Taylor-Parker keeps Chevy dealership

SANDPOINT — Taylor-Parker Motor Co. has been a Chevrolet dealership for 80 years.

Friday, company officials learned that isn’t going to change.

“We’re a Chevrolet dealer and we’re open for business,” said Brett Taylor.

Taylor-Parker officials found out Friday that the company is not one of the 1,100 Chevrolet/General Motors dealerships being eliminated by the struggling automaker as part of an effort to trim an oversized network and return to profitability.

“We began 1929 as a Chevrolet dealer and we intend on being around for another almost 100 years,” Taylor said.

The news came 24 hours after the Sandpoint dealership learned it was one of almost 800 nationwide being closed by Chrysler as part of similar cost-saving measures in an effort to reorganize and stay alive in a severe recession.

After learning they would no longer be a Chrysler dealership, Taylor-Parker officials said Thursday they would focus on sales of General Motors and Chevrolet products — along with pre-owned automobiles — which  they said historically make up nearly 90 percent of the company’s sales.

GM’s announcement Friday is more bad economic news for dealers, communities and businesses still reeling from Chrysler’s similar nationwide dealer cuts a day earlier. Both automakers are scrambling to reorganize and stay alive in a severe recession that has devastated sales of cars and trucks.

Several hundred of the roughly 1,100 GM dealers already knew they were headed for closure, but most of them learned for the first time Friday. The dealerships will be eliminated when their contracts end late next year.

Including Chrysler’s decision Thursday to eliminate a quarter of its own, about 1,900 dealerships learned in a matter of 48 hours that they would be forced either to sell fewer brands or close altogether.

The National Automobile Dealers Association, an industry group, says the GM and Chrysler cuts combined could wipe out 100,000 jobs.

—The Associated Press contributed to this report.