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Bennett Jaguar/Land Rover lot in Plains Township victim of recession.
Workers from Fieseler Signs in Pittston remove the sign from the Bennett Jaguar/Land Rover dealership in Plains Township Tuesday.
Don Carey/the times leader
PLAINS TWP. – The only dealership for luxury vehicles Jaguar and Land Rover within 60 miles of Wilkes-Barre has closed.
Bennett Jaguar/Land Rover, which had operated on a lot on Route 315 for a dozen years, is vacant – a casualty of the economy.
“They really weren’t selling what they should have been up there,” said Bob Dodds, service manager for the main Bennett store in Allentown, now the nearest dealership to Wilkes-Barre. Dodds said the facility served as a satellite for the Allentown dealership and the decision to close the doors was a tough one.
“We wanted to keep it open, but we had to stop the bleeding,” Dodds said.
While Jaguar and Land Rover owners are loyal to their brand, there aren’t enough of them around to help the dealership weather the financial storm, Dodds said.
Anthony L. Liuzzo, a business professor at Wilkes University, said he’s not surprised the dealership struggled.
“Jaguars are high-end vehicles, and during recessions, luxury goods are getting hit pretty hard. Add to it the credit crunch and you get auto loans getting hit,” Liuzzo said. He said, if anything, the timing was the biggest surprise.
“We’re at the tail end of the recession right now,” Liuzzo said.
But Dodds said the losses were not letting up.
“We got to the point financially where we could not afford to keep the facility open. That’s not a huge dealership up there,” Dodds said, estimating the number of customers who used the facility for service at about 400.
Service customers have been informed that they can call the Allentown dealership, schedule an appointment and on the day of the appointment a loaner vehicle will be driven to the customer. The vehicle needing service will be taken back to Allentown by a Bennett employee and when the work is completed, Bennett will return the vehicle to the customer and pick up the loaner.
Dodds said complaints have been few, likely thanks to the service guarantee.
“As long as we’re still willing to take care of them, the customers are satisfied,” he said. “We really don’t want to leave any of (them) stranded.”