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Kevin Crook's dealership sold the last new Cadillac on its lot a week ago.
He said he thought it would be the final time he'd see a new Cadillac in the John K. Fisher showroom.
But Crook, president of the General Motors dealership in El Dorado, learned Monday that he would get his Cadillac franchise back. His is one of the 661 dealers that GM said Friday it would reinstate.
"Losing Cadillac was devastating and getting it back today was a thrill," Crook said. "Our family and our dealership is whole again."
Crook said his grandfather started the company as a Cadillac dealership 55 years ago. It now also sells Buick and GMC.
Crook said he assumes his Cadillac dealership was reinstated because it was one of the 1,100 GM dealers from across the country seeking arbitration after GM said in June it planned not to renew the franchises of about 2,000 dealers.
The reinstatement goes a long way toward John K. Fisher retaining all of its 30 employees.
"We've been fighting tooth and nail not to have to (lay off employees)," Crook said. "This will help with that."
It's not clear how many Kansas dealers received phone calls or letters Monday from GM telling them that they are being reinstated.
When GM announced its dealership cutbacks last year, it left it up to each dealer whether they wanted to publicly announce their franchise loss.
"I'm still determining what is occurring," Don McNeely, president of the Kansas Automobile Dealers Association, said Monday. "I really don't have a good grasp... of how many are being reinstated."
McNeely said of the dealers he knows are being reinstated "it appears a lion's share of these are Cadillac" dealers.
He said he also knows of one Chevrolet dealer in western Kansas that is getting that franchise back.
"This is very good for the dealers involved," McNeely said. "I wish I knew how many more dealers in Kansas are going to be reinstated."
Merle Snider, owner of Merle Snider Motors in Winfield, which learned in June it was losing its franchise to sell new Buicks, Chevrolets, Cadillacs and Pontiacs, said Monday he received no letter or phone call.
He said he understands that some dealers would have to remodel their dealerships in order to be reinstated. Snider said remodeling could cost him hundreds of thousand of dollars.
"I'm not interested, and I'm not financially able," Snider said.
A phone call requesting comment Monday afternoon from GM about the remodeling requirement was not returned.
