Car dealership closes in East County, citing losses

UnionTribune (2007-07-24) L.N.

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More Info: ElCajonCityCouncil, LocalPolitics

July 24, 2007

LEMON GROVE: An East County institution has closed its doors.

El Cajon Councilman Bob McClellan shuttered his car dealership, McClellan Buick-Pontiac-GMC, on Thursday morning. McClellan's father founded the business 70 years ago.

McClellan, 68, said that the past few years have been tough for domestic car dealers and that rising gas prices have hurt. The business had suffered losses that were no longer acceptable, McClellan said. He declined to discuss specifics.

"We're just a victim of the times," he said yesterday.

Arda Francis McClellan, better known as Mac, opened the dealership in La Mesa in 1927. His son, who began working there as a boy in 1950, bought the business from his father in 1970 and moved it to Lemon Grove's Federal Boulevard, just off state Route 94, in 2001.

McClellan said he plans to sublease the site to Bob Baker Toyota, which is next door. --L.N.