Goodbye Gussie: Another car dealership site on Nimitz?

[Linkmeister]

So Gussie L'Amours is closing (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Sep/28/bz/bz02a.html) and will be replaced by yet another car lot.

I've never been in the place, although I've driven past it thousands of times; but do we really need another used car lot on Nimitz?

[Glen Miyashiro]

What gets me is that there's a new car lot going up on the block next to Farrington High School on King Street, on the diamond head side of Houghtailing, where Helena's Hawaiian Foods used to be. Now there's an unlikely location.

[kimo55]

mournful passing

Gussie lamour r.i.p

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Sep/28/bz/bz02a.html

[adrian]

What gets me is that there's a new car lot going up on the block next to Farrington High School on King Street, on the diamond head side of Houghtailing, where Helena's Hawaiian Foods used to be. Now there's an unlikely location.
Yep. Honolulu Ford will be moving there sometime next year.

Its a big place, but I haven't seen any "reputable" car dealerships in Kalihi.

But that place on Nimitz is like "Cutter row" in Waipahu accross from Daiei. There's all Cutter dealerships on that block, along with an auto store.

[pzarquon]

I don't know if I'm too young or too old to really appreciate Gussie L'amour. I've never been there, but I've always been curious. Described by the Advertiser as "the closest thing Hawai'i has to an old-fashioned road house," I shouldn't have biked and driven past it so many times without poking my head in the door. Sounds like a place overflowing with what most newer establishments are missing: personality and character.

And for another car lot. Sheesh. These things are everywhere. Any small patch of land that isn't slated for a building is a car lot these days. Even if there's only room for six double-parked, scratched and dented mid-'90s Pontiac LeMans, by golly, they'll still set up shop.

It's untenable growth. We're adding new cars so fast, there's no way the used market can keep up. At least not until you can pick up a used 2002 Honda Civic for $2,002.

[craigwatanabe]

One thing I've noticed here on the Big Island is the high number of Oahu license plates (and Maui as well). The number of used car lots are going up here as well which tells me more of the Oahu and Maui cars traded in for new cars at dealerships are dumping them here on the Big Island.

You see either new Hawaii (Big Island) license plates or old FXX and JXX series Oahu license plates running around here. The problem is (and I'm beginning to see it) is older and more hazardous cars being driven on Big Island streets where safety checks aren't as enforced critically here.

Plus these cars are so bad already, they have no value after a few years. I've seen piles of old cars (some with Oahu plates still attached) being dumped at the Hilo landfill in town. Now you know where all the old cars are going. Not to Oahu landfills.

[adrian]

I just saw on the news, that Schuman auto dealerships (all 4 of them) are going out of business.

From KHNL.com (http://www.khnl.com/Global/story.asp?S=2362033)

HONOLULU (AP) - The oldest car dealership in Hawaii is closing down.

The 111-year-old Schuman Carriage plans to cease operations in November and lay off its 117 employees.

The family-owned company sells Cadillacs, Hummers, Buicks, G-M-C, Oldsmobiles and Subarus.

The company says it's agreed to terminate its relationship with General Motors and permanently close the Honolulu dealerships.

The company declined to say whether anyone is expected to acquire its assets or operations.

Founder Gustav Schuman established Schuman Carriage as a horse-drawn buggy dealership in 1889 after coming to Hawaii from Germany five years before at the age of 16.

Schuman is credited with introducing the first rubber-tire buggy in Honolulu.

[kimo55]

mournful passing

Gussie lamour r.i.p

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Sep/28/bz/bz02a.html


je zeus.
kee rist.

try to start a tread on Gussie lamour and the old rock club and end up being relegated to the discussion thread of used car lots.

[Laakea]

I wonder if my firends who frequent that bar knows about this. I'll give them a call and see what's up. Isn't Nimitz saturated with car dealerships and rental places?

[Linkmeister]

je zeus.
kee rist.

try to start a tread on Gussie lamour and the old rock club and end up being relegated to the discussion thread of used car lots.

Well, as the threadstarter, I suppose that's where I led it. As I said, I've never been inside the club, so how could I bring back old memories of the place? :)

[kimo55]

Well, as the threadstarter, I suppose that's where I led it. As I said, I've never been inside the club, so how could I bring back old memories of the place? :)

the implication is, I started another thread and the post was thrown in here.

[admin]

My bad. Both threads were posted at about the same time with the same source article. I hadn't anticipated it was going to become a car lot thread.

[kimo55]

My bad. Both threads were posted at about the same time with the same source article. I hadn't anticipated it was going to become a car lot thread. was hoping to discuss in a thread what once was, not what will be, esp. when the subject is "car lots in general". ugh.

ok. I'll bite:

"Isn't Nimitz saturated with car dealerships and rental places?"

uh. yea. so?!

IF.. I wanted to open a used car lot, my chosen locale would, of necessity, posess a few qualities: many of which that immediate area has:

cheap industrial lease rate/costs.

much drive by visibility.

neighboring like businesses.
(this means the clientele is there already)

are you then saying if, in your definition, a place is 'saturated' with one type of business, no others of similar nature should be allowed to move there?
I've never been in the place, although I've driven past it thousands of times; but do we really need another used car lot on Nimitz? it's like many small businesses. They go under mostly because many people who lament the used car lot that replaces the small business, never stopped in to support it, while driving by "thousands of times".

[kimo55]

ot.

I've never been in the place, although I've driven past it thousands of times; but do we really need another used car lot on Nimitz?


it's like many small businesses. They go under mostly because many people who lament the used car lot that replaces the small business, never stopped in to support it, while driving by "thousands of times".

[Linkmeister]

They go under mostly because many people who lament the used car lot that replaces the small business, never stopped in to support it, while driving by "thousands of times". The only reason I never went there was that by the time I moved here I was nearly 30 and not much for going to bars any more. ;)

[kimo55]

The only reason I never went there was that by the time I moved here I was nearly 30 and not much for going to bars any more. ;)


I was going alla time cuz even in my 40's, (i'm not quite dead yet!) I still enjoy:
wahine.
Beer.
Classic Rock.
Live music.
and yes, mostly in that order.

and Gussie had da kine in spades.
("bars" nevah had dat kine stigma to me...)

[craigwatanabe]

What Gussie was like Glades! Ho boy mention dat in Gussies and da roof definately come down! :D So how about dem car lots! Nah nah nah okay keep em on beer and wahine's :D

[Linkmeister]

It's not that bars had no appeal, but I'd spent three years on Kwajalein at that point, in a bar every night after work. Burnout.

[craigwatanabe]

I guess the only hot chicks there were the birds that drank the nuclear waste leaking out of the drums eh! :D

[Glen Miyashiro]

Hey, after three years on Kwaj, I think even those chicks would start looking good.

[craigwatanabe]

never mind the chicks, it's those male bonding sessions you gotta start worrying about. :eek: