TORRANCE, Calif., April 9 (UPI) -- California car dealerships said sales and confidence and investments in their businesses were all on the rise.
Dealerships even said they were hiring again.
AutoNation, which operates 210 dealerships across 15 states, said it hired 109 workers in California so far this year. It now has 3,155 employees in the state, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.
"Honestly, it is overdue," said Mike Bowsher, who owns dealerships in Atlanta, Nashville and Orlando, Fla., referring to a $1 million building project in Florida and a $250,000 investment in one of his Chevrolet dealerships.
"It's all the stuff we couldn't afford to do" when sales were down, he said.
The National Automobile Dealers Association said automakers closed 15 percent of their U.S. showrooms in the years following bankruptcy filings at General Motors and Chrysler. In step with that, employment at dealerships fell 15 percent to 892,100, the trade group said.
But U.S. customers bought 3 million vehicles January through March, a 20-percent increase from the same period in 2010. And Bowsher said fewer outlets would work in the favor of those that survived.
"Back when we went through Armageddon we had 850 employees and eight stores. I now have four stores and 450 employees, and we are going to make more money than we ever did," Bowsher said.
