COLMA -- The economic slowdown is taking a toll on car dealers.

Colma GMC, Los Gatos Chevrolet and Good Chevrolet of Alameda closed their doors on Tuesday. All blamed slow sales of General Motors cars.

One salesman, Carlos Gallardo of Good Chevrolet in Alameda said the workers heard the news at 4 p.m. Good Chevrolet had been in business for 53 years. Sixty people are now out of work. Some had worked there for 30 years. Gallardo said he previously had been laid off from another dealership. But he understands that a new car is not high on people's priority lists right now. "People, I guess are losing their jobs, so it's getting tougher for us to sell a car and the banks are getting really tough with people, it's not as easy as it was before."

Ellis Brooks Chevrolet in San Francisco also is seeing business change. The 69 year old dealership plans to cut its inventory. John Brooks said, "We no longer are going to sell Buick, Pontiac or GMC but maintain Chevrolet, Cadillac and Saab." Ellis Brooks used to sell as many as 250 cars a month, but the dealership says now it's as few as 65 cars. "It's scary. That's definitely the market we're in. Never thought that we would see all this and there are probably too many dealers in the United States, but at the same time you hate to see anybody go out of business. We're all in the same boat," said John Brooks.

It's not just auto dealerships that are seeing cutbacks. Wayne Robbins of Car Care Service in Alameda said his customers are not maintaining their cars like they used to. "When they need a crucial repair, like a safety concern issue, they are turning around and saying, I don't have money," said Robbins.

The National Automobile Dealers Association is projecting that new vehicle dealership closures may rise as much as 40% this year. That would mean 600 dealers going out of business.

Some people fear that a popular saying in the 1940 may hold true today. That one went, "As General Motors goes, so goes the nation."