WASHINGTON — The chiefs of General Motors and Chrysler told skeptical lawmakers Wednesday they have too many dealers to support their slimmed-down operations and that sacrifices must be shared as they fight to overcome bankruptcy and survive. They acknowledged that slashing dealerships is causing pain in communities around the country.
“This is our last chance to get it right,” GM president Fritz Henderson told the Senate Commerce Committee.
He cited “tough times for everyone in the GM family.”
Chrysler president James Press said underperforming dealers are making it hard for his company to return to profitability. Still, he said, Chrysler was “working hard to achieve a soft landing” for them.
“I think ‘soft landing’ is wishful thinking,” said Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., as committee members channeled a multitude of complaints from spurned GM and Chrysler dealers.
More than 2,700 dealerships are in line to lose their franchises.
Russell Whatley, a Chrysler-Dodge- Jeep dealer in Mineral Wells, Texas, told the panel his grandfather opened the business in 1919.
“A 90-year investment is just gone,” he said. He called Chrysler’s actions “wasteful and devastating.”
Peter Lopez, a GM and Chrysler dealer in Spencer, W.Va., said he had met every financial obligation set by Chrysler and GM but that still “they want to shut me down.”
While GM is giving the dealers until October 2010 to shut down, Chrysler gave its castoff dealers a three-week notice that runs out Tuesday.
Committee chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., told the automakers he didn’t believe that companies should be allowed to take taxpayer funds for a bailout — as Chrysler and GM have done — and then leave local dealers and their customers to fend for themselves.
Those dealers “are looking into a black hole right now,” while companies seem to be implying “that the dealers themselves are responsible for the companies’ problems,” Rockefeller said.
