FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -

The litany of recalls at General Motors this year may wind up costing the automaker a great deal financially, but GM’s stores may actually realize some pretty nice gains — including attractive offers on the dealership buy-sell front.

Haig Partners, which released The Blue Sky Report for the first quarter of 2014 on Wednesday, has found that the automakers’ recalls have yet to cause any slowdown in suitors looking to buy GM dealerships.

“While GM will be incurring extraordinary costs for the recalls, GM dealers stand to benefit from customers bringing vehicles in for repairs and trading in recalled cars for newer models,” said company president Alan Haig. “It’s early to call it a non-event, yet GM’s market share is stable, new unit sales are increasing, and its stock price is up from a year ago.

“We’re currently representing the seller of a very profitable GM dealership, and we believe it will trade for a franchise-record price.”

In the report, the firm would go on to shed more light on this GM store it is representing, which it said has hit record sales in profits in some months.

“Its peer stores have also been enjoying higher sales during this period. And dealership buyers who already own GM stores showed strong interest in the dealership as they saw the results of their own GM stores holding up well during this period,” the report indicates.

“At the current offer, we believe this transaction will represent one of the highest prices ever paid for a Chevrolet dealership,” it continues. “This is not to say that GM franchise values will remain steady if things get worse for GM, but so far, buyers appear to be largely unconcerned with the recalls.”

The report goes on to draw some parallels with a Toyota store it worked with amid the automaker’s accelerator pedal recall and the natural disasters that hit Thailand a few years ago.

This Toyota dealer was able to overcome the bad press facing the automaker and Toyota’s new-car supply shortage, all while still thriving.

The store report cut back on advertising and raised prices on limited inventory, and this allowed the dealership to maintain success even in a challenging time.  This is something that GM dealers may be able to apply as challenges mount in Detroit, particularly as it relates to opportunities in the service department and the improved small-car lineup on the new-car side.

“GM dealers have a different set of challenges, but they may be able to turn the situation to their advantage as many customers who own these older, recalled vehicles will be coming to their showrooms and service departments,” the report said.

“Dealers will be able to generate incremental service revenue and will also work to convince many of these owners to purchase a new or used vehicle from them,” it continued.  “We believe that GM’s small car products of today are more appealing and competitive than the GM products that were recalled.

“So while GM will bear the burden of potentially billions of dollars of recall expenses, its dealer base may end up making higher profits because of it.”

A Different View

In a similar report released earlier this week, Kerrigan Advisors presents another picture of the buy-sell picture for GM dealerships.

The firm released The Kerrigan Quarterly Blue Sky Report for Q1 2014 on Monday and inlcuded a blue sky chart for various non-luxury and luxury brands, including Chevrolet and Cadillac.

“Chevy, like all GM franchises, is being affected by the recalls. Some buyers avoid GM franchises due to the challenges of working with the factory,” the Kerrigan report said.

“That said, Chevy is still the second-largest franchise in the U.S. and buyers show interest.”

As for Cadillac, the report said: “Cadillac is considered a riskier luxury franchise by buyers. The brand experienced strong growth in 2013, but below market growth in the first quarter and the GM recalls are not helping the brand’s image.”