A local General Motors dealership will phase out its Cadillacline over the next 17 months as a part of major moves under way inrelation to GM’s bankruptcy and realignment, officials said.

Stan King GM Superstore owner Stan King said there will not beany immediate drastic changes, but that Cadillac will be phased outby October of 2010. He said, however, that it shouldn’t make a bigdent in his business.

“We sold about three or four new ones a month,” he said. “Youhate to lose anything but it won’t affect us that much. We’ll stillcarry them through 2010, and after that we’ll have Chevrolet, GMCand Buick.”

King said GM nationally is trying to realign its stores byconsolidating some and moving others around. Cadillac will be soldby specialty dealers, much like lines like Lexus, BMW and Mercedes,King said.

“To give an example, there are 200 Lexus dealers in the country,and they’re selling as many Lexus as Cadillacs and there’s 1,600Cadillac dealers out there,” he said.

Of the country’s 6,200 dealerships, GM is cutting down to 3,600.King said his dealership received a letter Tuesday saying that theyare among the ones that are being kept. He said while he hates itfor dealerships that will be closing, he’s looking at the brightside for his company.

“If it’s healthy for GM to do this, it’s healthy for me in thelong run. I don’t protest it at all,” King said. “If that’ssomething GM needs to do to make money and make a profit, the morethey make the more I make. I’m for it.”

He elaborated that the downsizing meant more business for theremaining dealerships.

“You hate to see anybody go out of business, but for the 3,600that made the cut and remain in business, it’s going to increasevolume from sales to service to parts,” he said. “It’s realpositive thing for those who made the cut. We’ll have a lot morecustomers and sales, but you hate to see anyone go out ofbusiness.”

King said the company is now operating under what he referred toas “the new GM,” saying that they had signed their new agreementTuesday morning.

“Once they filed bankruptcy all dealer agreements were void,” hesaid. “They sent us our new one and we’ve signed them and sent themback. It’s a brand new agreement for new GM, and we and Brookhaven,Mississippi, are a part of it.”