Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 16:47:57 -0400 From: pfeketenopsam.umuc.edu (Paul J. Fekete) Subject: D.C. Area Saab Dealership Closed
As those of you who have been customers of EuroMotorcars in Bethesda, MD (Washington, DC suburb) may know by now, the Saab operation at EuroMotorcars has been sold, effective May 1, to VOB in Rockville. (A letter about this was mailed on May 7th) I spoke with Christine Caltrider, EuroMotorcarsı Saab Sales Manager prior to the sale of the Saab operation, who told me that EuroMotorcars had wanted to hold onto its Saab operation, and move it to a new building on Wisconsin Avenue as a result of space constraints in Bethesda. However, for reasons that were not made clear to me, Saab USA apparently decided to force EuroMotorcars to sell its Saab division to VOB While I suspect that there is more information about this than has been made available to me, I am primarily concerned about the fact that Saab USA has apparently seen fit to eliminate the competition (friendly, I hope) that existed between EuroMotorcars and VOB. This lack of competition can only have a negative effect, from the consumerıs point of view, with respect to both the purchase of Saabs as well as their ongoing servicing. I have tried to speak with senior corporate representatives at Saab USA to see if they could shed some further light on this matter, but two individuals with whom I spoke gave me the runaround, insisting that this decisions was solely an internal decision, (which is undoubtedly true) and refusing to even acknowledge that their faithful Saab customers might be both critical and disturbed by this turn of events. I find this troubling and wanted to share these developments with any others who might have similar concerns. Paul Fekete