State law keeps Chevy dealerships apart

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Kelley Chevrolet wants to move to a new spot, but there's actually a state law standing in its way.
The current law states that two dealerships selling the same brand have to be more than 6 miles apart. Summit City Chevrolet on Illinois Road would be 4.3 miles away from Kelley’s new location on the Lima Road exit of I-69.

Under the current law Summit City can file a lawsuit to have a judge decide if a move less than 6 miles apart would benefit both dealerships. David Bailey is representing the dealership and filed the suit in September.

“The idea I think is to provide some protection to individual dealers because when a dealer gets a franchise the manufactures typically have them make really sizable investments, investments of millions of dollars to build their facilities so they want some kind of insurance that there's not going to be another dealer plop down right beside them,” said Bailey.

Meanwhile, state legislators in the House and Senate are both talking about a bill that would change the current law. It would allow Kelley Chevrolet to make the move because it is technically moving farther away from the dealership than its current location which sits 4.1 miles away from Summit City.

“Car dealers need to be, they're better off amongst themselves and GM amazingly as large as it is in our community here in Allen County and in the state, it has no presence at all out in the North corridor,” said Vincent Heiny, Kelley Chevrolet’s lawyer.

“They're just changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game and that's what has us bothered,” argued Bailey. “There's nothing wrong with the statute. The statue works. The statute has a process which the legislator in 2001 thought was fair and all we want to do is let the process work.”

Heiny said some other states that have similar statutes changed their laws to put this issue in the executive/administrative branch of government, to avoid this issue.

Both the bills have passed committees in the senate and house. The lawsuit trial is scheduled for May.