cjlaw73

Had ordered a part a couple of weeks ago, hadn't heard back. Called today and the gentleman that answered the phone said they were closed. I asked if they'd be open tomorrow, and he said they were permanently closed.

EPMM 03 C5

WOW!! I guess there over pricing of there cars finally caught up with them! I do feel bad though for the employees that are out of a job.

m kraz

wow i got my 12 gs vert from them good price i wonder why thay
closed down

cjlaw73

Yeah I am sort of surprised, and not at the same time. The first hint was that I didn't see or hear any mention of them getting their facility remodeled as all Chevy stores are doing.

Sales-wise, I had looked at a couple of cars there over the years and wasn't that impressed with their pricing. But on the service-side, I recently had taken my certified Tahoe there for service and I was pleased with the way I was treated. Matter of fact, the place I bought my Tahoe at was giving me a hard time on a couple of issues and they actually helped me with some info to help me deal with that other dealer.

I actually felt bad for the guy on the phone who told me. Said something like its still hard for him telling people that they are closing for good.

Last time I was there they had a pretty good volume of Volts and I even saw a brand new ZL1 on the lot.

EPMM 03 C5

Charlie, i have had my Z06 there for plenty of oil changes but i would never buy a car there! I priced a 2003 coupe there back in 2007 with the same year and miles that Triboro had and Triboro was 8,000 dollars cheaper

Oh and yes they had alot of Volts there,,more than any other dealership

dennis50nj

the reason they closed they screwed all there sales people, all their techs and the service manager, the one good tech George got stuck by a used needle with a disease under a customers car seat where she kept a bag full of used needles and has lost the use of his hand, worked with one hand for years. i have had the recall notice sent constantly for years and wont take my car there to get fixed, since my tech cracked my rockers stood on my rims ran out of gas testing my car while picking up his lunch then going to the bank scraping the front bumper on a curb finder, killing the fuel pump, screwed my trans, scratched both fenders with the air hose over them, and then died of an overdose

cjlaw73

You're braver than I. I never took my Vette there, but that's no slight to them as much as a slight to pretty much all dealers. The Tahoe needed warranty work so I had to bring it. But in all fairness, they were cool with me during both my visits.

All I can say in a reply to that is WOW.

dennis50nj

The good salesman Frank Quantrone went to Barlow, the best service manager Gene went to Lucas, in my opinion the best service manager, he agreed cartek should tune the trans as gm couldn't get the stock new trans or stock new converter to loc and made gm pay my car payment for the 2 months it was getting the re-manufactured trans put in and working properly since there tech screwed it up. and i never asked them to

gbvette62

I'm not really surprised to hear they've closed. I never had any experience with them, other than stopping to look at a car once or twice. Personally, I'd never heard anything bad about them though, but I know a few people who had bought cars there, and had been very happy. They use to work closely with one of the local Corvette clubs, and always offered parts and service discounts, to members.

This is just speculation, but I think their problem was the location. They tried to move about 3 or 4 years ago. I was told that Chevrolet wanted them to move to the old Chevrolet 73 building, in Berlin. Classic had a deal to sell the property to Wawa, but the township turned down Wawa's request to build a gas station and convenience store, at that intersection. Not being able to move, is what probably what killed the dealership.

Additionally, Chevrolet is making all of their dealers remodel their buildings. Every other Chevrolet store in the area, has gown through a complete remodeling. Classic was the only one that hadn't been remodeled. The current placement of the building, and the size of the lot, probably don't lend themselves to remodeling. Also, the property isn't really big enough, to carry any serious amount of inventory.

All of this likely led to their decision to close.

cjlaw73

Gene sounds very familiar. I've been to both dealerships' service depts though. I went to Lucas once because my FIL use to work at Lucas Ford. So I go in there and tell whoever the service manager was at the time, exactly what was wrong with my car. They decide to do there own diagnostic and fix something else they thought was the issue. Car was back there 2 weeks later to fix exactly what I told them was wrong the frist time. The only good thing was they didn't charge me for the 2nd trip (when they resolved the real issue) and it was more expensive than the 1st trip.

Can't believe Maple Shade put the kabosh on the Super Wawa. Would have been a good location. I agree, that didn't help Classic - there goes some lost jobs on the townships shoulders.

Didn't the old Chevy 73 in Berlin close for some crooked reasons. Thought I heard that. Didn't know they were trying to move Classic there. The lack of remodeling per Chevy's national initiative was my first hint as well. I think Elkins is in the middle of their remodel now.

BillY2KFRC

Sad to hear this, don't know much about them recently, but I bought my 2000 Black FRC from them in December 2000 with 9,000 miles on it. I remember driving down from CT with my Mom and trading in my red '99 Cobra for it, great day. I had found the car on AutobyTel.com, which I don't think is even around anymore! LOL I think my salesman was named James, nice guy, even gave me a 1/18 C1 model when I came to pick up the car.

gbvette62

I think the issue was how to handle the additional traffic trying, to enter and exit from either Lenola Road or Rt 38. It's a busy intersection now, and it's not easy to get into or out of Classic. There probably wasn't all that much traffic coming and going from Classic, but can you imagine all of the cars that would be trying to merge on to 38 there, from a Super Wawa?

Yep. Chevrolet showed up one day at 73 Chevrolet, and shut them down. There was a lot of less than ethical things that were supposed to have gone on there. I don't know what is and isn't true, but I had heard stories about bad sales contracts, lawsuits, customer's trade ins not being paid off and then selling these cars without having title to them, rebates never being paid to customers and rumors that they weren't paying for their floor planing (inventory financing). I also heard stories of them over paying for trades, and then "hiding" the loses in their new car floor planing.

At one time, 73 Chevrolet was known as Parkin Chevrolet. I bought my 81 Corvette there in November 81. Later they became Merenda Chevrolet, before being sold again, and becoming 73 Chevrolet. The owner of 73 Chevrolet, was well known in the area, and wasn't well thought of by other dealers. He had a very "shady" reputation. Chevrolet 73 wasn't the first Chevrolet dealership he operated. He previously owned a Vineland Chevrolet dealership that was closed do to bankruptcy, though there were a lot of similar stories going around when that store closed too. Even the actual ownership of Chevrolet 73, was a little cloudy. There was talk that it was purchased using someone else's name, as Chevrolet wouldn't sell a franchise to him, because of the known problems with his previous dealership.

Not surprisingly, he had also been accused of rolling back odometers in the past, among other things.

Your right, Elkins is in the middle of their remolded right now. Barlow completed theirs in September, and Burlington finished about the same time. The Pellegrino and Mall remodels were also recently completed, and I think Chevrolet of Turnersville was "freshened" up some, to come more in line with the new corporate look. RK in Vineland was in the middle of their remodel back in May, when the Friday night storm that did all of the damage in far south Jersey, damaged the dealership. Because of this, I think they are still working on their makeover. I don't know that Lucas has been redone, but I would assume that it was coming, if they plan on remaining a Chevrolet store.

EPMM 03 C5

Lucas Chevy remodel has not begun yet..i drive past there alot. I agree with the comments about driving in and out of Classic. I'm surprised not a alot of people have been rear ended driving from 38 east into the dealership..plus the building is very old and the lot is very small. I just hope the people that lost there jobs find jobs soon.

cjlaw73

Come to think of it, yeah the traffic around that intersection can be bad. Think that was why the soon-to-be Walmart across from my office on Fellowship Road got hung up. Thought I heard the local residents were concerned about traffic.

With my FIL in the business I occasionally hear some scuttlebut regarding area dealers. Everything from DeSimone bankrupting themsleves building the Taj Mahal of BMW dealerships to the dirty dealings at 73. But he was a dealer himself so I take everything he says with a grain of salt. I think 73 was still Merenda when I was delivering auto parts in Berlin back in the ealry 90s.

Bringing my Tahoe over to Elkins in a week so I'll see how far through the remodel they have progressed. Noticed that many of the dealers you mentioned had arleady been remodeled - thats why Classic kind of stuck out to me. Last time I was by Lucas was a while ago - maybe over the summer and I think they told me that they were to be one of the last in the area to get completed.

gbvette62

I had to take my Silverado to Barlow this morning, for a minor recall item. While there, I asked a friend of mine what he knew of Classic's closing. He wasn't sure exactly what was behind it, but thought that it was GM's doing.

He told me that they were supposed to close, when the first wave of Chevrolet dealer closings came through 4 years ago. They got a reprieve, but when they weren't able to arrange a move to another location, he thinks that GM may have pulled the plug.

Classic isn't alone, I found out this morning that Bob Mcguire Chevrolet in Bordentown, closed this week also! I'm not to sure what happened there, but I had heard that they had some money troubles. When GM killed Saturn, Mcguire moved the Chevy store into his empty, smaller and newer Saturn building. I guess the downsizing didn't help him stay afloat?

cjlaw73

I'll ask Elkins if they know anything about Classic when I go in for service next week. Though your explanation sounds pretty logical.

Tough time to be a dealer. Though some needed to be closed. I was tempted to dance around Lenihan Jeep in Marlton when Chrylser pulled their plug. Bought my first car (Jeep Wrangler) from them out of college. Ended up lemon lawing the vehicle. Won my case with Chrylser and was aksed to work with the dealer in replacing the vehicle potentially with another Jeep off their lot. Well, the process took so long that eventually Chrysler had agreed to give me an upgraded vehicle at no additonal cost. Basically they were going to give me a 6-cyl Wrangler Sport to replace my 4-cyl. Rio Grande Edition and allow me to continue paying the same monthly payment for the same term. I go in to Lenihan, pick out the Sport I like and the sales manager basically tells me why would I give you that Jeep through Chrysler at MSRP when I can sell it to someone else for more. Way to encourage repeat business!

95jersey

That place was horrible, EVERY experience I had there was bad, from sales to service. The sale people were the bottom of the chevy barrel. I have been to corner used sales lots that were 1000% better. I remember they wanted to charge me $400 for a 4 wheel allignment on a C4 back in the 90's and they tried to tell me it was special to the Corvette, went to another Corvette dealer and got an allingment for $89.

cjlaw73

Reminds me of when Turnersville Chevy told me it'd cost ~$150 to reprogram the key fob on my first C5. That was around the time I found the forum and found out that the whole reprogram process of holding down the lock and unlock button took all of 10 seconds.

Metal-Man

Good Riddance. Search for my post and my horrific experience!

cjlaw73

I'll have to check it out.