I was sitting at a really, really, REALLY long light recently, and casually looked out the window at the dealership on the left. I did a double-take when I saw that nearly the entire lot appeared to be filled with Chrysler Town & Countrys. Surely not, I thought…
But as I looked at the other end of the lot, guess what? There were even more, save one lonely white Escalade on the end. Maybe it’s afraid of being beat up by all the other minivans for being more popular! Either this dealer ordered WAY more T&Cs than they could sell, or they got an amazing deal on some ex-rentals. I rather like the current Town & Country (and they have a deep forest green color that I love!), but maybe they should have some other cars out front?
True to form, the traffic light stayed red long enough for me to get these nice clear images. Anybody need a T&C? These guys have a ton!
Somewhere is a Chevrolet regional sales manager thinking, what the heck?
Well, seeing as how the Chevrolet showroom looks like the much larger and newer building, I imagine that this dealership is on a corner, with the Chevrolet inventory facing towards the other road.
Also, was this in the US? Its odd to see just a “Chrysler” dealer, no Jeep or Dodge or even Fiat? That means that all the Chrysler side carries is 200’s 300’s and T&C’s.
It’s in Illinois. The curb space in front of the Chevy logos was populated by Corvettes when Google street view was spying, but you’re right that the dealer is huge and only about a third of the Chevy store is visible in this photo. They do seem to exclusively sell new Chryslers and Chevys, odd as it may seem. I guess the brands complement one another, as Chrysler has no trucks and Chevy has no minivans.
This dealer is near me in East Moline. The Chevrolet building dates to the ’70s but got an extensive facelift a couple of years ago. There is an even bigger lot to the right of the Chevy building; that’s where all the Chevys are at.
This was originally a Chevrolet and C-P dealer so they do not have Jeep or Dodge. There is a full-line Mopar dealer in nearby Moline (separate cities).
I have always been a fan off odd franchise dealerships, I remember seeing a Jeep only dealership, post Chrysler buyout and post closing of Eagle, so it was just “Jeep” thats it.
Its like a GMC only dealership, I’ve seen that before, or a Ford-Mercury dealership, with out Lincoln, or even a Mercury only dealership(never seen that) but I think they did exist.
There used to be a Ford-Mercury dealer in Aledo, a little town about 30 miles from the QC. I think it closed around 2005. There was also a F-M dealer in Mt. Carroll, IL and a Chevy-Olds dealer in Savanna, IL. That last one is a Chevy-only dealer now.
The dealer I bought my Escape from in Tawas City was a Ford-Mercury lot until Mercury died. They own a Ford-Lincoln store up in Alpena so they bring a few Lincolns down and throw on the lot.
There used to be a GMC only dealer in Romulus, MI for a long time, I think it’s gone now…
Chevy-Olds wasn’t that strange, there were a couple down here, most of them are just Chevy only now. Chevrolet-GMC is a strange one, I’ve seen that before.
Until just a few years ago Waukegan, IL had a Jeep-only dealer. Delf’s Garage.
The last Mercury-only dealership closed in late 2007 or early 2008. http://www.autoblog.com/2007/12/18/last-mercury-stand-alone-dealership-closes/v
From when I lived in Niagara Falls, ONT…albeit decades ago, Chevy-Olds was a common combination in the Great White North. Probably still is, although I’d seen more than a few here in the States in the 80’s & 90’s.
World’s largest Plymouth dealer sat a few miles west of here: West End Motors in Wintersville, OH. Of course they weren’t a big lot…but with virtually every other one a Chrysler-Plymouth store, it was easy to be the world’s largest Plymouth-exclusive franchise. DiNovo in nearby Steubenville was Chrysler-Dodge (I say “was” because I’m not sure they’re even still around).
At one time, there were at least three standalone Jeep dealers in my area, all of which were former AMC-Jeep dealers that were left only with Jeep after Eagle went kaput. Back in the mid ’00s, all seemed to lose this status right around the same time. It was my impression at the time that Chrysler was actively trying to eliminate standalone Jeep dealers, and to consolidate into “all Chrysler” dealers as much as feasible. Two of the dealers which were very small simply lost their franchise and ceased to be new vehicle dealers (meanwhile, a larger nearby Chrysler dealer began selling Jeeps); the third began selling other Chrysler brands along with Jeeps.
We used to have a couple of standalone GMC dealers around here as well, although I’m not sure if that’s still the case. As with Chrysler, over the past several years there has been a lot of consolidation of multiple GM brands into the same dealerships.
Chas mentioned seeing a lot of Chevy-Olds dealers in Canada. In Canada years ago, most GM dealers were either Chevy-Olds or Pontiac-Buick-GMC (I’m not sure how they handled Cadillac); it was unusual to see those brands sold outside of those combinations. This arrangement was due to the lower population density throughout much of Canada, and the greater popularity of lower-priced cars and pickup trucks there. If each brand had set up its own dealer network, rural areas would not have been able to support a dealer for each brand, and a dealer network which didn’t have low-priced cars or pickup trucks could not have survived. So all of the GM brands were consolidated into two networks that each had a low-priced brand, a mid-priced brand, and a brand of trucks, and GM strove to have at least one of the two networks available in all areas. (Note that Pontiac in Canada was historically more downmarket than in the U.S., often selling cars that were based more heavily on Chevrolets than on U.S. Pontiacs.) Chrysler and Ford also had similar dealer network arrangements in Canada years ago.
In the U.S., each GM brand manged its own dealer networks independently from one another. It was not unusual historically for the same dealer to sell multiple GM brands, but it was far from universal, and there were no standard combinations that you saw all the time like in Canada. The only real “rules” were: 1) to the extent that brands were paired up, they were typically not immediately adjacent to each other on the Sloan ladder, in order to avoid the same dealer competing against itself as much as possible (i.e., you wouldn’t see Chevy-Pontiac or Olds-Buick, you’d see things like Chevy-Olds and Pontiac-Cadillac), and 2) non-Chevrolet dealers who wanted to sell trucks sold GMCs (but it was by no means universal for non-Chevrolet dealers to do so).
Some of the Jeep only dealers date back to the AMC or Kaiser era. In my part of the world until 3 years ago the Jeep dealer also had the Nissan franchise before the store closed its doors.
My uncle was a Jeep mechanic for decades…for FJ Keck in Butler, PA. Finally forced out of business after Chrysler took over. They dated back to Willys and survived Kaiser and AMC.
Not carrying the other Fiat brands means that the T&Cs likely account for the bulk of the sales and profits for the Chrysler side of the operation so it isn’t too surprising that the front line is filled with them.
“You gotta know the territory!”
That’s pretty much what the parking lot looked like at every home schooling convention we attended as the boys were growing up…
You homeschooled? Deja vu.
Me three. Well, I was homeschooled, not the homeschooler. Everyone ELSE had these though. We had a Honda Accord station wagon.
Same here (on the part of being homeschooled).
Ditto.
Anticipation of huge Tax Refund Sales?
Or do they have insight that there will be a Gen 7 shortage soon?
Who would have thought about this possibility not too many years ago – a Chevy dealer proudly displaying Chrysler minivans in his front row.
I don’t think some realized that this is a Chrysler and a Chevy dealership, nothing uncommon about blasting a bunch of TC’s on the front row to sell ’em (however, there are a ton!).
I know, how hard is it to see the Chrysler sign on both the building and the marquee outside?
I am surprised to see a Chrysler brand only store in IL. What town is it? Is the Chevy store still open? Don’t see any Chevys.
Many Chrysler only dealers that lost Plymouth, but didn’t add Dodge/Jeep, got closed.
There were some left over Jeep stand alones stores closed, also. Some once were AMC/Jeep/Renault dealers and even had AMC logo signs still hanging.
Some AMC Dealers never really got the memo, either: http://www.amcrc.com/feature/march2007feature.html
WOW, how cool is that!?
Now, if they were all restored and the building looked new…….hate too see it all rust and decay away.
I’ve seen those pics before, its got an eerie life after people vibe.
Love to have someone scout out that dealership…see if any of those relics are unsold models. One blog said there were cars with window stickers still in place…were they leftovers? And what kind of business can afford to just eat a loss like that? Generally new cars to a dealer are “floorplanned” – bought on a bank line of credit.
Anyway…love to find out what’s with that place. Obviously the owner’s cracked…but how cracked? And is there anything worth scavenging?
If I had the $$$ and the extra garage space, I would not mind having a Town and Country Limited sitting in there. I wonder if they still offer the Swivel&Go option?
My respect and admiration for these vans grew considerably when a black 2011 model was used as the final ride for my father to the cemetery. The funeral home wanted a ton of money to use the hearse to make the three hour trip, but offered the use of the brand-new T&C.
So they will always hold a special place in my heart.
Seen below is a 1984 Plymouth Voyager minivan that appeared at a recent AACA show in Hershey PA. It has since obtained Preservation Class status and is probably the nicest original series Chrysler minivan left on the face of the earth.
NIce! The WPC Museum had the very first Voyager that Lee drove off the line, it’s still as new.
I have fond memories of my father’s ’84 Voyager with a standard on the floor. He loved that van so much that he promised us he would replace it one day.
And he did. He has a 2007 T&C.
And a little humor to end the evening…
I’m guessing these are new, and the manager/owner just ordered a shitload of them. I obviously can’t speak for this dealership, but where I work we distinguish the pre-owned vehicles with window flags, lest some customer thinks we still have new 2012 Fusion’s in stock.
Excuse me Mr. Snitkoff but I believe Kevin Martin has a No Swearing rule for CC which doesn’t allow for uncensored swearing here at CC.
Fair enough, sir. I’ll keep my sailor’s mouth on this end of the internets.
Probably a reason. Anyways this day and age when everything is computerized, the OEs know where every new unsold vehicle is in the world. Technically a car has priority to be sold at the dealership in which is resides, but cars are frequently moved around to meet demand. I know of a retired gentleman in my old neighborhood that does this now he just drives cars back and forth between dealerships where that specific model or type is requested.
Green Chevrolet Chrysler – 59 T&Cs
Think about that, 59.
Wow, I worked at some car dealerships where we would really start to worry when we got to those types of numbers of one vehicle in stock, we got to like 60 or so Sunfires once, it seemed like we were infested with them.
When the kids were younger and we decided we needed a minivan I searched the inventory of the local dealers to see what they had. One Ford dealer had 30 some odd absolutely identical Windstars, same color, same options ect, as well as a dozen or more, varied ones. At first I thought it was a mistake but checking the sticker showed different VINs and sure enough they had a dozen or so on the sales lot and a storage lot a couple of blocks away had the rest of them.
A local Chrysler, Dodge, Ram and Jeep dealer has ran adds proclaiming how they had over 100 of the new “hot selling” Darts in stock and then it went up to over 125 of them. Meanwhile their other ads tout how they have over 800 new vehicles in stock, so ~15% of their inventory is of the slowest selling product of all the brands they carry.