Six New Hampshire Car Dealers Cope With Shutting Chrysler Franchises

For the first time since it opened 7 decades ago,
Carlson Motors in Concord will no longer sell Chryslers.

Owner Holly Carlson says she’s sold the last 10 new Chryslers she had on the lot.

They were aggressive deals overall. But I would say but I would say all of them averaged out we about broke even. If we had to give them back to the factory to find a home we’d lose on every single one.

What Carlson says runs counter to what Chrysler president James Press told the US Senate Commerce Committee in Washington last week.

He told senators Chrysler was helping dealers who were on the shutdown list.

We have had communications with the dealers and offered them the opportunity to enlist our assistance in the redistribution process. The majority of the dealers signed an agreement allowing us to do that.

Carlson’s managers say there hasn’t been much help from Chrysler.

Service manager Ron Nazzaro points to a laptop computer outfitted by Chrysler.

It cost nearly 3,000 dollars but will have little value going forward.

We had to buy that at the first of the…year? Yeah, first of the year. It was part of a new training that was going to do away with other computers that cost us money that will now will be non effective.

Nazzaro says Carlson’s has nobody to sell that specialized laptop computer to.

Other dealers already have them.

Still, Chrysler president Jim Press assured Senators there was a plan to help dealers get a good price for equipment and tools Chrysler required dealers to have.

In our redistribution plan we do plan to have parts, vehicles and special tools taken from the dealers who are not going forward and brought forth into the new dealers.

Back at Carlson’s, Ron Nazzaro has heard what Jim Press said.

But the service manager says the promises are not jibing with the offers he’s been getting.

Right now we have about a hundred twenty five thousand in inventory. We were told that Chrysler would make fair offers from other dealers. But we’ve got offers, ugh, half of what it’s worth. And I mean that’s just not right. We took the inventory in good faith and now we can’t do anything with it.

Other dealers around the state on the closing list are facing similar pressures.

The owners of Rochester Toyota and Dodge were looking to sell 13 vehicles in the closing hours of their Dodge franchise.

Co-owner Lisa Casaccio says when she learned she would lose the Dodge dealership in May, she did what she could to move more than 40 other Dodge vehicles off her lot.

We’ve been proactive and not reactive. I’ve called a bunch of Dodge dealers and I was able to wholesale many of much of my remaining inventory to the remaining …. Dodge dealers in New England.

In the future, Casaccio will be selling only new Toyotas.

Back in Concord, Carlson Motors won’t be selling any new cars, just used ones.

In the meantime, several members of Congress including First District Representative Carol Shea Porter have signed a letter asking President Obama to postpone the Chrysler closings.

They say 100,000 jobs are at stake.

So far, there’s been no public response from the White House.