Ed Corley Ford Mercury has shut its doors, leaving Española without a Ford dealership for the first time in 73 years.
The Grants-based Corley Motor Group announced May 20 it was reducing its dealerships in New Mexico — it owns eight — among them its Española location.
Corley spokesman Stacey Corley declined to say what day the dealership closed, but its lot was empty by Monday. Corley pointed to slumping auto sales as the basis for the decision.
“The auto business is a tough business,” Corley said. “The decision wasn’t an easy decision, but it was due to economic conditions.”
Corley declined to discuss the dealership’s sales numbers, and referred all other questions to a press release, which stated the company would “continue to assess the profitability” of its dealerships. The Española dealership had 15 employees, Corley said.
The nearest dealership where Ford owners can get their cars serviced is now the Chalmers Ford location in Santa Fe.
The Corley Group bought the dealership about two years ago, the second change in ownership since the Hunter family sold its long-time business to a trio of out-of-state investors who renamed it Rio Valley Ford in 1998.
When C.V. Hunter opened Hunter Ford in 1936, it was among the first Ford dealerships in New Mexico. Hunter’s son, C.L., took over the business in the 1954 and ran it for the following 44 years.
But Española may not be Ford-less for long.
C.L. Hunter, who still owns the dealership building and lot on Paseo de Oñate, said he started getting calls from dealers interested in signing a lease there within a day of Corley’s announcement. He declined to say who the four dealers he has heard from are, saying he had not yet discussed the closure with Corley.
“I think Española will still have a Ford dealer,” Hunter said. “There’s still some franchise opportunities, I believe. The interest is from a couple of people, dealers, from the surrounding communities. Give us a week, and we’ll know who’s interested in coming to Española.”
Española’s two other dealerships with franchises with the “Big 3” automakers escaped the ax after their respective companies announced they would shut down hundreds of dealerships throughout the country. Chrysler announced in a press release last week it will shut down about 800 dealerships by mid-June. General Motors has also announced it would close dealerships, but did not specify how many.
“We’re all right, we didn’t get a letter from GM,” Ted Couer, general manager of the Henry Valencia General Motors dealership, said. “They shut down dealers on a pretty complicated formula, but our score came back above that cut-off area.”
But like Corley, they too are struggling with slow sales.
“Business is bad,” Couer said. “We’re down 50, 60 percent compared to last year.”
Couer said the company has put together a plan to survive the flagging economy, but declined to discuss specifics. He said the company does not foresee employee layoffs.
Salazar Chrysler Dodge owner Dominic Salazar told a similar story — sales have dropped by 25 percent since last year and by 50 percent since 2007.
“The problem isn’t that customers aren’t coming in,” Salazar said. “There’s no credit out there, no one’s lending. We have the customers, the problem is getting them financed.”
Salazar also faulted competition from larger dealers in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, which have larger advertising budgets and lure customers away with fancy TV ads. Already, the Salazar dealership has gone through one round of layoffs, cutting 10 jobs — a quarter of its staff — late last year, Salazar said.
He anticipated business will improve by summer 2010.
“We’ll see who can survive ‘til then,” Salazar said. “But you have to consider the impact to the local economy if we or Henry Valencia were to go under. We’ve got 30 jobs here. Henry’s got about 45. And then there’s just the money we used to give out to the community. We’ve had to cut there, too.”
In 2007, the Salazar dealership gave out about $38,000 to groups ranging from non-profits to Little League teams. Last year that number dropped to $4,000, and this year it’s hovering around $500, Salazar said.
“It’s tough,” Salazar said. “We’ve been here going on three years now. Hopefully we can make it, but people have got to give us a chance.”