Pickups: Is your Chrysler dealer closing?

Last Thursday (5/14), Chrysler moved in bankruptcy court to discontinue the contracts of 789 US dealers by June 9, 2009. On Friday, GM notified 1,600 fo its dealers that their contracts would be terminated before the end of 2010 (probably MUCH before then, as GM is most likely going to file for bankruptcy in the first week of June, and adopt the same urgency and impunity that Chrysler is wielding).

See the list of dealers Chrysler plans to dump, and some of the rationale for the motion and for the dealers they chose at GM, Chrysler's Axed Dealers a Boon for Equipment Makers?.

Best,

L

PS: I hope I posted this in the right space. I couldn't find a thread that obviously covered light and medium-duty trucks.

3 in my state closing, one of them right down the street from my home is closing.

There are 5 dealers that are within 20 minutes of my house that are closing.

Hey hollywood and Truckie, anybody else: After the Chrysler dealers close, how much farther are you going to have to go to reach a Chrysler dealer?

Do you own/manage Chrysler products?

If you own/manage GM products, how big of a problem will it be if your GM dealer loses its contract with GM?

Are there any construction-equipment product lines for which you'd like to see more or better dealer representation in your area (which city and state/province)?

Thanks,

L

Not the one in my town , but plenty here in New Mexico are closing

CEwriter said:

Are there any construction-equipment product lines for which you'd like to see more or better dealer representation in your area (which city and state/province)?

Thanks,

L

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Ill start out with the autos, Chrysler has at least 3 dealerships within 30 minutes drive from me closing. We will lose on Chevy dealer that is 45 minutes away. The question will be what becomes of the Pontiac/GMC/Buick dealerships. I would almost think we will see the Pontiac be replaced by Chevy, and cut dealers farther yet. Pretty tough business to be in right now, but even the small guy can survive. I have a Family member that owns a Chevy dealership in Mid Michigan. His is one of the smaller operations in the area, yet consistently sells more than the big guys. Thus Chevy is keeping him.

The Chrysler dealers around here that are closing all have other lines at the same location. I find this fair. If you are not dedicated 100% to that brand, then you dont need to be a dealer. Lets face it, competition is competition. I would like to see GM do the same to their dealers. If you have another line, that should factor in to the decision to keep you as a dealer or not.

Now on to equipment dealers. I would like to see a Link Belt line, and a Volvo line back in our area. We had a local dealer that was a primarily paving equipment dealer. They also sold Link Belt excavators, and Kawasaki loaders. When Volvo bought the Blaw Knox/Ingersoll Rand line up, they put an end to that little dealership, they brokered a sale to the Volvo dealer in the Detroit area. That dealer axed the Link Belt and Kawasaki lines, replacing them with Volvo. They never got inventory for the shop here in town. Just before paving season got going, They closed the shop in this area. Not good product support. I would hate to have a Paver go down with a 20 truck cycle that is en-route to, or from the plant. It used to be a quick drive to get parts, now, it is at least a 3 hour round trip to pick up parts.

Are there any construction-equipment product lines for which you'd like to see more or better dealer representation in your area (which city and state/province)?

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Larry, I don't know about the car dealerships in my area (Birmingham, AL) but I can chime in on equipment dealers.

Here the following brands are represented rather well:
Cat
Komatsu
Deere
Bobcat
Extec
Kobelco (barely made the list IMOP- not due to product but dealer)

Not represented very well:
Volvo
Case
New Holland
Kubota

Not represented, as in I wouldn't know where to go to buy one, doesn't mean we do not have a dealer:
JCB
Kawasaki
IHI
Yanmar
Terex
Doosan (haven't seen how the Bobcat deal will shake out here)

Probably left a few out, these are the ones that come to mind.

I got one Dodge dealer that is staying open that is only like 10 minutes from me but they are not all that great with dealing with the heavy duty Dodge trucks. They are lost when they have to work on a ¾ ton or 1 ton truck, gas or diesel. That is a real disappointment to me. There really are not going to be any good heavy duty Dodge truck dealers close by.
I also got a PT Cruiser and mom got a Jeep so as far as getting them serviced were good, but I’m screwed with the Dodge truck I got.

I would like to see better Cat representation in my area. With all the work going on here in the city all the Cats the closet Cat dealer is a 45 minute away and that is with no traffic, if you got traffic it could turn in to a hour and a half or more. The Deere dealer we got, well there not to good.

Using CM 1995 list this is how it pans out in my area as far as I see it.
I will look further in to it later and up date it as needed.

Here the following brands are represented rather well:
Cat
Terex
Deere
Bobcat
Link Belt
New Holland
Veermer

Not represented very well:
Volvo
Case
Kubota

Not represented, as in I wouldn't know where to go to buy one, doesn't mean we do not have a dealer:
JCB
Kawasaki
Komatsu
Kobelco
IHI
Yanmar
Doosan

yes mine is which is only 6 miles and so now I have to drive to a xxxxxxx dealer that I would not deal with if he was the last Dodge dealer in the US so I am therefore going to be forced to drive 45 miles the closest one . THANKS !!! CHRYSLER I WILL REMEMBER you next time I I get ready to trade but you need not worry It sure as hell-0 wont be a Dodge (reason being) nO DEALER CLOSE BY !!!!!!
I think that this move will bite Chrysler in the butt in the end .

Chrysler and chevy in my town closing. The chevy dealer has been a dealer since the early 40's. I dont understand why they are shutting down dealers. The dealers own the cars, they own the buildings, pay their own electric gas etc bills. What does it really cost chevy or dodge to have that building there? Nothing why shut them down even if they only sell one car per year.

Pickups: Is your dollarshop Cryslur closing?

Yes I hope so the 99 3500 has been a lemon since day one and cost me a forture! When the new truck is finished I will drive it on their lot just to rub it in! Glad to see that the dishonest chops are going!

Though my brother-in-law is rather high up in the Chrysler bureaucracy in Detroit (I understand he is studying Italian now), I'm not saddened at all that the company is close to going out of business. I've never liked their products (since the mid-fifties). In Michigan, you never knew just when a fender or a door was going to fall off due to the rapid rusting.

I put a couple of Dodge pickups to the test early last year and found both of them lacking compared to either a Chev or a GMC. Chrysler just has never been able to match GM or even Ford in quality and comfort. That's my opinion.

In looking back many years, Fiats have never been popular in America, I sure don’t know who Obama expects to buy their crappy little cars, I sure won’t.

Dealer wise, several around the Phoenix area are going to close, greatly affecting a lot of employees. Several GM dealers went out of business late last year and early this year. In a metropolis like Phoenix, it doesn't cause a huge effect other than for the displaced employees. In smaller towns hundreds of miles from anywhere, dealer closings will have a devastating effect on the local economy.

Government Motors is going to be a massive experiment, I’m sure sorry that the overextended financial institutions caused all this trouble. I don’t feel that the domestic automakers are going to fare very well with the government holding the reins.

Pickups


What was it years ago Lee Iococa said when he was advertizing the Cryslurrr stufff. For those of us that are old enought to remember those adds? Guess they didn't learn very much over the years?