By know I'm sure nearly every GRMer has heard about the "Official"800-odd Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealerships got the axe today. Our local newspaper (surprisingly) picked up on it pretty fast. Of course, it's no wonder these places are so buried. In my really small po-dunk town some 40 miles from anything we had THREE Chryco dealers.
McCord sold Dodge (and Nissan), Bud Clary sold Jeep (and Chevy and Subaru), and Columbia sold Chrysler (and Ford). Does any of that nonsense make sense? Of course not. Well Clary and Columbia lost their Chryco accounts today and McCord just became Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep (and probably Fiat if/when that happens). I imagine they'll drop Nissan like a bad habit.
It gets more interesting however because the local Pontiac/Buick/GMC dealer (who also does Honda) is losing their franchise but they have a bigger service center than Clary. Add in the Toyota dealer out in the boonies and you have all of our dealers. For a really small, poor, blue-collar mill town. Nice.
As for the "list" itself, it's out there if you're curious. I was shocked to see Greenway lose it's Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep line (the HUGE flipping dealer in Florida right between Orlando and Bithlo). I was saddened to see Jimmie Vickers Jeep in Merritt Island, FL go down. Vickers was an AMC dealer from way back and Jeep is all they sold. They'll probably close up shop for good.
If you're morbidly curious:
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/Chryslerdealerlist05142009.pdf
A friend of mine has owned a dealership for the past 20 years. He has always been successful and had a good reputation.
A few weeks ago, a Chrysler rep came to see him and demanded half a million bucks. He said that he couldn't do that, but asked what other number would work. They said half a million or nothing. He laid off all his employees and closed his doors a few days later. Very sad.
Yep we are losing three of six in our region. One on our block, One that I worked at in 1994 and one that was one of my old customers.
That does not hurt us (Lansing) as much as it could.
Word around here is that 4 are closing which includes two that are 'consolidating'.
The further word on the street is that when GM does their thing that there will only be 3 GM dealers in the local area, the small outlying stores will be toast.
What do they do with inventory?
Not that I look for ways to take advantage of another person's downfall, but with 800 Chrysler dealers closing and GM announcing a bunch closing tomorrow, there could be a huge amount of high quality, used tools coming to market soon. Welders, mills, lathes, diagnostic equipment that is suddenly not being used has to go. Or what about that special tool you need for rebuilding the trans in your Neon? Or lifts! If each dealer has just 5 lifts, that's 4000 used lifts suddenly on the market.
Keep your eyes open for local auctions.
Carguy123 - I just saw on the news that Chrysler is not buying back the inventory, and it will be have to be auctioned off to other dealers. I assume the spare parts will also be auctioned off to other dealers.
Bob
I only recognized one dealer out of the 12 or so I was familiar with that was losing their only brand. I don't think there will be nearly as many service and tools for sale as you might think. Remember most of these guys are huge multi-make dealers losing their "secondary" make.
The ones that are losing the sole make might continue on used dealers or even service shops (Stirling up here could do that, huge service center).
I sorted through it to see what stores are closing in Minnesota, it appears most of them are in small towns where they probably don't have a lot of volume. Some of them have been around a long time, too - for instance, the dealer in Wabasha, MN has been in business since 1922. One other small town dealer was on the local news tonight, they say they're going to stay in business but will switch to selling used cars only.
Chrysler will probably buy back a lot of the A and B mover parts. C and D stuff will probably be auctioned privately or scrapped. Not good if you need resto parts.
Brake lathes will be cheap for a while along with lifts, but I doubt any milling machines etc will show up cheap because that's just not something dealers have.
As far as the cars, some dealers will auction them and there will be some (like one in our area) who originally had 4 stores and will consolidate their stuff into one.
Hal
HalfDork
5/14/09 9:01 p.m.
The local "Jeep only" and the "Dodge, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Mazda" dealers are on the list. Suprisingly the old time Chrysler dealer is not.
Hopefully the Chrysler dealer will pick up the Jeep franchise.
If anyone sees any auctions, especially in Texas being announced please post. I really, really want a lift.
ddavidv
SuperDork
5/14/09 9:43 p.m.
I could give a rip about most of the multi-brand franchises, but I'm horribly saddened that our local Chry-Jeep stand alone dealer is on the list. He spent a lot of money on his facility maybe ten years ago and has a full service business including a body shop. Family owned, and originally was an AMC dealer, so he's seen dark times before. He loses, but the Dodge dealer just up the road planted right next to the GM dealership (owned by the same guy) gets to keep his crappy facility with nothing but a 1 car showroom and a service department? WTF?
I had questioned the logic of the local Pontiac dealer buying a Suzuki franchise last year. He's starting to look pretty darn smart these days.
As far as the inventory goes I have been informed that there will be very little Chrysler buy back but there will be a transport voucher if another dealer assists a closing dealer with getting rid of his inventory.
Only one around me made the list. That is cool as the one up in Ithaca has been open since 1919. Thankfully we dont have much dealer redundancy in our area. And the dealler that is getting axed is also VERY big with Honda and Hyundai
Duke
Dork
5/15/09 1:06 p.m.
P71 wrote:
If you're morbidly curious:
Would have been nice if they included the whole state name and not the 2-letter postal abbreviation, because it ain't easy to search a 40+ page document for "DE" and get meaningful results...
Looks like Charleston SC lost 3 dealers. Jensenman, looks like you guys didn't get cut.. Glad to see that!
kpm
New Reader
5/15/09 3:04 p.m.
Bobby Archer's in Texas got the ax...that's a bummer.
Wow, around me I am loosing some majors: Corwin Jeep which has been selling Jeeps since, well since they were invented, Burgender Dodge which is a huge Dodge-only dealer, and Wright and Baum Blvd Dodge, both large multi-line dealers. The brand-new Dodge Dealer in Robinson, which sucks more than a vampire, is safe. How's that?
Schmidlap wrote:
Not that I look for ways to take advantage of another person's downfall, but with 800 Chrysler dealers closing and GM announcing a bunch closing tomorrow, there could be a huge amount of high quality, used tools coming to market soon. Welders, mills, lathes, diagnostic equipment that is suddenly not being used has to go. Or what about that special tool you need for rebuilding the trans in your Neon? Or lifts! If each dealer has just 5 lifts, that's 4000 used lifts suddenly on the market.
You're thinking small. How about buying a new home with 20 car garage and room for an auto-x course out back?
Duke wrote:
Would have been nice if they included the whole state name and not the 2-letter postal abbreviation, because it ain't easy to search a 40+ page document for "DE" and get meaningful results...
Same problem with "CA", search for ", DE"
Our area lost one Chrys/Jeep place.
Surprisingly the little Dodge dealer out in the boonies is NOT on the list.
Almost funny story...a few months ago the local Dodge/Jeep dealer was bought by the local Buick/Pontiac/GMC dealer.
Couple months ago the same folks bought the Chrysler franchise from the Chrysler dealership just down the street, which is also Mitsubishi and Kia. The Mitsu dealership moved from their separate building into the former Chrysler building. The now-almost-empty Mitsu building is on a busy corner and being coveted by two drugstore companies.
The building still has the CHRYSLER sign on it. When I made a sales call the other day, I asked when they had to take down the sign. Service manager said, " It's Chrysler's sign. And the Chrysler sign contractor is out of business, too. So we really are not worrying about it!"
O.K. Thirteen in Georgia. One in the same town I live in, only problem is there isnt a dealer in town. I thought it was maybe an office address but it says dealer address. Anyone know what may be up with that?
A big multi brand dealer around here with lots of acreage and big ad budget made the list.
He carries:
Jeep
Pontiac
GMC
Saab
Volvo
VW
The more I look a his list them more I realize that GMC will likely pull (and keep the nearest GMC that has Buick also,) Saab and Volvo are shrinking and it will likely leave him with just VW. Seems pretty grim.
