General Motors to Close Roughly Half of its Canadian Dealerships

Following last Friday's announcement on the closure of 1,100 dealerships across the U.S. by fall 2010, General Motors is now telling approximately 42 percent of its Canadian dealers that they will lose their franchises next year. The U.S. automaker said that it has already started to notify some dealers sales and service agreements would not be renewed following expiry in October 2010. GM claimed in a prepared statement that the company's goal is to "accomplish this reduction in an orderly, cost-effective and customer-friendly way."

"Due to the unique aspects of our Canadian dealer network, we have focused our network rationalization efforts on key urban markets in an effort to achieve a viable network configuration all across Canada," GM said.