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Car dealership to stay open  Share
After being notified in May that his franchise agreement would not be renewed with General Motors, Joe Reising, owner of R.L. Reising Chevrolet, began making plans for the future. Reising has no intention of going out of business. In fact, he plans to continue selling cars in the same location his family has been selling cars for 80 years. However, instead of selling new and used Chevrolet vehicles, he will independently sell all pre-owned vehicles. ''We'll do all the stuff we do now,'' Reising said. ''But instead of seeing a whole lot full of new cars, you'll see used cars.'' These changes come as General Motors is radically revamping its company. Almost 3,000 General Motors dealers will not receive renewed franchise agreements. In May, Reising received a ''wind-down agreement letter'' that said he is required to scale down the new car part of his business beginning in January 2010 through October 2010. After October, R.L. Reising will no longer be a General Motors dealer and will no longer sell new cars.
''I know of several dealers in a 15-mile radius that got the same letter as we did,'' Reising said. Reising has 65 new cars on his lot now and will be getting about six more soon. He hopes to have them all sold by the end of the year. ''Once we wind down 100 percent, we'll get into the pre-owned market very very strongly,'' he said. Reising also plans to continue his service facility and expand it to work on makes and models of cars outside of General Motors. ''We have no plans of going out of business,'' he said. He later added that this is a different type of transition, but that the dealership normally sells more used cars than new, anyway. ''We are known for our high quality pre-driven cars and trucks and we are going to continue down that path,'' Reising said. Reising's grandfather, Roy Lewis Reising, began the car dealership in Momence in 1925 and moved it to Beecher in 1929. The family business has since been passed on to Joe's father, Donald, and then to Joe and his brother, Steve, who passed away a year ago. The business has been a feature in the Beecher community for 80 years, and each year it contributes about $40,000 worth of sales tax revenue to the community and employs 13 community members. ''With used cars, we'll have to sell more to generate that same amount of revenue,'' Joe said. At this point, Joe has no plans of cutting back on staffing, but he does anticipate having to travel more to purchase cars and products in the coming year. Joe also reminded community members that car warranties go with the car, not the dealer. This means any new cars that are bought from R.L. Reising will still be under warranty, but Beecher owners will have to travel to other dealers to have warranty work done on them. ''We're not going anywhere ... We're looking forward to the challenge,'' Joe said. Katie Carr is a reporter for Russell Publications.
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