Posted on 05/27/2009 8:17:44 AM PDT by freespirited
Even a member of Congress is on Chrysler's dealership hit list.
Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., a businessman who has owned car dealerships since 1992, learned Thursday that his Venice, Fla., Dodge dealership was among those scheduled to be terminated.
"It's an outrage. It's not about me. I'm going to be fine," said Buchanan, the dealership's majority owner. "You're talking over 100,000 jobs. We're supposed to be in the business of creating jobs, not killing jobs.
Chrysler LLC disclosed that it intends to close about a quarter of its 3,200 U.S. dealerships by June 9, saying in a bankruptcy court filing that the network has too many stores competing against each other. Buchanan's dealership is the first listed on the court document specifying the dealerships scheduled for closure.
Buchanan owns five dealership locations in Florida and North Carolina. He once owned 23 car franchises and sold off about 60 percent of his car dealerships before entering Congress. His Dodge dealership in Venice also includes a Nissan store.
"This doesn't do anything but hurt Chrysler. This doesn't help Chrysler. And they're going to be hurting a lot of working families," said Buchanan, who was first elected to Congress in 2006 to a seat previously held by Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Fla.
While many dealers learned the news through United Parcel Service letters, Buchanan found out from a House colleague.
Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., ran into Buchanan and told him, "I heard you're going to lose your Dodge franchise."
"I said, 'Oh, really?'" Buchanan recounted.
Shelby Curtsinger, the Dodge dealership's operating partner, said he was stunned by the decision because the dealership had been profitable since it opened in 1999 and typically sells about 700 vehicles a year, more than twice the sales of an average Chrysler dealership.
Curtsinger said he and his wife sank their life's savings into the dealership, which employs 60 people.
"This could very well put us out of business," Curtsinger said.
/sarc
I wonder if he will have the guts to stand up and fight?
Probably not, if the current trend of cowardice and weakness in the GOP ranks continues.
Trying to locate the Freeper working on the list the other day. Seems a disproportionate number of donators to the GOP and RNC locals are on the chopping block.
There is something rotten in the closing of profitable dealerships.
Welcome to fascism, baby.
Is it Obama or Capone thats president????
Coincidence?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2259053/posts?page=1
Are Chrysler’s Dealership Closings Political Payback?
http://axisofright.com/2009/05/27/are-chryslers-dealership-closings-political-payback/
I guess the bankruptcy idea was not all it was cracked up to be.
Any Democrat Legislators lose their dealerships?
Consider the partial list of Chrysler dealership owners, listed below. You'll notice that all were opponents of Barack Obama, most through sponsorship of GOP candidates and organizations, but a handful through Barack's Democrat rivals (Hillary Clinton and John Edwards in 2008, for example).
• Vernon G. Buchanan: $147,450 to GOP candidates and organizations
• Wallace D. Alley and Family: $4,500 to GOP.
• Robert Archer: $4,600 to GOP and conservative causes.
• Homer S. Higginbotham and Family: $2950 to GOP.
• James Auffenberg and Family: $28,000 to GOP; $6,000 to one Democrat candidate.
• Michael Maroone and Family: $60,000 to GOP; $8,500 to two Democrat candidates.
• Jerome Fader: $6,500 to Democrats; $2,500 to Independent Joe Lieberman.
• Stephen Fay and Family: $13,500 to GOP.
• William Numrich: $20,000 to GOP.
• Robert Carver: $10,000 to Democrats including $1,950 to Hillary Clinton, nothing to Barack Obama.
Did any minority dealerships loose their business?
It seems to me that the businesses dominated by the neo- fascist mentality will never learn. The newspapers are going, the TV stations are even suffering. Now it will be car dealers. If you target your product to only half the people it seems axiomatic that you are doomed to fail. I am checking Ford’s bottom line; with Chrysler dead, and GM moribund, it stands to make many new customers.
You know, it beats anything I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to establish a good business, and yet here they are throwing away good businesses with community contacts like they were a dime a dozen.
What happens when you can’t get local dealership service on your car? Do you buy that brand again?
These companies are committing suicide.
It doesn’t matter which dealers were closed.
The courts/lawyers will drag things out and the 2009 cars from all of the makers will be dumped on the market at fire sale prices. By Christmas 2009 cars will be used as stocking
stuffers. By this time next year maybe they can be piled up and used as a boarder wall:)
More On Chrysler Closings-- Did Team Obama Target Red Counties?
That’s it! Thanks, I didn’t realize he completed it.
Fascism doesn’t begin to describe this.
As I was studying on Hitler’s history before the election, I came across things that I wondered if will read the same 60 years from now. I think will be one of them.
Did any minority dealerships loose their business?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.