Auto dealers on pins, needles

By Mike Boyer

A number of area Chrysler and General Motors dealers are on pins and needles as they await word Thursday and Friday on which of their number will be retained by the automakers.

Chrysler, which filed for bankruptcy protection on April 30, is expected to disclose Thursday morning the names of up to 800 of its 3,200 dealers nationally that it doesn’t plan to support after emerging from bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, GM, facing a June 1 bankruptcy deadline from the federal government, on Friday is expected to notify up to 1,200 dealers it won’t renew their franchises because they don’t meet the financial, sales or customer satisfaction requirements, according to a GM spokeswoman.

“Customers come in and ask: Are you going to still be here? I can’t say, but I suspect I’m not going to be,” said Chuck Smith, owner Hamilton-Fairfield Dodge-Jeep on Ohio 4 in Hamilton.

Smith hasn’t been told anything by Chrysler but he believes his dealership, which employs about 15, will be targeted for closing because it’s in an older location in a small city.

He’s been outspoken about how he believes Chrysler and the Obama Administration have conspired, using the bankruptcy law, to cut dealer numbers. The automakers say they want fewer dealerships so that those that remain are more profitable.

Rob Riggsbee, president of Anderson Township-based Inside Media Inc., a media research and buying agency, said which dealerships will be cut remains a tightly guarded secret.

What’s also unclear, he said, is how the dealership closings will affect local car markets.

One fear, he said, is that Chrysler won’t repurchase new vehicles held by the dealerships. That could lead to a flood of new cars in to local car auctions driving down the price of all Chrysler vehicles, he said.