TRANSPORTATION

Out of the Business: Newport Beach socialite-car dealer Jim Slemons, who once owned seven auto franchises, including one of the nation’s largest Mercedes-Benz dealerships, is officially out of the car business in Southern California.

Slemons sold his last remaining Southland dealership in April to his former general manager, Malcolm McCassey, and McCassey’s silent partner, former Los Angeles banker Louis Cherry.

That franchise, now called Capistrano Valley Jeep-Eagle, is one of two dealerships owned by McCassey and Cherry, who also bought University Oldsmobile- Pontiac-GMC in Costa Mesa in April.

As for Slemons, he still owns a Volvo franchise in Hawaii and is apparently still struggling with debt left over from the bankruptcy last summer of his Jim Slemons Imports business in Newport Beach.

Slemons pledged most of his personal property to secure $15 million in loans during his final months in business.

One of those properties, his former residence in Newport Beach’s exclusive Harbor Ridge, is scheduled to be sold on the courthouse steps in Santa Ana in a June 11 foreclosure. Suggested bid to cover the lender’s debt is $3.1 million.