List of Chrysler Dealers closing

[Builder]

I heard on the radio today that some of the GM dealerships that will be closing only sell 30 t0 40 vehicles a year.

Two things keep coming to my mind about these dealerships that are closing. The first is whether they made a profit or not. It really shouldn't matter to Chrysler how much of a profit they made, just as long as they made a profit. If a dealership sells 30 vehicles a year, but has such a low overhead that they can still make a profit, then I think they should stay in business. Either they are making money, or losing money.

That brings up my second thought. If they are losing money, and with both GM and Chrysler closing thousands of dealerships, I'm really curious why they were kept open for so long if they were losing money? I'm thinking that somebody had his head up his a** for an aweful long time for that many dealerships to be losing money. It's not like we're talking about a dozen of then nationwide, it's thousands of dealerships!!!!

No wonder they are both bankrupt, this is just another example of why they should be out of business. If you don't have the common sense to close down a dealership that is losing money, then you don't belong to remain in buisiness. If those dealerships are making money, and they are being closed down for some other reason, then that's also just plain stupid.

Again, with thousands of dealerships, there is more wrong with these companies then just blaming the unions.

Eddie,

It's my understanding that lower volume dealerships are the ones being closed. It's not really tied to profit, but "moving metal" as they say. There was a gentleman on Fox news with a smaller dealership that sold only ~50 cars/month with a 98% customer satisfaction rating. Chrysler closed him down because he wasn't moving enough product, despite an unheard of high customer satisfaction rating.

I remember a dozen years or so ago that Nissan was up for sale and in allot of trouble. They were for sale for several years, but nobody wanted to buy them. Then they put a new guy in charge and he had an idea. He said that Nissan was competing against itself with too many models. They should only have one model vehicle for each market. One economy car, one mid size sedan, one luxury sedan, and so on. He then said that for each market, they will make the very best vehicle possible, which has turned Nissan around. It's just plain common sense when you hear about it, but for some reason, GM and Chrysler are both competing against themselves with some of their vehicles, and then against everyone else. Why is there a GMC half ton truck and a Chevrolet half ton truck? If they combined the two, they would have the number one selling vehicle in the world by a large margin. Since they compete against each other, Ford wins this most years with the F-150.

Eddie

Don't forget, Renault bailed Nissan out of bankruptcy by buying up like 40-50% of their stock. Without Renault, Nissan would have gone under.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm sure this isn't accurate, but I remember being taught in school that the greatness of the Roman Empire was in it's ability to copy what everyone else did that worked. Again, that's a pretty broad statement, but the basic idea is sound. See who is selling cars and making a profit and copy their business model. GM and Chrysler are doing something wrong, yet other manufacturers are making a profit or at least in a strong enough position to survive on their own.

This very simple philosophy applies to most everything that I do. I just wish our government would use it to.

Eddie

 

[Builder]

I'm sure this isn't accurate, but I remember being taught in school that the greatness of the Roman Empire was in it's ability to copy what everyone else did that worked. Again, that's a pretty broad statement, but the basic idea is sound. See who is selling cars and making a profit and copy their business model. GM and Chrysler are doing something wrong, yet other manufacturers are making a profit or at least in a strong enough position to survive on their own.

This very simple philosophy applies to most everything that I do. I just wish our government would use it to.

Eddie

I totally agree, but there's a lot more going on in back rooms and across oceans that we don't know or understand.

The big 3 weren't exactly healthy a few years back because of poor labor contracts and crazy high legacy costs. Then the cost of fuel more than doubled, then the economy tanked in only 1 short year.

We all know the Big 3 rely heavily on trucks & suv's that consume mass quantities of fuel to make profits. Small domestic cars are actually money losers for the big 3. As soon as gas went up 2-3X, everyone went to foreign cars and smaller cars. Then the economy tanked and nobody bought any cars.

Those were two big hits in one year, that's what did them in.

Don't be too fooled by Ford's survival. They're hemmoraging billions/quarter as well. They barely have their heads above water because they closed a lot of plants a few years ago when they were nearly bankrupt and negotiated better contracts. That's why they're barely alive today.

Chrysler is all but gone. If wise, Gm would declare tomorrow so they won't become gov't/labor owned like Chrysler.

 

[2manyrocks]

Dealer service is a strong buying factor to some buyers. Hopefully, Chrysler will be keeping enough dealers to maintain their dealer service network.

The news interviews of dealers I have seen ranges from folks saying "we were profitable and don't understand why they cut us..." to "we've been dealers for 30+ years...." to "how do they expect us to sell cars nobody wants...."

I thought things were bad in the early 80's when Chrysler almost went under, and now they have gone under with GM to follow?

 

[radioman]

my goodness!! Eddie example of Nissan is a good eye opener with diamond pilot to reinforce the points.
What we really need are vehicles not only are less trim models, but a much wider range of choices in a vehicle. For example everywhere I look, almost all cars have these power options built in, all have vinyl, lots of trimmings in the vehicles. For a vehicle that just tows stuffs, I do not need the fancy power windows,locks and all trimmed out stuff. I would be perfectly happy with a painted over metal console, no headliners, carpets, etc with A/C just to lower overall price of buying it. If you need to add this stuff, then let the options be shown and be able to be more picky with which options you can add, not as a whole package.

I am sure there are alot of people out there can't buy a new car to help the economy feulwise because of such high price of overall with the options built in. I bet that students, commuters just want a car that goes from point A to point B to be cheap to buy without all the goodies. We are too spoiled with the options. I consider ALL vehicles on the road today are luxury cars compared to 20 years ago.

Its time to get back to basics to get back on our feet. Perhaps this is the time to also introduce the fuel alternative cars as a real viable choice, not a testing/developing market.

Sorry for a long winded post, reading back on my post I realize its a rant and will post it such as a rant.

 

[EddieWalker]

Glen Beck was talking on the radio about the Hydrogen car. He said that he's driven it and it's ready to go, but nobody will make it because they do not trust the government. If the manufacturers could get some sort of guarantee that they won't change the rules on them after they retool to manufacture it, they won't go forward with building them.

Eddie

 

[jinman]

I found this website with an alphabetical list of closings throughout the US.

Chrysler Dealership Closings

I counted the number of dealerships in Texas. There's 40 TX dealerships on the list. It's pretty amazing that over 10% of closings are here in this state.
Some of the local dealerships had the highest sales figures and yet are beiing closed. Smaller dealerships in Bowie, Wichita Falls, and Decatur remain while large dealers in the DFW metroplex are closing. Could it be that Chrysler is unloading its inventory by axing the big dealerships and making them take on their huge rolling inventories? That's the only thing that makes sense to me. The lawyers are lickin' their lips. . .

 

[Builder]

my goodness!! Eddie example of Nissan is a good eye opener with diamond pilot to reinforce the points.

But what you're missing is that Nissan was bailed out by another car company! Chrysler may be doing this with Fiat. If they do and it succeeds, will Chrysler be hailed as a success by the American news media? We can only wait & see.

You have to also remember that many foreign car companies are subsidized by their respective governments much more than our companies. Big difference folks!

What we really need are vehicles not only are less trim models, but a much wider range of choices in a vehicle. For example everywhere I look, almost all cars have these power options built in, all have vinyl, lots of trimmings in the vehicles. For a vehicle that just tows stuffs, I do not need the fancy power windows,locks and all trimmed out stuff. I would be perfectly happy with a painted over metal console, no headliners, carpets, etc with A/C just to lower overall price of buying it. If you need to add this stuff, then let the options be shown and be able to be more picky with which options you can add, not as a whole package.

But for every guy like you, I can find 5 guys who want all the luxury or somewhere in between.

I am sure there are alot of people out there can't buy a new car to help the economy feulwise because of such high price of overall with the options built in. I bet that students, commuters just want a car that goes from point A to point B to be cheap to buy without all the goodies. We are too spoiled with the options. I consider ALL vehicles on the road today are luxury cars compared to 20 years ago.

I see dozens of stripped new trucks on dealership lots, but I know what you mean. The thing is, i don't see the foreign companies offering anything more stripped than domestics.

Its time to get back to basics to get back on our feet. Perhaps this is the time to also introduce the fuel alternative cars as a real viable choice, not a testing/developing market.

Sorry for a long winded post, reading back on my post I realize its a rant and will post it such as a rant.

I think it's even more important for gov't to get out of the way and stop regulating our American industrial base out of existance!

 

[Diamondpilot]

I agree with you on the fewer trim lines with the imports. However, the ability to order a car with nearly exactly what I wanted and waiting 6-8 weeks was just fine for me. The manufacturer can add the options I want at a much lower cost compared to a dealer. Lots of cars have moon roofs, which I never use. Why pay $500-700 for something I don't want but yet I want the leather interior or something else that only comes on a higher trim level. The price for your added on A/C and alloy wheels was probably 3X higher than the manufacture.

Actually, I feel that is wrong. I drove to every Honda dealer in 100 mile radius and this guy made me the car I wanted for less than 4 or 5 other dealers would sell one to me set up the same, just in the wrong color. This was before the internet was what it is today. Al Gore had not invented it yet I guess. Now I know that has a lot to do with the dealer. The told me they ordered tons of them the same with things like power locks, power windows, and auto tranny then just added what the customer wants. They keep all the kits in stock to do the dealer installed options so they usually have them ready before the bank can finish the financing. My sister just bought a Accord in December from them, its here second Honda, and she got the same treatment. This is a very smart way of doing it in my opinion. Keeps stock low and makes the probability of having what you want more likely. They sell tons of cars. I would not be surprised if they did not sell 200 or more cars per month. It seems as the stock is always moving.

I think we here on TBN are not the norm. I would be willing to order and wait and have done so many of times. But the simple fact is we are a want it now society. If you can get it today most will seal the deal quicker, which equals cars sold and less time to shop around and maybe change your mind to another brand or dealer.

Chris

 

[2manyrocks]

All the cars have too many gizmos on them, IMHO.

How about a inexpensive vehicle that has a good safety record, good performance for its intended use, has good fuel economy, readily available and inexpensive parts, and is simple to repair? If this downturn has proven anything, maybe it proves that the majority of car buyers can't afford a $35,000 SUV, $4.00/gas, and pay for everything else in life, too. It wasn't that long ago that you could buy a decent house for $35,000. There is a practical limitation on what the average family can afford to pay each month to pay off a car in 4-5 years.

I ask myself if the same analysts and decision makers that figured out which dealers to cut are the same analysts and decision makers that got Chrysler into chapter 11. I can't see how it helps Chrysler if they cut profitable dealers with good customer ratings. And I feel for Chrysler's long standing dealers that have been cut.