VERO BEACH, FL — The Suburban Group plans to close its Saturn of Vero Beach effective Aug. 1 so the dealership group can focus operations at its Saturn of Stuart location, Suburban Group General Manager Ron MacEachern said.
MacEachern said all employees at Saturn of Vero Beach will be offered employment at other locations. He said Saturn asked Suburban Group to purchase the Vero Beach dealership 18 months ago to try to make it profitable.
“We purchased it and gave it a run for a year and a half,” MacEachern said.
But sales in a difficult time for dealerships did not reflect enough improvement to warrant keeping two locations on the Treasure Coast. The Vero Beach dealership is at 910 S. U.S. 1.
“The property is available for sale,” MacEachern said.
The Suburban Group has done some recent shuffling on the Treasure Coast by adding a Subaru franchise and creating Suburban Subaru at its Stuart location. Saturn of Stuart will be the Treasure Coast’s lone Saturn dealership.
Saturn is in the process of being sold by General Motors to racing legend Roger Penske’s Penske automotive group and its dealerships were not affected by the company’s decision to eliminate 1,100 franchise agreements.
Dealers have been affected by the bankruptcy filings of GM and Chrysler. Chrysler already has terminated franchise agreements with Vero Beach Jeep and Dependable Dodge in Vero Beach, Wallace Chrysler Jeep in Fort Pierce and Massey-Yardley Chrysler Dodge in Hobe Sound.
GM did not release a public list of dealerships that could lose franchise agreements in 2010.
From our news partners at Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers
