Faced with approving a more than $1.1 million contract for MLGW vehicles yesterday, the City Council balked ... and asked about the next highest bidder.
The contract for trucks, vans, and sedans was split between Gossett Motor Cars ($370,036), Crossroads Ford ($379,444), and Jackson, Tennessee's Golden Circle Ford ($364,948). Council members took issue with the Jackson dealership.
"Those who are in support of denying this are in favor of paying another $2,000 so that the money will go to a local dealership," Councilman Myron Lowery explained to the audience. "Yes, we want to be prudent with the city's dollars and MLGW's dollars, but we also want to support the local dealership."
The council wanted to award the contract to Crossroads Ford, which had bid $366,972 for the 24 vehicles.
"The difference between the cost of the vehicles is $88 a vehicle," said council member Barbara Swearengen Ware. "In the whole scheme of things, that becomes peanuts when acknowledge the fact that we are supporting a local business."
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3 comments:
MLGW's decision to use a dealership outside of Shelby County will be more costly than the $2,000.
1. The local Ford dealerships here made no money off of this deal therefore they will not service those vehicles. MLGW will have to take them to Jackson, TN to get them serviced -- lost manpower power and expensive fuel to and from Jackson.
2. It will cost about $5,000 to transport the new vehicles to Memphis - $3,000 above the $2,000 bid difference.
I wondered about the cost of transporting the vehicles here but hadn't thought about the costs associated with servicing them.
I think those are really good points — not to mention that fact that car dealerships need all the help they can't get these days.
Stupid question here: why wouldn't the local dealerships service those vehicles? Seems they would love to make money servicing them even if they didn't sell them. Their profit margins are higher on servicing cars than selling new cars anyway.
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