2. Auto Industry  GM alone has 6,426 dealers, the company says. Toyota, with U.S. sales equaling about 85% of GM's, has just 1,461 dealers.  The dealer association estimates that 900 auto dealers in the U.S. closed in 2008 -- 86% of them sellers of domestic makes. It expects about 1,100 more dealerships to close in 2009.

3. Mr. Watkins  He grew up in the 1960s on a tobacco and cattle farm with a house heated by coal. Mr. Watkins used a mule to plow the fields  After college in 1973, he took a job at a Chevrolet dealership, expecting to stay only until he could get into his chosen field of accounting. But when he sealed his first sale, of a Chevy Nova, he was hooked.  Mr. Watkins says he often worked 12 hours a day, six days a week. In 1997, he made a big leap: He acquired two dealerships with this money.

4.  Mr. Watkins's Chrysler dealership also thrived in the 1990s, as drivers took to sport-utility vehicles such as Chrysler's Jeep Cherokee and later the Grand Cherokee  But Mr. Watkins's Buick-Pontiac-GMC dealership struggled, as GM brands steadily lost market share. GM began offering rebates and other sales incentives in 2001, as did Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. These incentives did not affect the dealers themselves.Ford Motor

5. Mr. Gambrel  Elmer Gambrel became the local Toyota dealer.  Sold 51% of his Toyota dealership to his son so he could start a GM dealership.  Then his Toyota business caught a break. The Japanese company broke ground in 1986 on an assembly plant 90 miles away, in Georgetown, Ky. "That made all the difference in the world," says Ms. Brimm. "When Toyota came to Kentucky, it was OK then."

6.  Sold his GM dealership  "Red flags were flying," he says. "I hated to sell it, but at the same time I couldn't keep it.“  Focused solely on Toyotas  He cut back on maintenance, advertising and certain services.  The surge in gasoline prices kept people away from buying large vehicles, so he had to move his trucks to an adjacent lot  Income was perpetually in the red, so he decided to close shop on June 30, 2007, explaining that he did all he could to keep it alive.  At age 56: "Today I have no home and no money.

7. Any Questions???