Mopar Boy
Enthusiast
What Jimmy said.
So whats your cable number so we can all log in at once?
So whats your cable number so we can all log in at once?
You are 100% correct. We have until June 9th to sell any remaining new car inventory and Mopar parts. After this date, we will be required to wholesale this inventory to other Chrysler remaining dealers...for pennies.
Still in the state of shock but we will pick up the pieces and survive. We also have the BMW and MB franchises as well.
Its just rather sad after so many years. However, life will go on.
Cindi
You are 100% correct. We have until June 9th to sell any remaining new car inventory and Mopar parts. After this date, we will be required to wholesale this inventory to other Chrysler remaining dealers...for pennies.
Still in the state of shock but we will pick up the pieces and survive. We also have the BMW and MB franchises as well.
Its just rather sad after so many years. However, life will go on.
Cindi
I know - I've been talking to them. The 'latest news' on this is that the list is preliminary as released by Fiat, and can be revised. There is an appeals process that dealerships can follow and, if they're profitable, etc., they likely will prevail. Timberline feels confident that they will make it...
Average Chrysler dealer sells 300 cars + - and the average Toyota dealer sells 1500+ Stronger dealers with more money to upgrade facilities and personel. Horrible for those shut out.OK I am ignorant. How does closing down dealers you don't own/operate save money? Aren't they the ones who sell the product to the consumer. Less places for comsumers to buy a product doesn't make sense. This won't look good to consumers...just adds fuel to the fire. Someone explain please.
Thank all the people who bought foreign crap to drive the domestics to the place they are in now.
I'm with you. I just can't understand why people would buy those crap vehicles buit by Toyoduh and others when they can have the superior quality and reliability that Detroit has always been known for.
I'm curious to how you figure Consumer Reports plays into this when they don't accept advertising and do all their own testing? IMHO, they just tell it like it is. In my profession, they have been correct.Your average person today is a lemming. They have been taught to be so by a mediocre education system that rewards the ability to memorize vast quantities of data. The lberal media, an arm of the Democratic Pary, (Consumer Reports is a good example) feeds them false information (mostly based on press releases from interested parties). These lemmings only believe what they read or hear on Meet the Press or NPR and regurgitiate it in the hot-tub. There is no discussion, no debate--it is impolite to question other's data-banks, doing so is the sure road to social exile.
The outcome is that the "sky is falling" and the lemmings are buying Priuses like they were early 60's VW Beetles. They are fotunate that today's vehicles are consumer disposables most have never lifted the hood on, desire to or know how.
Martin -- interesting; there was a comment in yesterday's Oregonian stating that there was no appeals process but in the article Timberline stated it would be fighting this decision.
/Rich
I'm curious to how you figure Consumer Reports plays into this when they don't accept advertising and do all their own testing? IMHO, they just tell it like it is. In my profession, they have been correct.
My sister has Jeeps and I'm going on a Jeep Jamboree later this summer with her. There certain issue's with Jeeps depending on model years. Such as the fuel gauge issues, and the Jeep she is selling now has an issue with the instrument cluster and you have to bang on it, also a known Jeep issue. It you take the number of Jeeps sold or still on the road, the majority of owners do not go off roading with them. So for all those that buy them so they can get around in winter or to say they have a "Jeep", maybe the glove box should line up properly. And really if you're going to build something, everything should line up properly. My best friend, whose is a mechanic, and my niece both have issues with the instrument cluster, and both are Chrysler products. Personally, every vehicle I have ever owned was a Chrysler product and the build quality varies with what years they were made and what model you owned. Most of my family has owned Chrysler products. So I'm definetly not bashing Chrysler or the other two domestic car builders. But seriously, across each domestic auto makers entire product line, they haven't been able to keep up or match the foreign automakers quality. If you read the Consumer Reports car reliability section, you will see that. And those figures are from the surveys they send out each year to their readers, not something they are making up because they have some political agenda or someone has given them big bucks to advertise in them. They are not for profit and don't accept advertising. By the way, when they make a mistake or are proven wrong, they even own up to it. I'm not one of those people who think everyone is dishonest and has a hidden agenda, there are still some good organizations in the world and honest people out there. And you really should read what they said about the presidential election before assuming the majority of them voted for Obama. It always upset me that the cars I owned in there didn't do as good as the foreign cars in initial fit, finish, and reliability, but it was my choice to own them and I did appear to have the problems that the charts showed, although not every one. If the big three built the best vehicles in the world, they wouldn't be where they are today. < All my opinion, let the flames begin.I came to this opinion after reading it for many years. It is written by humans. Humans are subsceptible to prejudices, conscious and sub-conscious. I havn't read one in years after tiring of it's spin. I bet if you poll who it's writers voted for in the last election, 90% voted for Obama.
Maybe I'll take a look at one and discect it's spin as an exercise. For an example, they think Jeeps are unrliable. I own two and have never had to take it in for warranty work. They compare it to vehicles used by soccer moms, not to vehicles built to be the most capable off-road. When you are going miles off-road is your criteria for reliability going to be based on does the glove box door line up properly or if it is going to get you there and back?
If the big three built the best vehicles in the world, they wouldn't be where they are today. < All my opinion, let the flames begin.
I own a business in frisco and live in Southern Marin. American vehicles don't stand a chance here, it's a matter of PC and status. You could gold plate American vehicles here and you couldn't give them away for free. People wouldn't be caught dead driving one here. America does make some of the best vehicles in the world for the price. You said it, Consumer Reports polls their readers and gets the results of their wants, desires and perecptions. Most vehicles are very relible today. they don't build lemons like the Yugo anymore.
The big three are where they are today because of politicans that can be bought by foreign interests who don't do what's best for this country. And it's all perfectly legal, it's called a campaign contribution and not a bribe anymore. Politicians have even made the bribe legal and they don't care about selling out there own country. The last election Bush was bashed for high unemployment and lack of job creation--Emperor Obama has just wiped out the American auto industry and all the allied suppliers and the dealership network. How come the liberal media isn't jumping up and down about the lack of job creation that just occured.
Our government should be protecting our indutries and jobs, instead it favors foreign manufacturers over ours. I've driven all kinds of cars and trucks. BMW, Mercs and Lexis are good cars and you pay extra for them over a comparable US make. People on the coasts, college towns and affluent communities make their car buying decisions on the basis of status and foreign cars have more status. This is because Americans have an inferiority complex and think anything foreign is superior. That's what they have been taught by our education system which is truly inferior. We have the greatest civilization in the history of civilizations yet we think we are the bad guys. That's just nuts. Thanks for the opportunity to rant. You invited the flame. Let me take a wild guess, you live in CT. and I bet you voted for Obama, did I guess wrong? I voted for McCain.
Actually, I think GM would love to go Q so they could get out of Detroit and away from the crooked political environment and the union goons who are sucking them dry preventing them from competing with foreign manufacaturers. GM and Ford have been global companies and have been successfully manufactruring vehicles around the world. They want out because they can't make a fair return on investment here anymore under the socialist goverment we now have. Capitlaism and making cars is about competion and we don't have either here anymore.
how the cut was decided:
Chrysler LLC Update Regarding Current Condition of Chrysler LLC Dealer Network Auburn Hills, Mich., May 21, 2009 - The following are details on the current condition of Chrysler LLC dealer network.
Comments can be attributed to Steven J. Landry, Executive Vice President, North American Marketing and Mopar Parts and Service – Chrysler LLC:
“The automotive industry cannot support the number of dealers currently in the marketplace. From 1990 until 2007, the industry averaged 16 million new vehicles sold each year. In 2009, new vehicles sold are expected to be 10.5 million units.
“Chrysler is treating the rejected dealers fairly by assisting in the redistribution of remaining vehicle and parts inventory, as well as paying incentive and warranty payments due.
“It was not an easy decision to ask the court to reject a portion of our dealer sales and service agreements, but the reality is Chrysler’s viability depends on a vibrant, profitable dealer network. As presently configured, Chrysler’s dealer network does not meet that test. If the sale to Fiat is not approved by the Bankruptcy Court, the stark reality is all 3,181 dealers will face elimination.
“The process to evaluate dealers was a thorough, rigorous process that used a data-driven metric that included the following factors:
“Under this plan, 2,392 dealers across the United States move forward with the new company. It doesn’t mean that the 789 rejected dealers will close if this motion is approved by the Court:
- Minimum Sales Responsibility
- A scorecard that measured sales, share, shipments, customer satisfaction index, service satisfaction index and warranty repair
- Facility (capacity, Millennium II standards)
- Location (optimum retail area)
- Dual (Dealer is dualed with a competing manufacturer)
- The market’s total sales potential
“Chrysler began the process to consolidate dealerships and locate all three brands under one roof more than 10 years ago. The Company made the decision not to continue to manufacture and market overlapping products. It is critical the majority of our dealers offer customers all three brands under one roof.”
- 44 percent of the 789 “rejected” dealers are dualed with another (competing) new vehicle franchise and can continue to sell those makes of vehicles
- 83 percent of the 789 “rejected” dealers sell more used than new vehicles, many of these dealers will continue selling and servicing pre-owned vehicles
Here is a letter from a Dodge dealer not to far from me. Seems there is some politics involved in the closings.
May 16, 2009
Dear America,
Recently, Chrysler, LLC notified Rogers Dodge, Inc., in Alvin, Texas of their anticipated closing of our dealership. Chrysler has pled their story quite publicly for several months in support of their request of billions of taxpayer dollars. This is our story.
We occupy a 3-year old Dodge-designed building for which we paid cash when it was built. It was appraised at $3,700,000 in 2007. We qualified as a Five Star dealer for the 2009 calendar year. We have remained profitable through all of this downturn. We have in excess of $1,000,000 in working capital in our dealership. We are selling at or above market share. We pay $75,000 per year in local property taxes and collect millions of dollars annually in state sales taxes. We employ 38 Alvin, Texas residents who all pay property tax, sales tax and income tax.
The owner, Mr. Peter Mankins, my uncle, owns 6 other dealerships, and has no liens on any of his properties or franchises. He has maintained a car dealership in Texarkana, Texas since the late 1960s. He purchased that dealership from my grandfather, who purchased it from my great-grandfather, who rode shotgun next to his father when he was 9, as they were settling the Oklahoma Territory. My great-grandfather started in the automotive business in the early 1900s as a motorcycle repairman, which eventually segued into an International Harvester franchise, and, subsequently, a Pontiac franchise. I have a large family, almost all of which are connected with auto dealerships in one way or another. I state all of this so that there is no confusion by Chrysler or the bankruptcy court or the US government over whether we are a group of half-committed dealers - we are not short-term auto dealers/we are committed over several generations. Chrysler and its dealers have been portrayed in the media as regressive small-town morons. Speaking solely for the dealers, I assure you this is not the case.
In the past year, we have embarked on several creative initiatives in order to remain profitable and out of bankruptcy court. We have become a very competitive used vehicle internet dealer by patterning ourselves after the most successful used vehicle internet dealers in the country. Selling more used vehicles than new vehicles is one of the stated criteria upon which Chrysler based their decision to close us. Would Chrysler have preferred their dealers join them in bankruptcy court? It was never our desire to allow ourselves to be a burden on the American taxpayers; nor do we plan this in the future. Selling more used vehicles has enabled us to not only avoid layoffs, but to actually grow our employee population from 25 to 38 during the period of May 2008 to May 2009, a 52 percent increase. Further, in the first four months of 2009, our new vehicle sales have increased by approximately 50% by employing the same innovative practices within our new vehicle department. Though Dodge district sales are down by about 50%, our new vehicle sales actually increased comparing April 2008 and April 2009. In our parts department, we have created one of very few eBay parts stores selling new factory parts. We have listed in excess of 4,000 Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep factory parts and are by far the largest internet seller of OEM DCJ parts in the world. This has increased our monthly parts sales by approximately 35% in a short 5 month period. In our service department, we have recently added an additional service advisor, a service manager, and three additional master technicians, have endeavored to maintain the least expensive oil change in town and, effective this month, extended our service hours to 14 hours per weekday and 10 hours on Saturdays. We were on track to move to 24-hour/7-day a week service hours by the end of 2009. Just this month, we hired a graduating University of Houston student as a photographer and videographer. We began the process of taking studio-quality photographs of our inventory, something which no other auto retailer in the country is doing.
When Chrysler needed dealers to purchase inventory so that the factories could keep operating and their employees could retain their paychecks, we complied and ordered 10 months of inventory. Our interest on inventory swelled from $15,000 monthly to beyond $50,000 monthly. Effectively, we took pay cuts in order to support Chrysler's cause. When Mr. Landry uttered his veiled threat that Chrysler would "remember those who supported us and those who didn't," we felt that we had done our part to support Chrysler and its workers. Now, we realize that we were just supporting our own demise. Last week, we were given three weeks to dispose of five months of inventory. In doing so, we anticipate losing in excess of $1 million - we may actually have to inject capital into our business in order to go out of business. Our $2 million plus in equity in our franchise is now completely worthless. Further, we now face the very real possibility that our new building will sit empty for months or years until someone is willing to purchase it.
Despite all of this, Chrysler is taking our franchise so that it can be given to our neighbor across the street, Ron Carter Autoland. Ron Carter Autoland has the local Ford, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Jeep, Pontiac, Buick and GMC franchises. They occupy a 40 to 50 year old building that does not comply with any manufacturer's design standards. They have recently moved their Ford, Chrysler and Jeep franchises into the same building, a violation of their franchise agreements with both Ford and Chrysler. They have recently cut their service hours, consolidated their used vehicle operations and laid off many employees. The manager, and a major shareholder, of Ron Carter Autoland is Mr. Cary Wilson, President-elect of the Houston Auto Dealers Association - apparently Mr. Wilson's political affiliation is very important to Chrysler, the bankruptcy court and the US government.
How exactly does transferring our franchise to our neighbor serve Chrysler's stated purpose of thinning out dealer numbers? The franchise will still exist - it will just have a new owner.
Though I am a Washington, DC-educated attorney and former employee of the US Department of Labor and the US Senate and an active advocate of the American way of life, it is difficult for me to view this abrogation of our franchise rights as anything more than a manipulation of US bankruptcy court and law so that Chrysler LLC can transfer wealth between dealers they like and those they dislike, those that have agreed to under-table favors and those that haven't, and to settle old vendettas. This is not the purpose of US bankruptcy protection and, surely, it isn't why the US Treasury has given billions to Chrysler to keep them in business.
This is our story; however, it is, unfortunately, not unique. Allowing this manipulation of US bankruptcy law will set a precedent that effectively invalidates all state franchise laws. Though technically a question of law, many of these closings are politically motivated. Thus, anyone with any interest in retaining the US economic system in its current form must contact their political representatives immediately. Small businesses will have no legal protections if these closings are allowed to occur. Rome is burning, America - please wake up.
Nicholas Parks, President
Rogers Dodge, Inc.
Alvin, Texas
The way I see the post above, Rogers Dodge should close. They are selling only Dodge while Autoland sells everything else. And if I'm shopping for a car, who cares about the dealer's building! I don't care if it's an old barn like Tator's. And once I buy the car, my only relationship with the dealer is service. I don't see Rogers Dodge commenting on his service at all.
When will the auto companies realize that it's not the building but the vehicle quality and service that keeps us coming back.
Guys its very simple here Chrysler DOES NOT CARE about cust satisfaction ratings( or the VCA opinion on the subject esp considering the fact that the Viper itself may be dead )the only factor they do care about is how many units a dealer orders from them yearly (they are basically saying if a dealer was so great then why didnt they sell more cars )
I couldn't disagree with you more. I almost cried reading this very compelling letter from a person who understands how the system works. The government is here to seve it's citizens and not to decide who shall live and who shall die economicaly based upon back-room politics.
One of the big platforms of the Democratic Party in the recent election was the "high" unemployment rate and "lack of job creation by the Bush administraton". We have a situation here where the Obama government is wholesale creating unemployment and destroying businesses built up over generations that have deep roots in their communities based upon politics.
I believe what the owner of the dealershiip is saying is true because I have been there myself. What is shocking to me is how fast the Obama government has carried out it's agenda to redistribute the wealth. If this goes on at this rate, I shudder to think what this country will look like by the next election if we ever have free elections again.
AviP, you are dismissing very cavalierly many people's livlyhoods. What if it were your job and everything that you had worked for for generations that was being destroyed in one fell swoop by a letter from the government?
What is going on here is evil!
Martin, you sound like a wise man and I have no way of disputing your knowledge of the legal facts, it would take me too long of a time to study the legal papers, nor would I want to spend my time that way. I would rather be playing tennis, driving my Viper or my Jeeps.
What I do know is, that the law today, is what you can afford to buy a politician to pass for you. Our laws are no longer being created for the general good but for special interest groups. They hire attorneys to draft laws, regulations and amendments to laws. These laws and regulations, are amended with time, to tighten the noose around business owners. These laws and regulations are preambled with words that claim they are for the general good or only to be short-lived to answer an "emergency". But, like taxes, once passed they never go away and only get more draconian.
I don't see anything that is happening in the US today, in the markets or the auto industry, that is for the general good. Regarding the "legality" of the proceedings, crime is rampant in our streets and laws are being broken all the time with little or no consequence. The thieves who break into our vehicles do so countless times with little or no punishment. They are out doing it again the same day before the ink is dry on their arrest reports. Why all the zeal to punish capitalists to the fullest extent of the law, when we have 30,000,000 illegals running around breaking our laws with no consequence?
This bankruptcy procedure may have the gov stamp of being "legal" but it has nothing to do with being good for the general welfare of our nation or it's citizens and the thousands of employees effected.
At the end of the day, when the folks who work in that bankruptcy court, cash their pay checks, those paychecks are signed by the gov. And, if they want to keep their JOBS, whether appointed or elected, they better tow the government line and do what's expected of them to do. If they don't they are going to be in the un-employment line with the folks who worked at the Dodge Dealerships.