Car dealers are realizing that there's more to green cars than what's under the hood. Check out what this innovative dealership has done to green their entire operations.This dealership houses its own geothermal pump, cleans its cars from recycled water, has a water-soluble paint booth, and powers its repair machinery on biodiesel. And....they've increased their sales as a result!

With the current GM slump in sales and increased layoffs, perhaps it would be wise for GM to encourage similar endeavors at more dealerships throughout the country.

Where do you buy your green cars? Perhaps at one of 16 green car dealerships that MSNBC contributor Jenny Lynn Zappala discovered in her research to understand just what's the deal with buying alternative-fueled vehicles. Zappala talks to Ron Gompertz, the force behind Eco Auto in Bozeman, Montana and the co-founders of Green Car Company of Kirkland, in Seattle. While there are only 16 dedicated shops today, the general thought is that with gas prices rising, alternatives to gasoline becoming more and more mainstream, the overall availability of green cars is surely going to increase in the near future. We're not talking about more hybrids on the major dealer lots here, but real alternative dealers.

Zappala even asked some fool blogger what he thought about this situation (and, to be clear and avoid any trouble, I'm talking about myself here, not Green Car Congress' Mike Millikin who was also interviewed for the article). Read the whole thing.

[Source: MSNBC]

Tesla Motors announced several months ago that they would eschew the traditional franchise dealer approach of most car companies in favor of company owned retail and service outlets. The plan was to launch with five stores located in New York, Chicago, South Florida, Los Angeles and the Bay area.

They've just announced the details on the Bay Area store which will be in Menlo Park just up the road from the Stanford University campus. The property they are leasing is actually owned by the university and was formerly home to a Chevrolet dealer that closed last year. The first production Roadsters are due off the line in early October and the store is targeted to open by the end of the year as long as construction goes smoothly.

[Source: Tesla Motors]

A new Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) store is now open in Salt Lake City selling two-seater and four-seater models. You can pick up a two-seater for about $7,000 and a four-seater for $10,000. The vehicles have a range of about 40 miles and incredibly low running costs. Ideal for planned communities and warm weather, NEVs make great second cars or main cars for people who don't need to travel far.

Analysis: No word as to what brands are to be sold in the dealership, but I'd expect the Miles ZX40 and the ZENN models would be likely. All-electric vehicle dealerships are likely to be niche businesses for a while yet, but they're bound to start popping up as more EV start-ups enter the market.

Related:

• AutoblogGreen visits the American Electric Vehicle factory and we drive a Kurrent
• The Top Ten electric vehicles you can buy right now (for the most part)
• Wisconsin pro-NEV law actually makes it harder to drive electric vehicles there

[Source: KCPW News]

While sales of fuel-efficient cars and even small SUVs have been up, Americans who previously purchased mid-sized to large SUVs are finding it increasing difficult to sell individually or even trade them at dealerships.

Gas prices are the biggest culprit with most older SUV models barely climbing into the twenties for fuel efficiency. Worse, since used car buyers tend to have lower incomes than new vehicle purchasers, sellers have been forced to price their SUV below blue book value. States Robert Jerkin of East Brunswick, New Jersey, "We had paid about $30,000 for it (2000 Dodge Durango); the Blue Book price when we went to sell it was $8,000. We started advertising at $7,900 and kept dropping it. Nobody wanted a gas-guzzler, and there were so many being advertised at the same time." Jenkins eventually found a buyer who purchased the SUV for $6,000.

Dealerships have been especially taxed since the value of large SUV fluctuates constantly. Serra Automotive president Joseph Serra sees appraised prices change weekly. Only well-equipped, top-of-the line large SUVs, agree analysts, sell well since such buyers are less concerned with fuel costs.

[Source: Detroit News via Mobilemag]