Chrysler to shrink dealer network

With falling sales, Chrysler has closed over 10% of their dealerships over the last 4 years. So far that’s not enough. Under the control of Cerberus, the Chrysler Group will likely close hundreds more over the next 2-3 years. Chrysler currently has about 3,700 dealers in the U.S.
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moto - 5/21/2007 1:10:24 PM

+1 Boost

There are about 300 American cities with populations over 150,000 people. It is inconceiveable why Chrysler would have over ten times that number of dealers. While i wholeheartedly support the idea of offering sales and service in smaller cities, as well as the separation of brand dealers within larger cities (there's little point in selling Dodge and Chrysler platform mates side-by-side at the same dealership), the need to slash underperforming dealers has long been obvious.

mp2dtw - 5/21/2007 8:32:52 PM

+1 Boost

Ford and GM have talked about this sort of thing too. I disagree. If I trade my Saab for something else, it'll be, in part, so that I don't need to drive 20-30 miles to either of the two nearest dealerships for service. When I owned a Ford, I liked the fact that there are over 30 dealers in Greater Detroit's three main counties (not including Lincoln-Mercury dealers) because I could walk from work or home to the nearest dealer in under 15 minutes.

If you have bad dealers, close those dealerships. Otherwise, you can't shrink to greatness.