GM opens door to dealers By Jerry Kronenberg/ BostonHerald.com Saturday, March 6, 2010 Rick Smith hopes General Motors decides next week that his family can keep the GM franchise it’s operated in Weymouth for more than half a century.       “We don’t have any reason to cheer yet, but we’re optimistic,” Smith, the second-generation owner of Ricky Smith Buick GMC, said after GM slammed the brakes on plans to drop some 1,350 U.S. dealers.       GM, which announced intentions in May to yank franchises from Smith and hundreds of other dealers next fall, decided yesterday to let 661 stay on. The carmaker plans to notify dealers next week which ones can stay in business.       GM and fellow U.S. automaker Chrysler infuriated retailers last year when the firms decided to collectively slash some 2,000 dealerships. The manufacturers had been under pressure from the Obama administration to downsize in exchange for government bailouts.       Some dealers sued, while Congress passed a law requiring GM and Chrysler to give retailers a chance to fight cancellation notices through arbitration.       But Robert O’Koniewski of the Massachusetts State Automobile Dealers Association believes GM finally reversed gears because the downsizings have cut into the carmaker’s market share. On Tuesday, GM reported that its monthly sales fell below Ford’s during February for the first non-strike month in more than 50 years.       “If you shrink your distribution chain, you’re going to suffer the consequence of fewer people buying your product,” O’Koniewski said.       Now, he hopes many of the 29 Massachusetts GM dealers slated for closure get reprieves - and that Chrysler saves 12 targeted Bay State showrooms as well.       Smith, whose two adult sons work with him at the dealership, is confident either GM or an arbitrator will save the family business.       “I think GM realized that it made a mistake,” he said. “There’s all-new leadership at GM from when this whole thing started, and they’re questioning the wisdom of what they did in the first place.”