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Ford dealership in Roxboro closing - not enough new car sales

St. Laurent dealership remains open

Alycia Ambroziak
The Gazette
Tuesday, November 18, 2008

In what appears to be a sign of  troubled economic times, the Ford dealership on Sources Blvd. in Roxboro is closing up shop.
“Business was just not strong enough,” Jean-Luc Desjardins, who purchased the franchise in 2005, said earlier this week. “We are hoping our Roxboro customers  will come to our other location on Marcel Laurin Blvd. in Ville St. Laurent, which is remaining open.”
Desjardins said the Roxboro dealership, located along Sources Blvd, which is home to many other automobile dealerships, will be fully shut down by the end of the year.
In all, 46 employees have already lost or will lose their jobs.
“We have 24 employees left,”  spokesman Jacques Mador said, adding that many of the dealership’s former employees have already found work elsewhere.
“And some have said they would stay on until the end because our parts and services department is still doing well,” he said.
“It’s the new car sales that are not there.”
When Ford had the lion’s share of the automobile market, having many dealerships, even relatively near each other, made sense, Mador said.
“When Ford had 24 per cent of the market in the 1980’s, it was fine to have a lot of dealerships,” Mador said. “But now Ford’s market share is at 4 per cent...and some of those dealerships just have to close, like the one in Roxboro.”
The Ford dealership had been at the Roxboro location for 28 years, he added.
Some of the other nearby dealerships along Sources Blvd. in Roxboro and Dollard des Ormeaux would not comment on the state of the automobile dealership business on or off-island but those who did said they were staying put.
“”These are tough times for everyone in every industry but as far as we are concerned, we’re doing fine, we have a good product and a nice little niche,” Paul Sauk, of Subaru des Sources said, adding that the next few months are usually the quietest for automobile dealers. “December, January, February - the worst months are coming up ... but people will always complain about something or other.
“When it was going good for the last ten years, nobody complained,” he said. “We haven’t had times like these in quite a while ...and there is no quick fix.”
At the Des Sources Dodge Chrysler Jeep dealership, owner Sebastian Pitruzzello said this has been a record year for sales.
“We’re the number one dealer in Quebec and .... last month our sales increased by 13 per cent compared to last year,” he said, crediting his dealership’s success to “our  great team.”