Local GM dealer drops franchise

Chronicle Staff

Published: Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

The front page ad in the Western Trader said it all for Bill Murner Chevrolet-Buick last week. “After 32 Years...It’s Time for a Change.” Thirty-two years ago Bill Murner Sr. bought Campbell Motors, the General Motors dealer in Custer, at the corner of Mt. Rushmore Road and Eighth Avenue. At the end of this month, Murner’s will no longer be a new car GM dealer, but they will still be selling used cars and trucks on their busy corner. For Murner’s, it’s a simple matter of cost cutting to stay afloat. “The price of doing business with GM was getting too expensive. We had to carry an extensive inventory of GM parts and buy special tools. Then there were certain office charges and national advertising costs which all added up to about $3,000 a month,” said Murner. “Then we had to keep up with all the warranty work and the profit on new cars dwindled down so small,” he said. Selling a new $40,000 pickup, for instance, would net the dealer only $500, according to salesman Rod Petranek. “That’s nothing,” he said. Petranek has been in the business since 1975 when he sold cars in Edgemont. He moved on to work for dealerships in Belle Fourche and Newcastle. He has been at Murner’s since Nov. 1, 1997. “I’ve never seen the car business so slow,” he said last week. This is not just a local problem, but one that has brought our nation’s giant auto manufacturers to their financial knees. Car sales’ screeching slowdown nationwide has resulted in a backup of the so-called Big Three’s new cars at their assembly plants. CEOs of GM, Ford and Chrysler were on Capitol Hill last week begging Congressmen for $25 billion in bailout money for the industry. “I think they ought to file Chapter 11 and reorganize. They should take out the white collar workers and change the contract with the union. The bailout won’t help. The same knotheads are in charge,” Petranek said. There was no sympathy for the car manufacturer from Murner either. “I think they ought to take out bankruptcy,” he said. The October 2008 GM report tallied 6,775 GM dealers in the country, down 269 from the previous year. Among the GM dealers who went by the wayside was the largest  in Atlanta, Ga. that had been in business for 60 years, Murner said. “When we called to cancel our franchise recently, they said we were not the first,” Murner said. “A lot of dealers are dropping GM for the same reasons we are,” he said. “We used to have 25 to 30 new cars and trucks all the time. Now we usually have seven to 10.” There were seven new vehicles on the Murner lot last week. “We’ll still be able to get new vehicles for our customers. Over the years we have established good relations with other new car dealers in the area,” Murner said. “We will still keep a good supply  of parts and we will service all makes and models. There will still be a good selection of used trucks and cars on the lot,” he said. Maintaining a GM franchise for a small dealer like Murner’s has always been a challenge. “We had a zone rep come out in 1990 and tell us we wouldn’t be here past 1995. We’re still here and he’s been gone a long time,” the elder Murner said with a grin. Bill Jr. joined the dealership in 1980 as parts and service department manager. He has since added general manager to his title. Campbell Motors was started by George Campbell, Sr. in 1947. He was joined by George, Jr. in 1962. The business operated until March 1977 when it was purchased by Bill Murner Sr. “At that time, there was a lot of logging and mining in the area. People did business in town,” Murner said. “Things are a lot different today.”