General Motors' decision to reduce the number of its dealerships in the Kingdom from four to two has created uncertainty among consumers and staff working for the two firms that will lose the dealerships. Many vehicle owners expressed concern about after-sale maintenance and services which are provided by those two firms. They told Saudi Gazette that they did not know what was to happen to the maintenance programs of their vehicles and whether the remaining two dealers would honor them. Abdullah Al-Azmah who bought a car a few months ago from one of the soon to be nonexistent dealers expressed his concern about the maintenance. Al-Azmah wondered why the consumer had to bear the brunt of such decision. “Reducing dealers to two only is not fair and doesn't encourage competitiveness. Having several dealers is beneficial to clients who get to benefit from competitive prices.” Faisal Al-Salihi, who works for a dealership shop, anticipated negative impact and effects on shops which distribute spare parts of the two firms that will lose the dealerships. “Where are we going to get our spare parts when these two dealers are eliminated by GM? We'll suffer big deal from this problem because it's not going to be solved overnight.” Many consumers and shop owners called upon local authorities to interfere in this issue which will have dire consequences for them. Hassan Kutbi, an auto analyst, was surprised by GM's decision. He said the company has over 30,000 dealers inside the US alone and has not cut any dealership out, neither did it reduce its dealers in other Gulf states. “Why did GM choose the Saudi market which is by far the largest in the region?” Kutbi expected many negative effects on car owners once the decision has been implemented. Car prices would rise SR20,000 and some owners of cars would not find maintenance centers in their cities to take their cars to, as these cities have maintenance centers run only by the two dealerships planned for redundancy. Kutbi also said the auto spare part shops which deal with the two remaining dealers will face a great demand when the other two dealers are closed. “Consumers will be the only losers in this case because they will have to wait for long periods at maintenance centers.” Sources said that General Motors decided to stop exporting vehicles to the two dealers starting the end of June 2012 due to several reasons, the most important being that it could not increase the number of vehicles exported to the Kingdom. GM observed an increase in the orders from the Kingdom's dealers in the last two years but is unable to meet the orders because the demand for GM vehicles in the American market has risen following the end of the financial crisis. Many consumers and shop owners have called upon the concerned authorities to step in to resolve the impending crisis. __
