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AutoWay Dodge Dealership In Clearwater Closes

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By MICHAEL SASSO

msasso@tampatrib.com

Published: November 18, 2008

Updated: 11/18/2008 04:14 pm

AutoWay Dodge of Clearwater closed this week and sold its Dodge franchise to another dealer, becoming at least the fourth local automobile dealership to shut down this year.

AutoWay Dodge, 19400 U.S. 19 N. in Clearwater, recently struck a deal to sell its business and inventory of cars and trucks to Dayton Andrews Chrysler Jeep, 2388 Gulf to Bay Blvd. in Clearwater, said Marc Cannon, spokesman for AutoNation Inc., which owns AutoWay dealerships in the Bay area.

The Dodge dealership is the second AutoWay-brand dealership to close in the Bay area recently. The company closed the sales operation of its AutoWay Chevrolet of Tampa Bay in Tampa last week, although it kept open the dealership's collision and parts departments.

Cannon said he wasn't sure today about how many people work at AutoWay Dodge, but he said many likely would join Dayton Andrews.

Earlier this month, AutoNation announced it had lost $1.4 billion, or $7.95 per stock share, in the third quarter of 2008. The loss was blamed less on AutoNation's operations than on the poor state of the economy and automobile industry, which forced the company to write down the value of its business by $1.46 billion.

Factoring out this noncash charge, the company earned $44 million during the third quarter, compared with earnings of $73 million during the same quarter of last year. AutoNation's revenues in the third quarter fell to $3.5 billion from $4.5 billion in the same quarter last year.

Other local dealerships that have closed this year include Bill Heard Chevrolet in Plant City and Bob Wilson Dodge of Tampa.

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