oe Cauley was excited about his
first day on the job in May 2009

at his father's Chevrolet dealer-
ship in West Bloomfield.

This scion of a long-estab-
lished dealership family had just
graduated from Northwood Uni-
versity in Midland — a school specializing
in coursei.vork for the "fortunate" children
of automobile dealers.
However, there was no college class that
could have prepared him for the jolting
turn his life would take that day.
Young Joe Cauley's father, Jeff — who
inherited the dealership from his own
father, Jack, four decades earlier — was
at an off-site meeting that day when he
called to ask if a letter from General Mo-
tors had arrived.
The older Cauley knew his corporate
parent was in the process of notifying
dealers of their "status," by way of over-
night mail. The status, in this case, was
whether Cauley and his son would live to
see another day as members of the Chev-
rolet family.
Dealers had been made aware, primarily
through media reports, that GM would be
required to truncate its national dealer-
ship network as a condition of receiving
federal bailout money.
"Open it and see what is says," Jeff
Cauley remembers saying to his son, add-
ing that he felt confident the letter was
essentially pro forma — that his franchise
would be spared the agony befalling other,
less profitable, dealers.
"It sure doesn't look like good news to
me," Joe reported. "We're being terminat-
ed! What do we do now?"
The question of franchisees' "status,"
which permeated the company's national
dealer network, apparently found West
Bloomfield an appealing target; Audette
Cadillac, adjacent to Cauley, unwillingly
drew the short straw, too.
The shuttering of Audette Cadillac,
a West Bloomfield-based concern since
1975, was a double blow that underscored
the reality of the situation; nearly 1,550
franchises nationwide have been termi-
nated within the last two years. Audette
and Cauley ceased operating under the
auspices of GM last fall, effective Oct. 31,
2010.
The Audette site now sits empty, up
for sale, and has thrown a cloud over the
highly visible — and once prestigious —

18 January 2011 I

REDHEAD

What happens when a "newer,

leaner General Motors" comes to your town?
Ask West Bloomfield.

By Bill Carroll

20-acre tract of land on the west side of
Orchard Lake Road near the Northwest-
ern Highway-14 Mile Road triangle.
A "for sale" sign at the front of the
Audette property, owned by Bloomfield
Hills resident Mark Audette, son of the
founder, says commercial real estate
company CB Richard Ellis has the listing
of the nine-acre site with an asking price
of $5 million.

DEAR JOHN, THIS IS GOODBYE ...

GM's "classy" way of breaking the news
to its dealers, and the subsequent termina-
tion process, left bitter feelings with both
the Cauley and Audette families. Yet, Cau-
ley told customers he fought very hard to
remain a Chevrolet dealer "... apparently,
however, we did not fit into the plans of
General Motors," he said in a statement to
his clients.
His battle included an in-person meet-
ing with several GM executives at the
company's headquarters in downtown
Detroit. He pointed out that Cauley Chev-
rolet had a "very high customer satisfac-
tion rating," was "one of the top four Chevy
dealers in the Detroit metro area," and had
been a "high volume Corvette sales leader
nationally."
In the end, however, he reluctantly
acknowledged that "... we found ourselves
in the wrong location in GM's master plan
of downsizing; they were going by the
numbers." In its heyday, Cauley Chevrolet
sold 1,600 cars a year.
Mark Audette, too, is dismayed about
GM's actions, but is reluctant to talk
publicly other than to point out that he
was a bit puzzled by the decision, given
that Audette Cadillac was 20th in Cadillac
sales volume nationwide.
"Fortunately, almost half of our 80
employees got jobs in sales and service at
LaFontaine Cadillac (in Highland). We're
just finishing up the details here."

One of his former salespersons is his
cousin Mary Ann Audette of Commerce,
who hooked on with LaFontaine selling
Caddies, Buicks and GMC trucks. While
still dismayed, she is sanguine about her
new digs further north.
"We all were absolutely shocked when we
received the termination notice," she says.
"We felt Audette Cadillac had been doing a
great job for GM. But now, I'm aggressively
trying to win back my old customers."
The Cauleys, for their part, are stay-
ing in West Bloomfield and have begun a
new life," in two buildings, refashioning
the former Chevrolet facility into Cauley
Performance Automotive.
The other showroom, Cauley Ferrari,
remains, and is the only Ferrari dealership
in Michigan — and only one of 35 in the
United States; the average Ferrari costs
about $280,000.
GM spokeswoman Ryndee Carney
declined to comment on the Cauley and
Audette cases, other than to point out
they were given "some financial assis-
tance" along with the other terminated
dealers.
A number of dealers nationwide ap-
pealed their termination through an
arbitration procedure, and 806 GM deal-
ers were reinstated, according to Carney;
4,500 dealerships remain from GM's
original total of 6,049.
Cauley declined arbitration in favor of
GM's "financial assistance." Mark Audette
wouldn't comment on arbitration.

"

GM: 'WE HAD TO CUT'

GM's Carney explains: "We went
through a bailout, a bankruptcy, cut four
brands and saw our market share drop to
about 20 percent. We just had to be vi-
able. We had to cut dealerships. We based
our decisions on customer satisfaction
rates, sales volumes, location and other
factors."

Jeff Cauley said he understands GM's
basic premise of wanting fewer dealers
and then investing in them to make them
stronger, "but you just cant do that to

old-time successful dealerships," he says

— while also conceding the government's
bailout was necessary to save GM.
Cauley's former sales territory has been
absorbed by Serra Chevrolet, which opened
last spring in the former Saturn dealership
on Telegraph north of12 Mile in Southfield.
But Cauley wonders, "Why wouldn't they
want a beautiful and modern point like ours
in affluent West Bloomfield?"
Other local dealers, including Joe Pan-
ian Chevrolet on Telegraph south of 12
Mile in Southfield and Dick Morris Chev-
rolet on Haggerty in Walled Lake were
also terminated; the latter is now Morris
Motors and sells used vehicles.
"I hear from various sources thatthe result
isn't working out too well for GM," Cauley
says. "The remaining dealerships aren'tpick-
ing up the sales slack, mainly because many
customers of the terminated points are
upset and going elsewhere to buy"
West Bl o o mfield Township's assessor, Lisa
Hobart, said there's no discernable financial
impact from the vacant Audette land be-
cause the owner continues to pay taxes on
the property. Cauley's assessment has been
reduced somewhat because the company
released 30 employees and ceased some
operations. Hobart won't say whether any
tax abatements or other incentives might be
offered to prospective buyers of the Audette
site.
So, as with many of their friends and
neighbors, the Cauley family has been
forced to develop a "plan B" in order to
survive in the brave new world the father-
son team now finds themselves in.
"With our strength in Corvettes and
Ferraris, and the fact that my son and I
both race cars, it just makes sense to go
more in that direction," Jeff Cauley says.
"We have cool cars, trucks and all
things automotive, perfect for this up-
scale area."
Joe Cauley, 23, of West Bloomfield, is
now used vehicle manager of the opera-
tion. He says he has gotten over the shock
of that GM letter his first day on the job,
and is "excited about the challenge" of the
new Cauley business.
"And it's nice to be an independent
dealer and not have to answer to anyone
else." RT

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