Pie IX Dodge wishes it expanded opening hours sooner MIKE KING,
Email to a friend Printer friendly Font: * * * * Champagne credits the extended operating hours for an increase in Pie IX’s new-car sales of 141 per cent and a jump in used-car sales of 128 per cent last year over 2006. “It’s more than we expected and we’re still getting a very good response (from customers),” he said of the decision to ignore a Montreal Automobile Dealers Corp. regulation prohibiting weekend sales.
The rule had made metropolitan Montreal the only major city in North America where consumers couldn’t buy new vehicles on the weekend before Pie IX and two other dealers broke ranks last year. “Personally, I thought more dealerships would open after us,” Champagne added. Pie IX was faced with noisy demonstrations, mainly by sales staff from competitors, during the first couple months after it started opening seven days a week last February.
The protests petered out and “we don’t hear anything anymore,” Champagne said. Two men charged during those early days have their trials scheduled in Montreal’s Municipal Court over the next two months. Yves Caron is first with a trial slated for March. The 41-year-old Laval man was originally charged with assault with a weapon in an incident in which Pie IX manager Sam Hajjar was struck on the forehead with a chunk of ice on Feb. 17. The offence was reduced to simple assault.
RГ©gis Savard goes to trial in April on a charge of uttering a death threat or threat of bodily harm. The 61-year-old salesman at a rival dealership is accused of calling in a bomb threat to Pie IX one week after the Hajjar incident. Two other dealerships, both off-island, have followed Pie IX’s lead: ГЋle Perrot Chrysler last May and Desmeules Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep in Laval in July.