Tammy Darvish is the vice president of DARCARS Automotive, a 34-location dealer group in Maryland. Highly active in a number of automotive industry trade groups (including serving on the National Automobile Dealers Association [NADA] board of directors), Darvish was also a leading figure in the fight over OEM efforts to cull their dealer franchises in 2009 and 2010 as part of the TARP program (her company lost several Chrysler franchises), and was a founder of the Committee to Restore Dealer Rights. This fall, she published a book, Outraged: How Detroit and the Wall Street Car Czars Killed the American Dream, about her experiences.
Why did you write the book?
For a couple of reasons. We always took the position that there was a terrible injustice done here. For me it is very alarming that, in a free enterprise society, something like this could happen. There was so much human suffering for absolutely no reason. All those people who got laid off. All of those people who spent generations building these businesses, people who have lost everything.
We introduced a bill that got passed, which gave dealers the right to arbitrate. But at that point so many people had lost so much, they couldn't get a line of credit or really get back into the business. Did we win? I don't know. What did we win? It tore our auto dealers association apart; it tore our whole industry apart.
These were profitable, good dealerships. It was always portrayed that they were poor performers. There was a full investigation of the TARP program by the Inspector General's office that said, you're right. This was wrong and it should never have happened. Where's the accountability? If they're dragging baseball players back for lying in front of Congress, why aren't we holding these people accountable? If we sweep this under the carpet, who's to say it won't happen again in a different industry?
Did you go through arbitration to try to regain your Chrysler franchises?
I didn't do the arbitration process. My father built a very strong, diversified company. If you lose a couple of stores, particularly those franchises, you haven't lost much. But for the majority of dealers, that was all they had. Then you had corporations that went back into those exact same markets, and the OEMs gifted those franchises to other people.
How have the dealership closures impacted customer service?
In rural areas it is much more difficult. Plus you have some dealers where although they gifted those franchises to new owners, they are not selling anywhere near what the previous dealers were selling. A dealer that's been in business 60 years, and all of a sudden it is stripped away and that asset shows up across the street? It upset the communities, and I think consumers are far more loyal to their dealers than the manufacturers anticipated them to be.
Tammy Darvish is the vice president of DARCARS Automotive, a 34-location dealer group in Maryland. Highly active in a number of automotive industry trade groups (including serving on the National Automobile Dealers Association [NADA] board of directors), Darvish was also a leading figure in the fight over OEM efforts to cull their dealer franchises in 2009 and 2010 as part of the TARP program (her company lost several Chrysler franchises), and was a founder of the Committee to Restore Dealer Rights. This fall, she published a book, Outraged: How Detroit and the Wall Street Car Czars Killed the American Dream, about her experiences.
Why did you write the book?
For a couple of reasons. We always took the position that there was a terrible injustice done here. For me it is very alarming that, in a free enterprise society, something like this could happen. There was so much human suffering for absolutely no reason. All those people who got laid off. All of those people who spent generations building these businesses, people who have lost everything.
We introduced a bill that got passed, which gave dealers the right to arbitrate. But at that point so many people had lost so much, they couldn't get a line of credit or really get back into the business. Did we win? I don't know. What did we win? It tore our auto dealers association apart; it tore our whole industry apart.
These were profitable, good dealerships. It was always portrayed that they were poor performers. There was a full investigation of the TARP program by the Inspector General's office that said, you're right. This was wrong and it should never have happened. Where's the accountability? If they're dragging baseball players back for lying in front of Congress, why aren't we holding these people accountable? If we sweep this under the carpet, who's to say it won't happen again in a different industry?
{C}Did you go through arbitration to try to regain your Chrysler franchises?
I didn't do the arbitration process. My father built a very strong, diversified company. If you lose a couple of stores, particularly those franchises, you haven't lost much. But for the majority of dealers, that was all they had. Then you had corporations that went back into those exact same markets, and the OEMs gifted those franchises to other people.
How have the dealership closures impacted customer service?
In rural areas it is much more difficult. Plus you have some dealers where although they gifted those franchises to new owners, they are not selling anywhere near what the previous dealers were selling. A dealer that's been in business 60 years, and all of a sudden it is stripped away and that asset shows up across the street? It upset the communities, and I think consumers are far more loyal to their dealers than the manufacturers anticipated them to be.
