Auto dealer Williamson Notes the new realities at GM. A longtime Cadillac dealer calls GM's bankruptcy and the government's bailout sad but necessary. BY PATRICK DANNER
pdanner@MiamiHerald.com G. Ed Williamson II's office above the showroom of his Cadillac dealership in Kendall is cluttered with photos and mementoes from junkets that General Motors has extended to its top dealers. There were Super Bowl parties and golf events like the Ryder Cup. In one picture, a beaming Williamson is joined by golfers Tom Watson and Curtis Strange. But such perks are a thing of the past now that the federal government has rescued General Motors with a $53 billion bailout. Williamson and other Cadillac dealers who gathered for a meeting in Detroit last month had to pay their own hotel and airfare -- expenses GM always picked up in the past, he says. ``Welcome to the new GM,'' declares Williamson, 64, a third-generation GM dealer who owns Williamson Cadillac Hummer in Kendall with his wife, Carol, and son Trae. He also has ownership interests in two other South Florida dealerships. Williamson isn't complaining, mind you. He's just noting the new realities at General Motors since it emerged from bankruptcy last month with U.S. taxpayers holding a nearly 61 percent controlling stake in the carmaker. The bankruptcy, the fourth largest ever, allowed the titan of American industry to gain a new lease on life -- without mountainous debt, onerous contracts, and an overpopulated network of dealers. ``I had been convinced for several months that it was going to happen,'' Williamson says of the bankruptcy. ``I thought that it had to happen. It was sad but necessary.'' While Williamson considers himself a fiscal conservative, he doesn't have any apprehension about the government taking such a heavy-handed role in General Motors' restructuring. ``I think there are certain things that the government does that others can't,'' he explains. ``It certainly was in the best interest of the government not to let the banks fail. It certainly was in the best interest of the country to continue to have a domestic auto business.'' Williamson cites jobs as the key reason. And not just dealership jobs. Most of the automotive-parts suppliers would have gone under -- putting hundreds of thousands of people out of work -- had General Motors and Chrysler failed, he says. Chrysler also completed a bankruptcy reorganization. Williamson's roots with General Motors run deep. In 1948, when he was just a toddler, his father and grandfather bought a Cadillac franchise in Indiana. His grandfather previously sold International Harvester trucks and farm machinery. When Williamson was in the third grade, his father moved to Lake Wales, where he bought a Cadillac and Oldsmobile dealership. It was alloted just one or two cars a month. To mark each sale, Williamson's father hired a pyrotechnist to fire a rocket. NEW-CAR SALESMAN In 1967, George Williamson Cadillac opened in Miami and Williamson joined the business as a new-car salesman. He had just graduated from Auburn University with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering. That year, about half of the cars sold in the United States were made by General Motors. Today, that figure hovers at just about 20 percent -- a reflection of just how General Motors has suffered under the onslaught of years of foreign competition and criticism over the quality of its products. Still, Williamson has stuck by GM. ``We've been very loyal GM dealers,'' he says proudly. On reflection, though, he admits he wishes his efforts to land Infiniti and Lexus franchises had succeeded. After all, South Florida is one of the best markets in the country for import-vehicle sales.
General Motors announced June 2nd, 2009 that there is a buyer for the HUMMER brand. The deal should be finalized by the end of 3rd quarter 2009. This is GREAT news for Williamson Cadillac HUMMER and HUMMER’s current and future customers, meaning the HUMMER brand will remain and is NOT going away. We look forward to the future of HUMMER and the new products they will have to offer. ``We really did not have any foreign-car experience. I think that hurt us, '' he says. In 1988, he bought a Mazda franchise in Homestead. But he sold that after nine years, unable to find the right management to run it. Besides the Cadillac Hummer franchises at the corner of Southwest 104th Street and South Dixie Highway, Williamson is a minority partner in Vera Buick Pontiac GMC in South Miami and Cadillac Hummer Saab in Pembroke Pines. Williamson and majority partner Louis Vera also own Saturn franchises at those locations. (They closed their Saturn of Doral dealership earlier this year after sales plunged.) All 10 franchises are GM brands, though the carmaker is only keeping Cadillac, Buick, GMC and Chevrolet as part of its restructuring. Vera, who had been Williamson Cadillac's new-car manager, credits Williamson for helping him get his start as a dealer. Williamson earns praise from competitors, too. ``He's one of the best operators in the country,'' says Marc Cannon, a spokesman for Fort Lauderdale's AutoNation, the nation's largest automotive retailer. ``He has managed his inventories and he knows his customer base.'' GM continues to pay for its sins from the 1980s, when, Williamson says, ``they took their eye off the quality.'' These days, though, Williamson believes Cadillac has turned the corner on quality. ``Our cars are bulletproof now,'' he says. ``They don't break.'' Williamson likes GM's strategy of ditching Pontiac and selling off Hummer, Saturn and Saab, which he believes will leave more money for product development for the four brands GM is keeping. ``Since it's all about the product, it's good for everything,'' Williamson says, adding he's excited about Cadillac vehicles in the pipeline. He's also confident auto-racing magnate Roger Penske's dealership group, which is buying Saturn from GM, will revitalize the struggling brand. And Williamson is encouraged about the future of Hummer, set to be bought by a Chinese construction-equipment maker. PLANS ENDORSED Williamson endorses GM's plans to trim its dealer network to 3,600 by the end of next year from 5,900 in June. That includes slashing the number of Cadillac dealers from about 1,400 to about 500. ``The Cadillac footprint needed to look closer to BMW and Mercedes,'' he says. ``If you can get a dealer's [sales] up, they're going to generate more profit.'' Williamson's views are at odds with the National Automobile Dealers Association, which has vigorously opposed any dealership terminations by GM. ``Cutting dealers on this massive scale will not make GM . . . more viable,'' says David Hyatt, a NADA spokesman, in an e-mail. ``Reducing dealers on this scale guarantees a further drop in market share and revenue for GM.'' The slide in sales forced Williamson to cut nearly a third of his company's staff; it now employs 133 people. He suspended the company match to employees' 401(k) plans this year, though he says that's only temporary. He also has whacked about $700,000 from the company's annual advertising budget, all in an effort to contain costs. That has allowed the company to remain profitable, he says. Though Williamson is approaching the age when many consider retiring, he has no such plans. His only child, son Trae, returned from California, where he worked as an intellectual property lawyer, to serve as the company's president. But he has gone back to school to pursue a Ph.D., spending only about a third of his time at the dealership. ``Trae was here 3 ½ years, and he lived it and breathed it,'' Williamson says. ``At the end of that time, we knew two things: One, if something happens to me, he knows enough about the business he won't get hornswoggled. And [two], whatever he's going to do the rest of his life, this ain't it. ``For me, I've got the right job,'' he adds. ``This works for me.''
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General Motors announced June 2nd, 2009 that there is a buyer for the HUMMER brand. The deal should be finalized by the end of 3rd quarter 2009. This is GREAT news for Williamson Cadillac HUMMER and HUMMER’s current and future customers, meaning the HUMMER brand will remain and is NOT going away. We look forward to the future of HUMMER and the new products they will have to offer. 
