WASHINGTON — Testifying before a U.S. House subcommittee, the owner of Bend’s only General Motors dealership said the bankrupt auto giant abandoned Central Oregon’s biggest city and withheld crucial details in the weeks since GM decided to sever his franchise agreement.

“There was confusion as to why Bend, now 80,000 strong, will be abandoned as will we, their dealer of choice, the largest GM dealership in Central/Eastern Oregon,” said Bob Thomas, owner of Bob Thomas Car Co.

“Now, it is a dark time when GM must abandon our town, our region and us,” he said.

After weeks of pleading his case with GM through e-mails and letters, Thomas took it to Capitol Hill on Friday.

Thomas met GM’s leadership face-to-face. He testified from the same table as the CEO of the automaker that decided last month to revoke his franchise, in the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Oversight subcommittee hearing. Thomas came at the request of Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, the subcommittee’s top Republican.

Like nearly every other House member at the hearing, Walden questioned the logic behind the closure of about 1,300 GM dealerships nationwide, including dealerships in Redmond, Burns and Klamath Falls.

To illustrate the hardship, Walden played a Google Earth animation of the 136-mile route from Burns, which will lose its GM franchise, to the nearest dealership, in Payette, Idaho.

“If you want to turn GM and Chrysler into a network of urban dealerships then tell me, but don’t ask me and my constituents to bail you out,” Walden said.

How GM figured cuts

GM CEO Fritz Henderson defended the decision to close dealerships. He said it was necessary to cut the company’s costs and make GM profitable again.

“All parts of GM, including the dealer network, must become smaller and more efficient to reinvent GM as a company that is not only viable, but capable of surviving cyclical downturns,” Henderson said. “GM’s viability plan calls for fewer, stronger brands, as well as fewer, stronger dealers.”

After Bob Thomas loses its GM franchise, the closest GM dealership to Bend in Central Oregon will be Gary Gruner Chevrolet-Buick-Pontiac, located 45 miles away in Madras. Gruner has said he would seek to open a GM franchise in Bend if the opportunity were available.

But at the hearing, Henderson said dealers who are being cut would have the first opportunity to reopen franchises if GM determines a city or region can support additional dealerships.

Another local GM dealer, Dave Hamilton Chevrolet-Jeep, also found out last month that it would lose its GM dealership in 2010 and its Chrysler franchise. The dealer filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on May 22, but later withdrew its petition.

At the hearing Friday, GM for the first time released the formula it used to decide which dealerships to close. The formula considered four factors, with sales weighted most heavily. The factors were:

•Sales, compared to other dealers in similar-sized markets: 50 percent of the score

•Customer satisfaction compared against regional average: 30 percent

•Capitalization: 10 percent

•Net profits before taxes: 10 percent.

Dealerships that scored the lowest under the formula lost their franchise, according to the document. Although his dealership is well-positioned to bounce back once the economy recovers, Thomas said, Bend’s down economy crushed his sales numbers last year.

“Bend is in a depression, at least right now, (and) that’s going to make our sales score low (and) profitability score low,” Thomas said after the hearing.

In documents submitted with his testimony, Thomas said his dealership made 67 percent of its objective for sales in 2008, compared with averages of 76 percent in the West and 85 percent nationwide.

Thomas said the dealership sold an average of 444 GM autos per year, from 1988 to 2007. In 2008, though, sales dropped almost 47 percent from the year before.

Sales and service

Bob Thomas will continue to sell new GM vehicles and service vehicles under warranty until its inventory of GM cars and trucks sells out, or no later than Oct. 31, 2010, Thomas has said. The company, which will retain its Honda dealership and will continue to sell used cars and trucks, can no longer order new GM vehicles for inventory, he said.

The company has signed a wind-down agreement with GM agreeing to the separation, Thomas said. It will continue to offer GM rebates and incentives through the end of its agreement.

The GM documents also said dealers who financed their cars through GMAC and decided not to sign a wind-down agreement would have their inventories repurchased by GM.

Dealers financed through other banks might be able to give back their inventories, Henderson said.

Thomas, who is financed through Wells Fargo bank, said that would have been good to know before he signed the wind-down agreement.

“The options were wind down or you’ll be dropped into the bankruptcy,” Thomas said after the hearing. “What does that sound like? It turns out it could be beneficial.”

To date, GM has notified 1,323 of its 6,000 dealers nationwide — 21 dealers in Oregon — that it is terminating their agreements, according to documents the company provided at the hearing.

GM plans to winnow its network to between 3,500 and 3,800 dealers, including those that represent divisions it has sold or is planning to sell — the Saturn, Pontiac and Hummer brands — and other dealers that close on their own. Chrysler plans to close about 800 dealerships.

Henderson, of GM, said his company has received about 856 appeals of dealership closures and reversed 45 decisions, as of Friday morning.

Chrysler does not have an appeals process for dealers.

Committee members repeatedly questioned the carmakers’ rationale for closing dealerships. Committee Chairman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., invited the owner of Washington state’s Tacoma Dodge — the top-selling Dodge dealer in western Washington — but which was notified it will lose its franchise.

After the hearing, a committee staffer asked Thomas if he wanted to meet GM CEO Henderson.

“Why would I want to do that?” Thomas asked, smiling.

Thomas did shake Henderson’s hand a few seconds later. And Mark LaNeve, GM’s vice president for sales, offered to speak on Monday to discuss the dealership’s situation, Thomas said.

After arriving in Washington late Thursday, Thomas had dinner with Walden. He flew out on Friday afternoon, after the five-hour hearing.

Although Thomas gets to keep his GM sign up until next October, he told committee members that he doesn’t consider himself the owner of a true GM dealership now.

“I don’t have an opportunity to be a full-fledged GM dealer anymore,” Thomas said. “I can’t order new cars; I can’t return parts.

“I’m partially in the game, but I’m not really in the game.”