Chrysler Will Close One Fourth Of Its Dealerships Next Month
Chrysler notified its dealers today that it will close 789 of its 3,189 dealerships on June 9th. The National Automobile Dealers Association estimates that about 38,000 jobs will be lost as a result.
Mark Calisi, 47, who owns Eagle Auto-Mall in Riverhead, New York, says he was "devastated" to learn that his dealership would be closed. He said Chrysler accounts for a third of his business, which also sells Volvo, Mazda and Kia, and that on Thursday he had to sack 30 of his 100 employees.
"I can't even give severance because Chrysler's not taking back my parts," he said.
Although the dealerships that are closing may offer good deals on the 44,000 vehicles in their combined standing inventory, Consumer Reports doesn't recommend any current Chrysler, Dodge, or Jeep models. They also caution that you might not want to order auto parts from the dealerships that are closing, "as you want to make sure the parts can arrive and be installed prior to their locking the doors." Click through to read more about which dealers are closing across the country.
"Anger, sadness as ax falls on Chrysler dealers" [Reuters]
"Is Chrysler is shutting down a dealer near you?" [Consumer Reports]
(Photo: dave_7)
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So, I just read about the dealership in my town NOT being on the cut list. Seriosuly, does anyone wonder as to how small these places have to be to get cut? This dealership here has to have less than 25 NEW cars, and about 75 USED cars.
People will make a huge deal about Chrysler firing 38,000 people but no one seemed to care for the 35,000 of us who went down with Circuit City.
I'm financially okay but then again I'm just a punk in college as opposed to the folks who where supporting a family working for Chrysler (that's not to say people didn't suffer this as well at CC, though the numbers are less when you remember how they fired their best employees and hired snot nosed teens for less.....like me).
@RichasB: To be fair, I don't think that Circuit City closing was the potential death knell for the electronics industry.
the one near us looks to be closing.
their service dept is so sleezy that the only time we took our car there we decided to go elsewhere in the future.
there's a dodge dealer a little further up the road that will do for service if we need something big
I remember when going to the car dealership used to be a big deal. Now, there are no less than 4 Chrysler Dealerships within a 1/2 hour of my house. There are probably 6 GM dealerships as well. This was an inevitable conclusion and it is probably better for Chrysler that they streamline their dealerships. I hope that the rest of the car companies follow suit and realize that an auto dealership doesn't need to be as common place as a 7-11.
@RichasB: I couldn't agree more. Circuit City completely vanished overnight. This automaker (sadly) won't go away.
I feel bad for the people this company brought under with it, but they're unfortunate collateral damage that their leadership is responsible for. It's ironic; even if they were giving away Dodges, Jeeps, e.t.c., I still wouldn't even want one. You couldn't pay me to own one.
@geargutz:
Also as a side note: The Eagle Auto Mall in Riverhead is one of those dealerships within a 1/2 hour of my house.
This is how going bankrupt works... you close your doors, your products get liquidated, and we all go on our merry way with other options that the market place provides. Yes, it's sad because it's a long-time American company, but what good is trying to prop up this fail boat?
I saw a story about this on World News Tonight. It sounds so sad at the dealer level. There are people who have had Chrysler dealerships since the 30s being told they're no longer dealerships and just being completely fucked over. Really sad.
@RichasB: "They" just don't care when it is college kids losing jobs. College kids will find another crappy job or move back home until they get on their feet. People supporting families losing jobs on a large scale means a loss of tax base, home values plummeting and all sorts of other larger impacts. I am not saying it is fair, I had the same thing happen to me in the late 80's when I was in my 20's.
The bigger factor is that the automakers employ so many state side businesses that supply the automakers. Much more real unemployment than just Chrysler.
Dammit, I'm disappointed to not see Fowler Dodge in Oklahoma City on that list. Their radio ads are so #@*&ing obnoxious and annoying.
In fact, so are the other Dodge dealers' ads and sales practices...is there a reason that Dodge dealers have to always be aggressive, obnoxious, and full of assholes? Hopefully they'll put all of them out of their misery before long.
I'm sure none of this was benefited by the fact that going to buy a new car for a fair price took about 4 hours of your life and would be equal to what I would assume to be child birth.
I don't know much about the manufactures, but just thinking about buying a car was too much of a pain in the ass to ever buy one anyway.
Maybe now someone will make cars without all the hassle.
I can only feel so sorry for car salesmen and service department personnel, which is not very much at all.
The local Chrysler dealership here got the pink slip this week. But the owner vowed to fight the closing in court. Some people just don't know when the jig is up!
Years ago, I owned a '72 Dodge Challenger. I loved my Mopar. But they don't make them the way they used to. That is why they are going away. Bye-bye Chrysler!
I feel bad that this will put a lot of people out of work. Even though I feel bad I honestly think that they should close half of their dealerships if they want a fighting chance to make it.
Bad time to already be unemployed. My competition just went up 38,000 people!!
One of the ones on the list is Belle Meade Garage, a little dealership in NJ that my parents have bought a bunch of cars from. They've been around since forever - they have a display case full of old dealership stuff with "DeSoto" on it.
I suspect that a lot of customers bought from them more because of the people who owned it than because they sold Chryslers, and I wonder if this will hurt Chrysler more than it helps.
@jayphat: I imagine that closing a small dealership would not have as much impact as a HUGE dealership with say 1000 cars. If they're trying to quickly reduce costs I would slash the big guys who weren't performing instead of worrying about the small fish to fry, so to speak.
What's the difference between a used car salesman and a software salesmen?
Only the used car saleseman knows when he lying.
@Omar Elizondo: Exactly! Why can't I order a car online, exactly how I want? Just like a dell computer.
They could have a Automaker test drive and pickup facility in every major metro area. The Automaker, then would get to cut out the middle man and make more of the profit for themselves!
Hmm, I wonder just how low prices on parts will get...
@bohemian: The closing of Circuit City was not an ominous death knell reminding us that an entire industry might die causing millions of jobs to be lost. 38,000 is a drop in the bucket, but it's a sign that we may have huge issues still ahead of us and that is what is disturbing people.
The dealership where I bought my last two cars is on the list. Got a ridiculous deal on the last one because of they really wanted any sale they could get. Luckily for them, they're an Automall. They still have Ford and GM. For now.
Sad to see Edwards Auto Sales in Walhalla SC going.
Sad to see Piedmont in Anderson Staying.
@jayphat: I think it has to do with market saturation more then anything else. Since there is only 1 in your city it would be silly to cut it off. I live just outside Auburn Hills, MI (I can *sigh* see Chrysler HQ from my house) Meadowbrook Dodge is closing down, because there's a Chrysler/Jeep literally 2 miles away. Birmingham Chrysler/Jeep and Monicatti are also closing, my guess? Because there are so many dealerships around Detroit. You've got the Snethkamps, and Troy Motor Mall, even with these closing there's still going to be pretty heavy saturation in a city with very few people buying cars.
I'd buy another Jeep as I've two of them and they've treated me good. What I want to know if what kind of smoking deals are to be had? Can you get a brand new Grand Cherokee or Commander for like $20K or less?
@RichasB: When Circuit City closed, it didn't trickle down. Chrysler affects more than just the factory workers or the dealerships. It affects the people who manufacture the parts, the engineers, the people who build the structures, the truck drivers who transport these cars across the country to dealerships.
It affects a heck of a lot more than 36,000 people. Circuit City's closing did not.
This is going to hit existing Chrysler owners - if the dealer's garages shut down owners will have a longer drive to get warranty or dealer servicing.
Based on my very quick calcs Chrysler is trying get down to about 1 dealer per 200,000 population in larger markets or 1/100,000 in smaller markets.
@hegemonyhog: Chrysler and GM's problems are not the death knell of the industry, it's the death knell of the industry as we know it. If these companies actually folded outright, sure lots of people would be out of work for awhile, but existing companies and startups would step in to fill the void. We still need cars, and Toyota and Honda can't build enough for all of us.
Get it over with and just close them all... such a lousy car company, wish I could say good riddance but appears they are only cutting 25%
@RichasB: When you think about it, this will have a devastating effect on the entire auto industry. The jobs lost now from all these dealerships closing is merely a sign of things to come, and is probably making (at least some) people think that the collapse of the entire industry is nigh. Circuit City isn't. Of course, it always sucks when so many people lose their jobs.
I might consider buying a new car more often if I didn't get the "I've got to check with my manager" or "what do you want your payments to be" when you tried to take as much money from me as you could.
Oh yes, the service managers and mechanics that flat out lied to me "you DO have to lift the car up and remove the fuel tank to change the fuel pump" when it was simply a matter of removing the back seat to get to it.
You jerked around enough customers and now your time has come! I have no pity for car salesmen or dealerships. Maybe an HONEST car company will pop up now and I will gladly buy from them.
See there is no difference between our bold bail out of the banks, and the auto industry. These efforts are to keep jobs and the wheels of commerce going. AIG gives huge bonuses to keep people, and the auto industry dumps thousands of jobs and eliminates dealerships. err...
Hmmm...Wasn't that Saturn?
When I last delt with them years ago, all the Saturn dealerships had the same prices. There were no pushy salespeople. You showed up, browsed, went inside when you were ready to talk. No games. No haggling?
While I feel sorry for the individuals who are losing their jobs, this is the tip of a HUGE issue nobody in the government or media has yet to address: Consumer tastes have changed. Chrysler and GM failed to change with them.
Honda, Toyota and Dautsun (now Nissan) became household names in the 1970s by offering vehicles with better gas mileage and reliability. In the 1980s, these companies targeted the high-end market with Acura, Lexus and Infiniti. The former laughingstock of the import industry, Hyundai, recently won Car Of The Year honors for its Genesis model and "imports" most of its cars from Alabama - not Korea. In contrast, much of Chrysler's production (especially Dodge Trucks) now takes place south of the border in Mexico.
Both Chrysler and GM failed to offer the products American consumers wanted over the past 30 years. Now it is time to let the chips fall where they may. Although I voted for Obama, I disagree with his throwing billions of our tax dollars to subsidize companies and unions that made poor choices and created a pension and benefits Ponzi Scheme that would make Bernie Madoff blush.
A lot has changed in 30 years. Thankfully, cars are built better and last longer. Consumers know which companies deserve the thanks, and these companies have returned the thanks by building manufacturing plants in the US - plants that employ Americans, building the cars and trucks Americans want.
Chrysler and GM don't deserve to be on life support at taxpayers' expense. Pull the plug, hold the funeral and see what (if anything) comes back to life with new ownership and thinking.
@jayphat: The Chrysler/Jeep dealership in my town is closing and the nearest location is going to be over 70 miles away. I live in an area with over 130,000 people so I don't understand the logic in this. The Dodge dealership wasn't affected though.
@scootinger: I can't stand fowler. They completely screwed me on a repair at Fowler Toyota. I had hoped this economy would give them problems.
@egoods: I saw the closing list on the TV, it looks like we're losing 2 out of 3 dealers.
The dealers themselves might be ok - they're all diversified, selling multiple brands.
@gman863: This is all very true..and while it was purely common sense from a business perspective, the foreign automakers took root in the US, giving the South a lot of much-needed jobs, factory workers to engineers. And while the big three in Michigan were beaming proudly about their massive trucks and poo pooing hybrids, the foreign automakers were waiting in the wings, ready to swoop in to claim a chunk of every market. They make good SUVs, they make good small cars, they make good vans. GM still thinks that people want to buy trucks.
@Mari Walker:
Thing is, people are still buying vehicles. There's still millions of vehicles on the roads that require maintenance and parts.
The industry won't truly collapse unless people stop needing vehicles.
Worst case, as I see it? The car companies lose money for a while, until enough fold that prices can rise such that manufacturers best able to compete in the tough environment start making money again. The result? Probably marginally more expensive vehicles and parts.
@ncpeters: Chrysler cars are the same as Dodge just with a different badge. In Chryler's mind it did't make sense to have 2 dealers selling essentially the same car in a market of only 130,000.
@hegemonyhog: I don't see how any, or all of the big 3 going under is the death knell of the auto industry. Toyotas, Hondas, etc are all made in the US now, employing Americans, and those cars will still need parts. The real death knell of the auto industry will be when we finally invent jetpacks.
bailout?