NY region added 6 car dealerships in 2011
A car dealership in Riverhead. The metro area lost a net 128 new car dealerships from 2008 through 2010. (Feb. 1, 2012) Credit: Randee Daddona
The New York City region gained six new car dealerships last year, arresting a sharp decline in the prior three years, according to an auto retailing census report from a Detroit-based data company.
The metro area lost a net 128 new car dealerships from 2008 through 2010.
Last year's small net increase, to 738 stores as of Jan. 1, mirrors a national trend, says Urban Science, a retail consulting firm, and is due mostly to the return of Fiat to the United States and a re-expansion of Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealerships.
"Automakers and dealers are in a good, profitable position," John Frith, vice president of Urban Science, said in a statement.
The company said there were 17,767 dealerships in the United States as of Jan. 1, a 0.6 percent net increase from a year earlier -- the first increase in 11 years.
Many of the shuttered dealers handled vehicles from General Motors and Chrysler and were closed as the carmakers sought bankruptcy court protection from creditors and a government bailout.
Urban Science's report defines the New York region as including Long Island, the five boroughs of New York City, Rockland, Westchester and Putnam counties and portions of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
