GM to reinstate hundreds of dealers

With Congress questioning their choice of which dealers were terminated during bankruptcy restructuring last summer and putting pressure on the company to withdraw many of those terminations, General Motors now says they will likely reinstate at least 100 dealerships. The Detroit News reports:

Congress last month ordered GM to allow more than 1,300 dealers that it slated for closure by the end of 2010 to request independent reviews in challenging their closings. The legislation, which also applies to Chrysler Group LLC, was signed into law by President Barack Obama

Whitacre said many dealers — “in the hundreds” — likely will be reinstated. But he said he doesn’t think the process is a risk to GM’s future.

Later, he backtracked slightly, saying it could be as few as 100. “Please don’t take ‘hundreds’ to be a thousand — it could be a hundred,” Whitacre said. “I don’t know the number, but it is a substantial number. I think it can be good and bad.”

It will be some time, however, before it is known which dealerships will be reinstated during the mediation process.