[Rocketfan]

DETROIT – At 789 Chrysler lots across America sit 44,000 potential bargains, cars and trucks that are stuck between shellshocked dealers and a troubled company that no longer wants their services.

The dealers have just a few weeks to sell the Chryslers, Dodges and Jeeps or risk losing thousands of dollars on them, giving people who want a car on the cheap a serious chance for a deal.

"You've got some very good negotiating power," said Dave Champion, director of automobile testing for Consumer Reports magazine. "(Dealers are) really looking to shift this inventory. It's just stacking up all around them."

On Thursday, Chrysler LLC asked a New York bankruptcy court to end its franchise agreements with the dealers, casting them aside so the automaker can move forward as a new company with a leaner network of about 2,400 showrooms.

General Motors Corp. took a similar step on Friday, giving notices to 1,100 dealers that it no longer wants them. On their lots sit 65,000 Chevrolets, Buicks, GMCs, Pontiacs and Cadillacs, but at GM, the dealers' situation isn't as dire.

GM isn't in bankruptcy — at least not yet — so its dealers have more options to fight the move, which the company doesn't plan to implement until October of 2010. They also have more time to sell the vehicles, plus GM's dealer agreements also require the company to buy back cars and trucks that meet certain requirements on age and mileage.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_chrysler_ ... EA1QoDW7oF

[INeedAManager]

in addition to this story I heard today that John P Hughes Motor Company in Mad Heights will no longer be a Dodge dealer. That dealership was the longest continual running Dodge dealer in the entire US. The original Mr. Hughes started selling Dodge automobiles about a week after the first ones rolled off the assembly line.

here is a CNN story with the same ending for a dealership in Georgia, im not sure if JPH chose to drop the line but i assume Dodge pulled the line from them
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/18/chrysl ... index.html

[rueful]

quick, someone go buy a car so the rest of us know whether or not it really is a good deal. I imagine most car salesmen still being jerks and jacking up the price