COLUMBIA, S.C. — A company with dealerships across six southeastern states has temporarily closed the doors to each of its locations, including those in South Carolina.
Concerning the dealership closures, U.S. Auto Sales reports on its website that it is "working on a solution to re-open them as soon as possible." However, the company does not specify exactly what led to those closures and hasn't yet responded to requests for details sent on Friday afternoon.
News19's sister station 11Alive in Atlanta said that it received an email that was sent out to U.S. Auto Team employees on Monday which the station said told employees to leave for the temporary closure.
According to 11Alive, the notice read
"I regret to inform you that effective immediately for the next 48 hours, we must temporarily close all of our dealership locations and temporarily pause our retail operations, including our BDC, underwriting and reconditioning. If you're currently working in one of these areas, please finish what you're doing, clock out and leave the facility."
The temporary closures include the company's 39 locations in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The latter includes a Two Notch Road location in Columbia where News19 crews found a closed building that appeared to be empty.
The company said in its online note to website visitors that "we aren't going anywhere" and also added that loan servicing is continuing through USASF Servicing LLC so customers can still make payments.
According to 11Alive, this is the second subprime auto dealership to face headwinds recently with American Car Center shutting down in February and closing several dealerships across the Southeast.
