Corporate Motors goes out of business

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, May 10, 2005 | by Eve Mitchell, BUSINESS WRITER

Hayward-based Corporate Motors, a Suzuki and Daewoo auto dealership, has suddenly closed down after 16 years in business, a move that is inconveniencing customers covered under new-car warranties.

All warranties are still valid and are not affected by the closure, Corporate Motors said on its Web site (www.corpmotors.com).

In the Bay Area, customers covered under Suzuki warranties will now have to go to Suzuki dealerships in San Jose, Vallejo or Fairfield to get work done, while those with Daewoo warranties will have to travel to Daewoo dealerships in Oakland, Fairfield, San Jose or Tracy.

That doesn't sit well with Mike Crane and Lee May, an Oakland couple who bought a 2004 Suzuki Verona from Corporate Motors about a year ago.

Late last week, May was planning to go in for a 7,500-mile maintenance checkup, which is covered by the car's 100,000-mile warranty, when she saw that the Mission Boulevard dealership was closed.

"They've got a Cyclone fence around it," Crane said Monday. "I'm just stunned they are shut down. It looks like a pretty big and substantial organization. There was no explanation."

Efforts to reach Corporate Motors were unsuccessful.

When a call was placed to Corporate Motor's phone number, no one answered. Instead, a recording stated that the dealership was no longer in business and provided contact information for Suzuki and Daewoo owners. At the company's Web site, the only information that's shown is a page that explains the business has closed.

"It's our understanding that it was the dealer's personal business decision to close at this time. At this time, we do not have a count of the exact number of customers impacted by this transition," Ginger Golembiewski, a spokeswoman for American Suzuki Motor Corp., wrote in an e-mail. She added that by year's end, Suzuki intends to have approximately six new dealerships in the Bay Area.