“I guess I would include us in that,” said Blair. “There is a program called Essential Brand Elements. It’s an elective program for all four of their brands.
“We signed up when EBE was started, and a big part of it was the facility,” he continued. “What they did was do metro cities first, then worked their way to hub towns, which we are considered to be.”
The makeovers, to be completed within the next two years, are part of an effort by GM and other automakers to prod dealers to renovate buildings in an effort to change their image with car shoppers. GM, Chrysler and Ford, which generally have older showrooms than Japanese competitors, all have plans and requirements for dealership upgrades.
“We were contacted the first of March and submitted CAD drawings by the end of March,” said Blair. “Gensler, an architect firm, studies the drawings and facility and comes in to have a meeting and suggest what they’d think would fit for the town.”
That meeting will happen soon.
“They have a deadline about a year and a half (to act on the plans),” Blair said.
There are about 950 Cadillac franchises nationwide. GM expects that the majority of its 4,500 U.S. Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet and GMC dealers will be signed up for renovations by the end of next year, spokeswoman Ryndee Carney said.
Blair feels his dealership is already “ahead of the curve.
“We’re currently in the process of painting all our buildings and sprucing them up,” he said. “We’ll see what recommendations they make. And we will no doubt do more enhancements.”
Dealers say GM will help pay for the improvements in a program tied to how many cars a dealer orders.
“There are some opportunities if you are compliant in the program, if you do everything they want to do,” said Blair.
“The bottom line is if you are planning to stay, and we’re planning to stay for a long, long time, then you really do need to stay cutting edge and up on everything,” said Blair. “Frankly, these building are due to be fixed up anyway.
“The end result is if you go into a town you are unfamiliar with and you drive by a McDonald’s, you know it’s a McDonald’s. They want to make it so when you drive by a GM facility, you’ll know it’s a GM facility.”
This story contains information from The Associated Press.
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