2010 - Karram's pulls down the shutters

LAST YEAR saw Volvo dealer, Karram's Regency Automobiles, winding down operations after more than four decades.

In a letter to its customers, dated July 30, 2010, managing director Christopher Karram said it was a difficult decision to make and was not taken lightly.

"We have been the Volvo dealer in Jamaica for over 42 years. However, come Tuesday, August 31, we will cease servicing the vehicles, but sales on parts will continue for the next two to three months, until our inventory is depleted," he said.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Volvo enjoyed tremendous success in Jamaica. Volvos were, at that time, one of the three Vs which Jamaicans aspired to own - the others being a video cassette recorder (VCR) and a US visa.

Karram said his Old Hope Road-based company's exit from the sector was due to uncompetitiveness in the marketplace. The second-generation car dealer said he began to notice a downturn in business from September 2001.

"Fourteen staffers will be affected by our decision to close... and we regret this," he told Automotives in an interview last year.

Karram said, at the time, his immediate plan was to rent the property once occupied by the Volvo car dealership. But he noted that such a move would not mean an end to his involvement in the automotive business.

"We're always looking for opportunities ... (the auto business) is in my blood, that's what I know."

GM Challenger is now the authorised service agent for Volvo in Jamaica.

Volvo means 'I roll' in Latin and is lauded worldwide for its high safety standards. The manufacturing company, Volvo Car Corporation, was founded in Sweden in 1927. On August 2, 2010, the company further changed hands from Ford to the Chinese firm Zhejiang Geely Holding Group.

Owners of Volvos are often proud of the roadworthiness of the vehicles. In fact, American Irv Gordon holds the Guinness World Record for the most miles driven by a single owner in a non-commercial vehicle. He clocked more than 2.8 million miles in his 1966 Volvo P1800.

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  Used-car dealers hit too

Used-car dealers were not spared either as, according to president Lynvalle Hamilton, several dealers went out of business.

"Of the more than 70 companies making up the group, 10 dealers went out of business last year," he said. The president said if current trends continued - high import duties and an import policy which restricted them to bringing in vehicles no older than three years old - more would follow.