Mazda Fleet Moves To Carter

In the third major shift among area auto dealers this summer, William Morande Sr. recently closed his Tolland Turnpike dealership, selling his Mazda franchise to Steve Carter and retaining a site worth more than $2 million.

Morande did not return calls week. A Web site he manages with his brother Bob Morande said: “We have made a very difficult decision to close our facility in Manchester.”

The auto dealer began offering the Lincoln and Mercury vehicles on his lot in a “final days” sell-off one month ago. Morande said at the time that he was curtailing inventory to a reasonable level, adding that any negotiations concerning the future of his dealership would likely be completed in a month’s time.

The family has been doing business in the area since 1978. The Ford dealership in Berlin operated by Bob Morande remains open, and their Web site directs Lincoln and Mercury customers to the garage there for all warranty and maintenance work.

Carter filed paperwork Monday to register the name “Mazda of Manchester” at the site of his former Dodge dealership at 80 Oakland St. Carter said he bought the franchise from Morande last week, but declined to say how much he paid.

New Mazdas now fill the lot that has been dealing in used cars since Carter sold the Dodge franchise to Brian Bolles in Ellington in the first move of the dealers’ shuffle this summer.

Carter has maintained his Chevrolet store on Main Street.

The future of Morande’s now-empty parcel next to Lynch Toyota at 171 Tolland Turnpike remains undetermined. The lot, which was appraised at $2,312,300 two years ago, was not a part of the deal with Carter.

Carter said the Mazda deal had been in the works since before he sold Bolles the Dodge franchise.

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“I had to have two negotiations going on,” Carter said. “But the Dodge sale was easier because Chrysler has wanted that to go on for a while now.”

Carter and Bolles both referred to Chrysler’s project “genesis,” which aims to get Jeep, Dodge, and Chrysler cars and trucks in the same showroom. Bolles was already selling new Jeep and Chrysler cars before the deal.

Genesis, both said, is an example of consolidation efforts by domestic automakers.

“The domestic manufacturers do need to lower their dealer counts,” Carter said in an interview this week. The manufacturers “need to get dealer counts more in line with their market share.”

The consolidation efforts are hitting dealers as domestic automakers face record losses. Ford, which owns Lincoln, Mercury, and a third of Mazda Motor Corp. reported second-quarter losses of $8.7 billion.

Dillon Sales and Service, located less than a half-mile from Morande’s Tolland Turnpike site, stopped selling new Ford cars and trucks last month. The dealership had been in business since 1933.

In an interview last month, Morande said, “Everybody’s looking maybe to merge, maybe to downsize, maybe to add an import if they can.”

“Mazda’s a perfect fit for my building,” Carter said after this most recent deal. “Now I have one import and one domestic.”