The Huhlings are 100% to blame for this. I have personal experience with years of ego-tistical individuals they've employed. I could tell you stories for hours of tricks and misdealings under their regime. I hope Gee gets every penny back and damages. Hope the huhlings haven't spent the money yet.

HA! They totally deserve it. It's a big win for the consumers to see this. Mental Note: Don't let your kid be a car salesman... not a very prestigious job. What a bunch of slimey a-holes.

Hopefully the courts will make Steve Huling pay for his illegal business practices and fraudulent dealings with Gee. Look at his argument: they [Gee] are using a different business model and it must be faulty. Thank God they are using a different business model, they aren't defrauding customers and probably are trying to excise any remaining criminal element within the employment force. At the same time, they are trying to compete with the taint left by Huling. Yeah, I buy that argument. Of course it's Gee's fault - Please... Come now Steve, why did you really sell the dealership at such an opportune time - because you knew this "incident" was in the pipeline and any idiot would know such a crime, as this, would KILL a car dealership. The dealership created an environment that encouraged fraudulent business practices. Why else would so many employees be involved in the same crime even competing with one another. So Huling paid $100,000 to a man who could not protect himself. He deserves much more than that in damages but obviously is unable mentally to represent himself or his interests. I hope Gee does not end up holding the bag - the bag should be placed over Steve Huling's head!

Ryan Gee is to blame! The bottom line here is that Gee doesn’t know how to run a profitable business and he’s putting the blame on the Huling Brothers. Back in the spring when Gee had his name in the news he could have taken that opportunity to advertise his new business and run with all the FREE publicity he was getting. He could have put a spin what was going on with the dealership at that time and told the public how things have changed with the new owners, blah blah……. Ryan has no one to blame but himself for his failing business. Every business has its ups and downs, Ryan needs to ride the wave and go through the bumps and get back on track, and stay focused on his business and not put his energy on blaming others for his failure. As a business owner myself, I could not imagine blaming anyone else for lost sales and revenues. Ryan needs to change his marketing, sales strategy, find out what his customers want and needs are, and to provide those services for his customers, Ryan needs to get back to work.

I don't know how this story could be a "win" for the customer. Every industry has it's bad guys that doesn't mean your slurs about car sales people say anything about them. It says something about you! By the way, I would put your "prestige" up against my slimy carsalesPERSON paycheck any day.

of course steve huling is to blame here.his continuing practice of plausible deniability has hopefully caught up with his greed and selfishness.he continued to hirer people of questionable character to sell his cars and do anything it took to be profitable.all this talk about how great he was for the west seattle area is bunk.steve continued to make boatloads of cash off of his daddy's name,surviving off of the large older american contingency that make up west seattles neighborhood."I been buying cars from Huling since 19whatever" I used to hear the claims as a former huling employee.Making pots full of cash and cashing in on your daddy's good name is what Steve was all about.Now his excuse is "Dude I called you,You didnt get the message????
Typical Teflon Steve.nothing can stick to him,not even the feces he hired to sell cars.Another question though...How did Steve avoid conspiracy charges?????good luck steve..
I hope at the very least you get sued and lose...Perfect justice would be you have to go back to work detailing cars.It's really all you are qualified to do anyway

The Hulings knew of the police investigation at least months before selling the dealership and say they did not notify the new owners because the dealership was not involved. I say they sold the dealership because they knew the impact that the crime would have on their business and the value of the dealership.

definately hulings fault, I was an employee of his for several years and could tell you several practices there that lead to my leaving.

Steve you are the kind of guy that gives this buisness a bad name. I am prepared to tell all to anyone that would like to hear of the mistreatment of the employees that lead to the criminal element inside the dealership. If you pay people like criminals, then that is all that will work there. I was there in the best and worst of times and never, was there any merit for being honest and ethical. It was whomever could lie and cheat the most that got promoted first. By the time I left there, there was a good percentage of guys employed there that where on work release or in a halfway house or on probation of some sort. Drug dealers, drug addicts, convicted murderers, thieves. He hired them all, or turned his cheek if the profit was right. Remember Steve you are scum and may the greed that reigned at your dealership from top to bottom. Be the reason that your name will go down in history as seattles biggest crook in the car buisness. I would love to look you in the face and tell you all that I wanted to tell you when I was employed there. Better yet I would love to go on the news and tell the people the truth about you and your dealership.

Look, I don't know how many of you know someone that was there for 20 or more years, but I do. I can tell you that every business with 100 or more employees has a couple of bad eggs. That doesn't mean all the good ones should be spoiled by them. Huling did what he could in a crappy economy the past few years and decided to take a break. The fact that Gee Motors is trying to blame them for their failures is crap. I hope every employee over there is aware of a little thing called the WARN Act. Yep, they should have had 60 days notice. As a "family company" you could at least take care of those employees that have worked there for both Huling and Gee. Instead, you bring 160 people into a messed up battle between the two owners and cast them aside for your own agenda. Bravo Gee! No wonder your business plan hasn't been working.

As for the sales, yeah...o.k. people may have problems with their cars or the values of 3 morons who were immediately fired. But, could it possibly be that with the economy tumbling, the Dow dropping, and the housing market falling apart, that a car company have problems selling as many cars as last year? Just a thought...perhaps the finger pointing could stop for a minute and they take care of their employees...if only for 5 more days. I'll volunteer to help any one of those employees find a job if they need it. That's who is suffering, not the owners.

(Oh and "carguy" if you know them so well, how come you can't spell Huling?)

wow !!! are you serious everyone your blameing one bad apple on ruining the bunch steve is not to blame the media is they love you when your spending thousands of dollars a month on advertising but where are they in the bad times and oh yeah one of the so called people who were involved now works for the seattle times in sales saying that were all crooks is also horrible were all just trying to make a living just like you how much mark up is on the bag of chips your eating or that shirt your wearing over 100 percent most of you are speaking about something you know nothing about i know steve and ryan gee both good people however they all handled this horrible thing the wrong way its ashame people are so ignorant. what about all the great things steve has done all the money he has brought to the community and all the charitie events he has done read up on all the awards all the pople he has helped same with the gees this was a horrible thing but before you pass judgement look in the dam mirror !!!

maybe the gees should take a hard look at themselves,take note tri city nissan now george gee nissan has done nothing but lose money since they have taken over this store with its so called superteam managers from seattle put the blame on the gees not the hulings.this is the so called family orineted dealership.what it boiles down to most owners dont give a crap about there employees.

Bravo Jay - I agree. Gee and their "super-team" did not exactly put things into motion to overcome the scandal. Huling at least made a peace offering to the victim, where was Gee in this? That was the perfect time to asure the community that this kind of thing would not happen under his watch. Instead they dumped their money into advertising and sent many employees packing at the takeover. There were a lot of broken promises and now this. Gee does have a broken business plan and there is no one to blame but themselves.

Again, I urge everyone to think about the families...not the company. Gee thought they had it bad before, I would suspect that their sales will fall all over the state for putting 160 employees out on the street with little to no warning. I guess all they can look forward to is unemployment and a nice class-action lawsuit. I hope the employees get the help they need to ensure their rights are upheld.

maybe ryan gee should consider replacing the blue genie at king of cars in a bigger metropolitian area with his leprechaun mascot outfit from his college days,since none of his car dealers seem to be making money with his superteam managers from seattle area.

I worked there for nearly 10 years and I worked with a great group of guys and it truly was a mom and pop store in the late 90's. I do feel that Mr. Huling was not the greatest owner and had little interaction with his salesman which was his downfall for the lack of quality salesman hired. New hires were not his job, it was the job of the salesmanagers, so he is not to blame for the dirt bags that were hired on. It was a great place to work in the time I was there and worked with great people. In my tenure with the company I probaby had 5 actual conversations with Steve and I think his lack of interaction killed the company and allowed bad people in the door. Again, the company was a good dealership in a whole and it's too bad a few people can be the demise of 100's of people losing their jobs. Gee fired several of people I knew during his time of reign, just to bring in their own superstars, which from what I hear was just the opposite in the quality managers. Good luck to those that are soon to be unemployed and the car business is not as bad of a job as it is perceived.

Whats really confusing to me is how a nissan store can go from selling over a hundred fifty cars a month in a ten year time frame and all of a sudden sell 50 to 80 cars a month,i quess thats the hulings fault! lets see maybe its the gees.once again thats because of there super management team good job guys for sale gee nissan?

Let me begin bt saying Dallas Greene was not the worst gm gees ever had at nissan it was jay bates.Dallas simply did what ryan gee told him to do.Jay Bates just thought everybody at nissan were a bunch of idiots.The latest rumor is that jay himself is gone no surprise next i hope it will be cline davis another ego maniac in the car business.funny for all those years the prior sales team and managers did nothing but sell cars,the old fashion way.I hope all the gee stores fall like rome did.I do feel bad for most of their employess because for the most part they are all good people.I agree with most people get rid of ryan gee.

A story about a Seattle dealership where the Gees claim they are victims has become testament of their mismanagement over a large number of dealerships. The Gees should have stuck with their Pontiac store in Spokane. They can’t manage much more than that with Ryan beyond his abilities. I worked at the Nissan dealership in Pasco for Randy Bohn and drank the cool-aide when the Gees came to talk about family and how they would save the store. Save the store from what? It only went downhill. Ryan slashed the inventory to 70 used cars and the ad budget went from a whole section to a single ad. Ryan cut employees and the accounting all left to be done in Spokane. We could talk hours about that. Having worked for Randy Bohn, Dallas Green, Jay Bates and Cline Davies it is wrong to point the finger at one of the general managers it is Ryan. The prior post says Dallas Green was the worst GM in history but he was just stuck in the vacuum like all the other Gee employees, Ryan behind the curtain calling the shots letting the GMs and us department managers take the blame. We were told Jay Bates would save us and it went into even more hell from there with Spokane calling more shots. Maybe the GMs fault was talking the party line for too long, but I know Jay and Dallas reached points of not being able to contain their frustration with Spokane any longer. How can all of the Gee stores be in such shape, bad general managers, bad employees or bad leadership at the top? Point the finger at Ryan my friends, add the pieces starting with cour dalene, pasco, Spokane and now seattle. Don’t forget there are 160 of our brothers out of work because of a flawed corporate vision. The problem is not local to a store, manager or single scandal. The problem is in Spokane.

And the stories of the green leprechaun suit in Ryans office are true I have seen it with my own eyes in the glass case in his office. It looks back at you like it is watching your every move it is really creepy. Most Gee employees chuckle about it. Ever hear the story of the emperor with no clothes?

Debbie's post said she hopes the Gee stores fall like Rome. Funny sad and true.

Hey I apologize for the Dallas Green comment on a personal basis I really liked the guy, I should have realized it was Ryan pulling his strings. I must say you guys are making me laugh so hard and I miss working with all of you from the Tri-cities during the Randy Years. I understand they broke a new low in August with under 50 cars. Nice, Maybe they can talk randy into taking it off thier hands and turning it back into what it used to be, a car selling machine.

gladnottobegee...

Did you really see the rumored green suit? Did it have Lucky Charms on it?

No lucky charms but as another has said it was really creepy to see that thing in the hallowed glass case. By the way for those in the know, I wonder how the Wolf's are taking all this? As a note I am so sorry for the employees that are loosing thier jobs but let me assure you I have not met a single X-gee employee whose life isn't better after they are free from them. So good luck to all of you.

sounds like somebody got bent over better look at the big picture alot of people are losing out the gees will close and open up under another name autobrokers northwest??????
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

i forgot about the wolf's who are the money behind gee. wolf's provide the money and gee's provide the managment expertise. i wonder if they will bankroll more deals.

ANY MORE INVESTORS OUT THERE? I HEAR THIS A NEW SHERRIFF IN TOWN JEFF GASSAWAY? REMEMBER THE ALAMO!

NOTRE DAME 0 FOR FIVE GEE STORES SEATTLE 0 FOR FIVE IS RYAN GEE HEAD COACH?

maybe notre dame is losing because their mascot is busy closing stores.

Once all of the Seattle stores are closed it will be interesting to see what the laid off employees have to say about life under gee.

Check out the westseattleblog on the web.

They have 3 threads going on this and one of them is over 50 comments. Lots of people have something to say and all current and former Gee employees should dive in.

Wow! Wow! Didn’t realize reading so much garbage could be so much fun. Plenty of blame to go around. Ryan slow down!!! If the price is too good to be true it probably is. With all the smoke and mirrors in the auto industry you have to ask yourself, WHY ARE THEY REALLY SELLING THESE GEMS OF DEALERSHIPS? WHY ARE THESE SUPERSTAR GM'S MOVING CROSS COUNTRY WITH THERE EXPERT BUDDIES IN TOW. It’s not like there’s a car lot on every corner. I am thinking the players in their backyard already know the score? The idealistic thought of bringing Harvard to the car business is a noble one and I for one can appreciate it. Don’t lose hope Ryan, looks like you are making some realistic changes. Local talent, local knowledge of the market place, adjust that corporate game plan ad some street smarts and for GEE sakes get rid of the rose colored glasses. As for the Huling Bros. shame on you , looks like you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar. BUMMER! While all these other dealerships are tut tuting you/ don’t lose heart the majority are guilty as sin for hiring the unsavory just as you did. Sucks to be you. Hey, the truth shall set you free. Let this be a wake up call to the Owners turning a blind eye to those who should never be allowed on a sales force. As for Dallas Greene, Jay Bates and the rest of the Blow Hards that have been behind that power desk , You don’t get to blame Gee for your down right arrogance, nastiness, all out abuse of the those people that entrusted you with their financial future. We all know you would still be working at Gee if your arrogant As#$$@#%^ had not gotton fired. (guess Ryan did something right) Time to get brushed up on your people skills(YA THINK). Just for the record Randy was the expert at smoke and mirrors. For all you Randy fans the days of smoking a joint or snorting a line or two while having a BV and Coke are long gone. No more 3 or 4 day disappearing acts/ no more picking you up at the casino on pay day , The good news, if you don’t like working for your current dealership “QUIT” There is next door…….

to whom it may concern randy bohn by far had no smoke and mirrors,just a hands on hard working owner who truly took care of his empolyees.for your comment about local talent knowledge of the car business does that include hiring ex cons,ex owners of a store that took down local banks and took hard earned monies from hard working people in the tri cities area and surrounding areas.kind of makes you wonder really where the smoke and mirrors are.

I think everyone needs to stop and think about the 160 families that are affected by this tragedy. Steve Huling obvisouly wanted out for some reason and with all the press converging on this business on the 19t of Jan, it is no wonder he wanted out. And this obviouly was no surprise as he admitted in a couple national publications. The Gee Family is a very nice family and I am sure the Huling family is as well. However Steve needed to get this business sold and sold fast and made is deal, now he will have to answer for non disclosure. All this throwing around of accusations and naming employees is ridiculous. Only time will tell the true outcome of this tragedy. Everyone needs to stop the mud slinging and let the legal system take its course. If you have nothing better to do than sling mud, stop and think about what you can do to help these employees and help them find jobs to support their families and quit all the b.s. comments.

Everything happens for a reason the truth will come out in court. I think the best thing for everyone to do now is to say a prayer for all the families that are affected by this and stop throwing stones, it is only a matter of time unitl the truth will come out. Trust in god and our legal system and help those families that are in need of jobs. There is no changing of business practises that ever affected this business. It was merely the scandal that caused the consumers to stop patronizing these stores and can you blame them. Something so tragic happened here that it had National attention. Lets not forget the press ran this story for over 5 months, so how can any business owner overcome that and the fact that consumers vote with their pocket book and they refused to do business with the Gees for fear that these practices might still exist. You all need to reflect on reality and stop pointing fingers. God will do the pointing and the responsilbe party will answer to him in due time.

Why is that the every body belives that a ex owner of a auto store did something like take down local banks and local tri cites people the smart people know what happend with the bank that backed them when the FDIC came into the bank and about took over there bank (intresting)!!! they did not run there bank correctly, which was the down fall of the local autodealership. I wonder why the press did not get a hold of the bank to find out what they did to cause the downfall!! I understand that most people just like to think they no something to feel important!!

ATTN:ALL CURRENT AND X EMPLOYEES OF ANY GEE STORE,CASH IN YOUR 401K OR ROLL IT OVER BEFORE ITS TO LATE.THEY MAY NEED THE MONEY TO CARRY ON DAILY OPERATIONS

401k is not administered by the Gee's, if you read your paperwork you would understand that and realize what a dumb ass remark you just made.
You must be one of the idiots that keeps taking pot shots and shooting off your mouth about things you have no knowledge of. You need to get a life.

i would not say get a life is an idiot. rather someone who may have been smart enough to get off the titantic.

I have never read so much back bitting garbage in my life. With the exception of a few nice remarks the rest of you guys need to go back to watching your TV shows, because you have completely lost touch with reality. West Seattle is a tragedy and someone will move in and start over again. I still have no idea why this has anything to do with employees East of the mountains and I don't think any of you do either, other than a few of you are obviouly exemployees and as I read this trash,it is obvious as too why you no longer work there. Someone in Tri-Cities is using names of exemployees as well to fan the flames and they must be getting a kick out of their sick humor. Hey I have a suggestion for all of you get off the internet and go join the Jerry Springer show becuase that is where people like you belong. Get your facts straight or go back to watching your TV programs. It's time you all did a check up from the neck up and looked in the mirror. You may not like what you see, I am warning you in advance. Stop it already you are making me sick.

"It's time you all did a check up from the neck up" is a really old car guy term. Have you have unmasked yourself?

I am not sure the whole story has been told, but the Gee family sold the stores last week and the new owner came and and meet with the employees and when it came time to sign the lease with Steve Huling, Steve refused to let the new owner Ken Philiips with Car Pros take over the lease. This was dishearting for all the employees that showed up last week ready to go back to work. Now why in the heck would Steve Huling not allow the Gee's to complete their sale, I'll tell you why, because he doesn't give a sh-t about anyone but himself. Steve Huling shame on you for stopping this sale you are an a---hole.

As far as losing your job because you worked at Huling Bros. tough tity said the kitty, but the milk still taste good.

Oxycontin killed Huling Brothers faster than lethal injection.

Hopefully the drug and alcohol addicted salespeople, finance, and service staff at Huling Bros. involved with the theft experience Federal Prison.

I have been in the automobile industry and want people looking for a positive, stress free car buying experience to visit in my opinion one of the following dealerships. First visit Harris Ford to find out how you should not be treated, then visit the following for comparison. 1-10, 10 being best.
Bill Pierre Chevy 8.0
Bill Pierre Dodge 9.0
Bill Pierre Ford 4.5
Harris Ford 0.0
Brien Ford 8.0
O'Brien Automotive Group 10
Sandberg Cadillac 7
Sandberg Volvo 7.5
Sandberg Suzuki 7
Lynnwood Honda 5.0
Lynnwood Mazda 9.0
Infiniti of Kirkland 9.0
Chaplains Auto Group 7.0
Kirkland Toyota 7.5
Seattle Ferrari (yeah right)