Last Domestic Car Dealer in SF Closes (San Jose, San Francisco: real estate, to buy)

[18Montclair]

Too bad. Hmmm...dont they sell Tesla's in SF? OTOH, Colma is right there.

Last domestic car dealership in S.F. closes

[sonarrat]

I bought my Fusion from Serramonte.. if you're in San Francisco, you're serving a limited market, because nobody is going to drive into the city and fight the traffic to buy a car. You're serving basically your residents and that's it.

[mayorhaggar]

"It's a tough market. Imports have a much bigger share in San Francisco," said Dennis Fitzpatrick, owner of Concord Chevrolet and regional vice president of the California New Car Dealers Association. "When you can sell 100 imports a month as opposed to 25 domestic, and what with the rents and real estate, it's tough to make a U.S. car dealership pencil."

It's a different story a few blocks down on Van Ness Avenue and on South Van Ness Avenue, where Audis, Scions, Hondas, VWs and Mazdas are on display. BMW and Mercedes-Benz are close by. Or hop on a 38-Geary bus, right by the Scion dealership on Van Ness Avenue, to get to the Toyota showroom on Geary Boulevard.

Yup. Kind of funny that they closed down that Ford/Lincoln place on Van Ness, I used to walk by it when going to Whole Foods all the time and it was always really gleaming and shiny and they put in a new sidelot pretty recently. But nobody in SF buys SUV's and SF is really not a good place to sell cars, too cramped and expensive.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

Too bad. Hmmm...dont they sell Tesla's in SF? OTOH, Colma is right there.

Last domestic car dealership in S.F. closes

The Tesla dealer I know about is in Menlo Park, which is another city that has lost all its car dealerships - at one time, it had Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet, Ford, Lincoln-Mercury all within a one mile stretch of El Camino Real.

I would concur that in general land costs, lack of parking have made car dealerships in general not very attractive within SF.

It wasn't always like that - did you know that the very first Ford dealership opened in 1903, in San Francisco? It was called Hughson's.

There aren't too many other long standing continuously open car dealerships around these days. I think Normandin Chrysler in San Jose is one of the oldest around.