San Luis Obispo -- The central coast car business is showing signs of recovery, which is good for local governments that rely on tax revenue from dealerships.
The Fiat dealership in San Luis Obispo on Monterey Street just opened August 1st. It is an expansion for a family run business that's been in San Luis Obispo since 1950.
General Manager David Cole says, "In the car dealership or car industry we are one of the first into the recession and one of the first out of the recession, so hopefully it's good news for everybody that things are getting better."
In 2009 the Cole's Dealership had only 20 fulltime employees and did about 11 million dollars in total sales. This year the company is on track to do 31 million in total sales, has about 60 fulltime employees, and plans to hire 7 more for the new Fiat store.
This is good news for the city, which relies on tax revenue from dealerships Revenue collected from local dealers in San Luis Obispo increased by 233-thousand dollars from 2010 to 2011. San Luis Obispo City Economic Development Manager Claire Clark says, "It is one of the largest portions of the sales tax revenue that we see here at the city, it is therefore an important indicator of the overall health of the economy that we see the dealerships rebounding."
