Grapevine Suzuki shuts down abruptly

by Teresa Gubbins

GRAPEVINE — The Suzuki dealership in Grapevine shut down last week, part of an apparently overall tightening-up of Suzuki's presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

An assistant at the Grapevine location confirmed that the dealership had closed, although it was on their own initiative.

"We chose to close, Suzuki didn't close us down," she said. "Things are so bad right now. We hardly sold any cars in the month of April."

GM's closures have received more attention, but other local shrinkage on the Suzuki front makes it clear that foreign makes aren't exempt.

Empire Suzuki shut down its Dallas location in January, moving all operations to its newer outlet in Plano. And the Teape dealership in Arlington officially stopped selling Suzuki autos last week.

"We're still selling Subaru, but our contract with Suzuki is no longer existent as of last Friday," said sales manager Anthony Brown, who blamed difficulties in getting financing from banks for putting a damper on Suzuki's sales.

The Chacon dealership in Dallas near DeSoto continues to sell and service automobiles as an official Suzuki dealership.

"Our service department has been swamped, we've been hearing that a lot of Suzukis are closing down," said an employee at Chacon.

The Suzuki dealerships in Fort Worth, Irving, and McKinney are all open and doing fine.

"Those little dealerships, maybe they just don't know how to run their business," said a sales staffer at the McKinney branch.

Colleyville resident Jay Berman was shocked to see the empty lot at the Grapevine dealership.

"Driving by them is part of my commute," Berman said. "I drive by the dealership every day on my drive to work and yesterday noticed the entire lot was empty -- not a single car. It's like they closed in the middle of the night. You feel sorry to see any small business like that close."