Steve Zabawa was climbing a mountain in Peru in July when he got a call from General Motors asking whether his Rimrock Auto Group wanted to buy Fichtner Chevrolet near Billings, Mont. GM's message, according to Zabawa: "We'd rather have you represent it than the current buyer." That current buyer? Crosstown rival and former NADA Chairman Bill, Underriner, who, back in Billings, was unaware his deal was about to crater. He didn't find out GM would use its right-of-first-refusal option to assign the sale to Rimrock until the transaction reached its approval deadline the next month. "I'm not very happy," Underriner told Automotive News. "I felt that I got strung out."
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