Bad blood spilled between the past and present owners of the Fauntleroy Way car dealerships.

Steve Huling, former co-owner with brother Tom Huling of nearly all the car dealerships on Fauntleroy Way, struck back at new owner Gee Automotive after its chief executive officer blamed Huling Bros. for Gee's poor sales.

Car sales at Gee's West Seattle dealerships are down more than 50 percent since last year, stated Ryan Gee, chief executive officer, in a press release. Gee Automotive is losing about $300,000 a month.

Gee placed responsibility for the sales plunge on bad publicity surrounding Huling Bros.' employees just two weeks after the $5.3 million purchase was finalized.

The Huling Bros. employees are charged with breaking into a customer's apartment, stealing $70,000 in cash and laundering the money to conceal the crime. Two of three charged are scheduled to go on trial this week.

Last winter, the Huling family gave the customer $100,000 to replace the stolen money as well as reimburse him for a truck he'd bought at the dealership.

"Despite our best efforts and those of our ethical, loyal employees," Ryan Gee stated, "it's clear that in the public's eye, Gee Automotive is too closely associated with the fraud. We believe the only way to save the jobs of our employees is to try to sell the dealership and give it a fresh start with a new owner."

Gee Automotive announced it will close the business if a buyer isn't found by Sunday, Oct. 7.

Gee purchased the car dealership franchises but Huling Bros. still owns the property. Huling said Gee stopped paying rent but Huling would not say when.

Gee claims the incident not only tarnished the public image of the newly purchased business, he further accused Huling of keeping him in the dark about the crimes during negotiations over sale of the dealerships.

Huling dismisses Gee's argument that a couple weeks of bad publicity over the incident is the cause of the new owner's sales woes.

"Are you kidding me?" Huling said in an interview. "In 60 years of business, we survived a fire, a citywide, 14-month mechanics' strike, the ship hitting the Spokane Street Bridge, the Boeing layoffs, two gas crunches and 21.5 percent interest rates. But we survived and grew."

"Do you think this would've taken me and my brother down?" he asked. "Heavens no."

Huling blamed "what they did to self-destruct." For example, Gee did not stage a big promotion campaign when it took over the business, Huling said. The grand opening celebration was held just a few weeks ago, about nine months after Gee took over.

The new owners didn't replace the Huling Bros. signs right away either, he said.

Huling also attributed the difference to what he called leadership, claiming he normally spent six or seven days a week at the business. Gee wasn't even in West Seattle for much of the time, said Huling.

Besides, the dealerships mostly sell General Motors cars, and it's no longer news that GM has lost of its onetime leading market share in recent years, Huling said.

During negotiations over sale and purchase of the dealerships, Huling said he did not mention the police investigation over his former employees to Gee because "that had nothing to do with the dealership."

"That incident couldn't have done the damage," Huling said. "This is just a diversion."

"Besides," Huling asked, "had they known, what would they have done?"

The purchase included a six-month due diligence period during which Gee could've investigated further, he said. The Gees twice postponed the closing of the sale, he added.

"The reality is they didn't have a pulse on the market and let it get away from them," Huling said.

Tim St. Clair can be reached at timstc@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.