The Sacramento area continues to bleed auto dealerships.

The latest to go is Winter Volvo Lincoln Mercury on Florin Road in Sacramento. It will close at the end of the month after 60 years.

Dale Vaira, president and general manager of the dealership, said Wednesday that the store accepted a consolidation buyout offer from Volvo and Ford Motor Co., which hope to see more sales from fewer stores.

Thirty-eight dealership employees will lose their jobs through the buyout. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The same brutal economic factors that have pounded other new- and used-car dealerships overwhelmed Winter's operations, said Vaira, the grandson of the dealership's founders.

A credit crunch, high gas prices, low consumer confidence and a weak dollar deeply affected revenue, Vaira said.

"I never thought I'd be in this situation," he said. "But I look at it like, sometime, someone built the very best wagon wheel ever. But there came a time when we didn't need any more wagon wheels."

Winter Volvo Lincoln Mercury will be the sixth area dealership to close in the past five months and the third in the 3800 block of Florin Road.

In May, Senator Auto Group closed new-car sales operations at Senator Ford, 3801 Florin Road. In April, dealer Paul Blanco announced that he was closing his Paul Blanco Chevrolet dealership at 3815 Florin Road.

The Senator and Blanco closings also were prompted by consolidation buyout offers from U.S. automakers.

Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for Santa Monica-based Edmunds.com, said he believes consolidation is likely to continue for the next three years at least.

City of Sacramento officials did not put a dollar amount on the latest dealership closing, but they said the auto industry's sorting-out process was having an effect.

"The auto industry is in a state of transition nationwide, which has had an impact on Florin Road and, consequently, has a negative impact to tax revenue for the city," said David Spaur, Sacramento's economic development director.

Larry Carr, executive director of the Florin Road Partnership, said he was hopeful that the once dealership-rich corridor would return to prominence. He said the partnership, auto dealers, business people and officials with the city have been talking about turning portions of Florin Road's dealership row into something new.

"Some of those properties consist of prime land," Carr said. "It really begs for a mixed-use, high-density development. We're working with the City Council and others. It could evolve into a very spectacular mixed-use community," he said.

"The (closed) dealerships have generated a great deal for the city, so of course, we're sad. But we're going to make lemonade out of these lemons," he added.

Vaira said the Winter Volvo Lincoln Mercury site will be sold or leased. He said he and his brother, Jim, also own 8 acres in the Elk Grove Auto Mall, and that land will be put up for sale or lease.

Vaira said liquidation of new and used vehicles at discounted prices will continue at the Winter dealership through the end of the month. The parts and service departments will close then, too, but warranty work on Volvo, Lincoln and Mercury products will be honored at other full-service, new-vehicle dealerships selling those brands.

Vaira said his dealership's roots date to 1947, when his grandparents, Ellard and Esther Winter, started selling Willys Jeep Co. vehicles in Lodi. Many of those jeeps were sold to American military personnel who had grown accustomed to the vehicles during their service in World War II.

In 1948, the dealership moved to 13th and I streets in Sacramento. The company added the Kaiser-Frazer and Packard lines and moved to larger facilities at 2500 Franklin Blvd. in the 1950s. By the 1970s, Winter was operating Volvo and Datsun franchises at separate sites in Sacramento. In 1982, the company moved its Volvo franchise to 3805 Florin Road, eventually combining it with Lincoln and Mercury operations.

Call The Bee's Mark Glover, (916) 321-1184.