Tustin Nissan Not Affected by Transfer of Saab Franchise

When news broke last week that the Tustin Saab franchise had been transferred to Campbell Automotive Group, telephones started ringing at Tustin Nissan.

Seems that because the Nissan and Saab stores shared owners and facilities, some clients thought the deal affected Tustin Nissan as well.

It didn’t, and the Nissan store is still there and going strong, says Mark Parkinson, Tustin Nissan’s vice president. Parkinson’s family had owned the Saab franchise since the mid-1970s--the same time it acquired the Nissan franchise--and put them in the same building a decade ago.

But Nissan recently started lobbying for a dealership that didn’t share space with another brand, Parkinson said. At the same time, Saab decided it wanted to consolidate all of Orange County and Long Beach under a single dealer.

Giving up the Saab franchise “was a mutual decision,” Parkinson said.

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John O’Dell covers major Orange County corporations and manufacturing for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5831 and at john.odell@latimes.com.