A Nissan dealership in Yonkers, New York, is suing the automaker after it greenlit a new store less than six miles from its location. Automotive News reports that the owner of the dealership in question, Central Avenue Nissan, says New York state law prohibits one car dealership of the same brand from being within six miles of the other. More relevant now, though, is the fact that the owner, F. James Rourke, told AN that Nissan doesn’t even have the inventory to properly supply his dealership.
Speaking to AN, Rourke said, “When you can’t even supply the dealerships that you currently have with an ample amount of inventory, you’re going to bring in a new franchise and give him additional inventory?”
The news comes as automakers are still feeling the supply chain crunch in 2022. Chips remain in short supply and work stoppages due to the pandemic are ongoing. There may be a light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s still a ways away, and those problems are now trickling down into the everyday operation of dealers in new ways. In addition to potentially having to fight off this new store, Central Avenue Nissan says it’s selling many of the new vehicles that arrive in its showroom the same day they get loaded off the truck. “Rogue inventory, our bread-and-butter SUV, is at a four-day supply,” Rourke told AN.
Rourke’s lawsuit aims to prevent the construction of the nearby dealership and recoup costs from the lawsuit. Outside of the unwelcome competition, he says there isn’t much use putting one there anyway, and not only because of supply issues. Legal documents state that two other dealerships have failed in the same location.
All of this is certainly no help to Nissan. After the Hollywood-esque departure of its former CEO Carlos Ghosn, the automaker has been in the news often. New models are on the way, but dealers—not just Rourke—are unhappy with the way they’ve been treated by the company. They say they don’t like how Nissan has become a “bargain basement brand,” and at the same time, they were reportedly being incentivized to push customers into ever-longer financing deals as recently as last year.
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