Chrysler closing 789 dealers

[blue_onyx]

Chrysler LLC says it wants to eliminate 789 dealerships as part of its restructuring process. More than 38,000 people will be without work once the dealerships close.

The list of dealers set to close was released Thursday morning.

Chyrsler Bankruptcy Could Take Years

The company, in a motion filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, said many of the dealers' sales are too low. Just over 50 percent of the dealers account for about 90 percent of the company's U.S. sales, the motion said.


http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/19445701/detail.html


Here's the list of dealers closing

http://www.clickondetroit.com/download/2009/0514/19460187.pdf

[BeyondGeography]

1. Among many other things, that's a ton of newspaper advertising that goes away

and local sponsorship of things like kids' sports. A necessary development with fallout for a lot more than car salesmen.

[NightWatcher]

2. they're closing the one in my town. I guess I'll never get that Wrangler after all

[MineralMan]

3. Look at the MN dealers, it's mostly small town dealers

that will be closed. Not good for those towns.

[blue_onyx]

6. Yeah, I was most worried about that

since dealers are sometimes the biggest employers in small cities. Being a small town means there probably isn't many other employment options either.

They are closing one dealer near me. The city isn't small (100,000) but unemployment is already so high that it's a big deal. There's also 2 GM dealers right near the Chrysler deal that I'm worried about closing. The road (a pretty busy one) will be like a ghost town of auto dealers.

[MineralMan]

7. It's also going to make it tough for people who would

like to buy that brand. They'd have to get service at a dealership quite a distance from where they live. The contraction is going to happen, but it's interesting that the big dealers in the city aren't getting dumped. There must be a dozen GM dealerships within a 20 minute drive from my home in Saint Paul. Folks in other places are not so fortunate.

[mwooldri]

16. Not all small towns...

Charlotte NC loses two dealerships.

Greensboro loses its Jeep dealership, though I hope City Motors manages to carry on with its Mazda franchise (they have just Mazda and Jeep).

I own a Jeep and tend to take my vehicle to the dealership (yeah yeah yeah... but I want that security blanket, OK?) ... two nearest dealerships: City Motors in Greensboro is on the list and Stearns in Graham, NC - also on the list. I guess I could take it to the Dodge dealers... they're not on the list.

Mark.

[Joanne98]

4. The bondholders forced the bankruptcy so they could collect on their credit default swaps.

If the dealers want to know who FUCKED THEM for their own SELFISH AND GREEDY reasons!

[Joanne98]

5. And their doing the same thing to GM... CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=367&topic_id=20172&mesg_id=20172

[TreasonousBastard]

8. Curious... Eagle Automall is a huge dealer central to...

eastern Long Island, but they're closing. Not to worry about them-- they've got four or five other franchises, including Chevy and some Asian brands.

But Mullen Motors, a tiny single franchise dealer in my little dipshit town far from anywhere is staying open. I do see mostly Dodge trucks around here, with a lot of Jeeps and 300s, so this dealer and brand loyalty thing may not be a pipe dream.

[noteworthy]

13. Eagle...Mullen...Island

Eagle is not worth worrying about due to the man who runs it. On the other hand, the Mullen family has been taking care of the community's needs for decades - and doing a great job. With Storm's in Southampton and Mullen on the North Fork there is no need for Eagle to exist as far as Chrysler goes. There are, however, a number of great people who have worked there since it was Herb Obser - I feel for them.

Island is another small town store that has risen above their surroundings, but politics plays the hole card all the time. My prediction: Security Dodge - a mile down the road will soon be hanging their Jeep sign. Do you think their being among the top parts dealers in the country bought them a favor?

Chrysler has not given anything more than an extremely vague rationale for the whole process - precisely HOW will eliminating these dealers (that pay their own way) save money for the company? Will it offset the tens of thousands of jobs lost across the country at small dealers? I don't think so...

[Winterblues]

9. Who is making these decisions I wonder considering a Majority ownership is

retirees. I read they were given fifty five percent of stock in the company so they have The say in what Chrysler Motors is doing...Maybe they haven't figured that out yet. :shrug: I can't imagine the workers wanting to close down the dealers....

[RB TexLa]

10. Why would retiree/owners want to keep lower profitable dealers open?

There are 5 Chrysler dealers within 20 miles of me, if a company is losing money they have to tighten things up. The taxpayer money loaned to these companies was for them to survive not maintain a level of business they could not support.

[snooper2]

11. because some people don't believe in profits

and they want our tax dollars to pay for all the workers regardless of product quality or competition- Everyone gets to keep their job in a failing company with a failed business model...

[blue_onyx]

12. But the retirees want the company to survive

If they believe this is a necessary step in the restructuring of the company, then they would probably support it.

[Holly_Hobby]

14. But they found the executive pay loophole!

...

Anticipating the closures, more than 100 dealers descended on Capitol Hill Wednesday to convince lawmakers that Chrysler should not close its businesses as a cost-cutting measure. Word that the very company seeking to keep them from operating their dealerships had found a loophole to pay executives more than $500,000 annually outraged the car sellers.

...

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=7581407&page=1

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. WOW mostly in small markets

JUST WOW this will have a hell of an impact

I was surprised not to see any in my region