto dealers play in rural economies as employers and providers of community services in their regions.
Daniel Allison, president of Allison’s Chevrolet, told the House Committee on Small Business’ Subcommittee on Rural Development, Entrepreneurship and Trade that his company employs 16 people and pays hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal, state and local taxes a year. Despite his productivity, Allison’s business has been placed on the list of dealerships that General Motors Corp. plans to stop selling cars to next year, an action that would lead to the closing of his dealership.
“Since there is so much mutual benefit in the relationship between automakers and their rural dealerships and the communities that they service, I am hopeful that my dealership and the thousands of successful rural dealerships across America will be able to continue their businesses,” said Allison, whose grandfather established the business in 1935.
Traditionally, domestic automobile makers have relied on a network of 20,000 local dealers throughout the nation to sell vehicles to the American public. A major downturn in car sales in the past two years helped propel GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy and led to their decision to close a substantial number of dealerships.
“Unfortunately, like all parts of the automotive industry, dealerships are facing unprecedented economic pressures,” said Rep. Shuler, D-Waynesville, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Rural Development, Entrepreneurship and Trade who held the hearing.
“Not only do automobile dealers provide important services for rural Americans, but they are significant employers,” Shuler said. “In a town like Sylva, North Carolina, with a population of just 2,400 people, a car dealership is an important employer.”
Don Thomas, owner of Thomas Motors in Moberly, Missouri, also, testified about the vital services these businesses provide local communities. In addition to offering a convenient point of purchase for rural Americans looking to buy a new vehicle, small auto dealers make important contributions to local charities, churches and other nonprofit groups, he said.
Nationally, car dealerships employ more than one million workers and support a payroll of $54 billion.
“These small firms are facing enormous difficulties that are challenging their ability to stay in business and serve their local communities,” Shuler said. “It is my hope that GM, Chrysler, and other manufacturers will recognize the economic and intangible contributions that their local, and particularly rural, dealers make to their communities and to the success of the companies they represent.”
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