Is CRM overrated? Depends on who you ask.

Justin Norwood, the Internet director for Classic Chevrolet, the top selling Chevy store for three consecutive years, raised a few eyebrows at the Ward’s Automotive Spring Training Conference, while on a panel, when he called CRM overrated.

Brent Hillyer of the Tonkin Family of Dealerships in Portland, OR, who was sitting next to Norwood on the stage, smiled and responded that for his group, CRM is “underrated.”

To be fair, Classic has a sales process in which the sales person works the deal from top to bottom. Norwood says Classic uses CRM to manage the Internet leads but not for other leads.

Classic is not like most dealerships. It can get away with not having a full-scale CRM process. It’s the biggest dealership in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and effectively uses its inventory as a marketing tool. Tom Durant, Classic’s owner, knows the market and what his customers want. And he acts accordingly.

CRM, however, is “mission control” for the entire Tonkin organization, Hillyer says. “We want to make sure that everything is captured, everything is followed up on, everything is measured, and people are made accountable for every point of contact.”

He also says CRM is part of Tonkin’s strategy moving forward. “The opportunity now is how we leap ahead and take the processes we’ve learned the last few years and technologies that are out there and adapt them for our overall business,” he says.

CRM has promised many things through the years, and often has not delivered. But technology is getting better. And dealers are getting smarter with how they use it.

As dealers have to cut expenses — advertising costs often is one of the first areas to get slashed — CRM can be a great way to create some traffic. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. Market to customers already in your database. Specials on both used and new vehicles or maintenance work are the low hanging fruit.

But, now might be the time move beyond that and implement an aggressive CRM strategy.

Few dealers are taking advantage of the downtime to refocus and get into position for when the market returns — and it will. It might be a while, but people are going to have to buy cars. The question is, are you going to be the one selling to them?

Ways to leverage or improve operations likely is not high on the priority list. But this might be the perfect time to start moving the dealership into the 21st century. Dealers that do will be the ones who reap the benefits when people start buying cars again.

Sources tonight have provided Ward’s with some early highlights from President Obama’s plan to rescue General Motors and Chrysler to be announced on Monday.

GM CEO and Chairman Rick Wagoner is out, having resigned Sunday. GM President and COO Fritz Henderson will be named as CEO while Kent Kresa, a GM director since 2003, will be named as acting chairman. GM’s board of directors will be replaced almost entirely over the next couple of months.

The government will provide GM with adequate working capital for the next 60 days in order to restructure and devise new agreements with bondholders and the UAW. There is no word yet on what concessions, if any, the government will demand of dealers.

Meanwhile, Chrysler will receive enough capital for 30 days for the purposes of entering into a reasonable partnership. Apparently, the government does not believe Chrysler can survive on its own.

Additionally, the government will launch an aggressive warranty guarantee for all GM and Chrysler vehicles purchased.

Alan Starling, former chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Assn., shut down his Chrysler Dodge Jeep store in Kissimmee, FL, another victim of the continuing credit crisis.

Details still are being worked out regarding the store’s future. According to the story in the Orlando Sentinel, Starling still owns General Motors stores in Central FL.

Everyday, in local newspapers across the country, you can find stories of dealerships having to shut their doors. That alone is sad, but more distressing are the tragic ways some dealers are leaving the business.

Two weeks ago, Nebraska dealer Allen Patch and two managers, comptroller Rachel Fait, and General Manager Rick Covello, failed to show up to work one day. According to news reports, Patch, who owns Legacy Auto Sales, allegededly conspired with Fait and Covello to steal 81 Ford and Toyota vehicles totalling $2.5 million.

Car haulers loaded the vehicles onto trucks over the weekend late at night. The vehicles began turning up at auctions in Nevada and Utah. Patch, Covello and Fait subsequently turned themselves in.

Meanwhile, last month, Gregory Graham, owner of Graham Colonial Motors in Ligonier, PA, died after suffering a heart attack while attempting to burn several vehicles on his store’s lot. Graham reportedly owed $720,000 in taxes.

The tragedy continues as his brother Randolph, a general manager at the dealership, was found dead Saturday morning in his car. According to news reports, he had been distraught over his brother’s death.

And in what is becomming an all too familiar story, Classic Kia in Texas (no relationship to Tom Durant’s Classic Group) allegedly left at least 223 car buyers and their lenders with title problems, according to the Star Telegram. Many customers are learning the loans on vehicles they traded in have not been paid. Officials estimate the dealership owed $250,000 to $300,000 in sales taxes and licensing fees to the state and county.

There’s a right way and a wrong way of doing things. Unfortunately, these, and other dealers, see no way out, other than resorting to crime. We’ll probably be reading similar stories in the future as the pressure on dealership finances continues to mount.

Four months ago, it would have been unthinkable — dealerships selling brands such as Toyota and Nissan having to close because of floor plan issues. But it’s happening.

Last week, California megadealer Mike Kahn shut the doors to three Nissan dealerships in southern California and another Nissan store in Fremont and a Toyota dealership in Oakland.

Kahn had just put the finishing touches on the Toyota store’s new $35 million facility two weeks ago when Nissan’s finance arm pulled its floor plan from his Superior Automotive Group.

Sources tell me that we likely will see more high-profile import stores close this year, not only because of the credit issue, but also due to the high rent factors many dealers are paying on large palatial facilities they’ve built to be compliant with their auto maker standards.

In a bizzare twist, auto makers may lose the very dealers they want to keep, while others that resisted upgrading their facilities the last few years survive because they don’t have huge bills to pay.