Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%

Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.

Oldsmobile Dealers, GM Remain at Odds

By Kevin Adler
July 28, 2005

Some Oldsmobile franchisee-dealers remain dissatisfied with the financial settlements offered by General Motors Corp. (“GM”) as compensation for GM's decision in December 2000 to phase out its Oldsmobile product line. Of the approximately 2800 Oldsmobile dealers who were operating when GM announced its phase out, fewer than 100 have not come to an agreement with GM, according to the automaker. Although numerous lawsuits have been filed in the past 2 1/2 years and some remain active, none have gone to trial so far.

The disputes began when GM announced that it would stop producing the Oldsmobiles, due to declining market share, and offered buyouts to all of its approximately 2800 Olds dealers across the United States. In 2001, GM announced a buyout, called the Transitional Finance Assistance Program (“TFAP”), which would pay most dealers a lump sum equal to $1200 for each car the dealership sold in its best year during the period 1998-2000. For a dealer who had only an Olds dealership, which represented fewer than 150 businesses, the multiple was raised to $3000 per vehicle sold. A few other compensating factors, such as proof that a dealer recently upgraded its showroom, could result in an increased TFAP offer.

Read These Next
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough Image

There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.

Judge Rules Shaquille O'Neal Will Face Securities Lawsuit for Promotion, Sale of NFTs Image

A federal district court in Miami, FL, has ruled that former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal will have to face a lawsuit over his promotion of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens and that he was a "seller" of these unregistered securities.

Why So Many Great Lawyers Stink at Business Development and What Law Firms Are Doing About It Image

Why is it that those who are best skilled at advocating for others are ill-equipped at advocating for their own skills and what to do about it?

Blockchain Domains: New Developments for Brand Owners Image

Blockchain domain names offer decentralized alternatives to traditional DNS-based domain names, promising enhanced security, privacy and censorship resistance. However, these benefits come with significant challenges, particularly for brand owners seeking to protect their trademarks in these new digital spaces.

'Insurable Interest' and the Scope of First-Party Coverage Image

This article reviews the fundamental underpinnings of the concept of insurable interest, and certain recent cases that have grappled with the scope of insurable interest and have articulated a more meaningful application of the concept to claims under first-party property policies.