Fort Smith area Chrysler dealerships survive cuts (Updated)

Breeden Dodge in Fort Smith, Blue Ribbon Chrysler in Sallisaw and other Chrysler dealerships in the Fort Smith metro area are off the hook. For now.

Bob Carver Cars & Trucks in Mena, a community trying to recover from a recent devastating tornado, is on the chopping block.

Chrysler Corp. is closing eight dealerships in Arkansas as part of the company’s bankruptcy plan to close 789 dealerships nationwide. The dealerships are to close no later than June 9.

The Arkansas dealerships set to close are:
• Steve Smith Country, Springdale
• Bob Carver Cars & Trucks, Mena
• Cook Jeep Chrysler, Little Rock
• Crain Chrysler Dodge Jeep, Little Rock
• Jim Bryant Motors, Springdale
• Jones Brothers Auto, Harrison
• Louis George Motors, Osceola
• Malvern Motors, Malvern

Williams Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep in Stigler, Okla., (Haskell County) is on the closure list.

Link here for the pdf list of Chrysler dealerships to be closed.

Roby Brock, a content partner with The City Wire, is reporting that his sources suggest a major consolidation or closures of Ford dealerships in Arkansas is imminent.

UPDATED INFO: DEALERSHIP CLOSING IMPACT
Edmunds.com, the leading expert on auto sector issues, has issued a report on the impact of the Chrysler dealership closings and on other news in the auto industry.

The Edmunds report makes the following points and assertions:
• Most of the affected dealerships are located in densely populated areas where there are multiple Chrysler dealerships currently competing for the same business.

• It is estimated that approximately 38,000 people will lose their jobs.

• It is rumored that tomorrow (May 15), General Motors will announce 1,000-2,000 dealership closings.

• “Dealerships may be going away, but customers are not. In other words, when a dealership closes, its customer may buy a competitive product, or buy from another Chrysler dealership. The sales tax is still being paid. The risk for communities is that the tax may shift to a different town,” explained Edmunds.com CEO Jeremy Anwyl.

• The closing of dealerships will change the competitive landscape for buyers. Currently, shoppers in saturated markets can essentially instigate “bidding wars” for their business, encouraging dealerships to undercut each others’ prices in competition for each car sale. With fewer dealerships in each area, that will become much harder to do, and buyers will pay more as a result.

• Some people mistakenly believe that car companies will somehow save a significant amount of money by having fewer dealerships. In truth, there are only minor savings gained by cutting the regional staff and the streamlining of certain processes required to serve a smaller dealer body.

• The real motivation in cutting dealerships is to improve the profitability of the remaining dealers. Stronger dealers can invest in better facilities and be generally more effective in their marketing, bolstering the automaker’s brand name in the process.

• “This move allows Chrysler to eliminate dealerships that did not embrace the opportunity to extend their franchises to include Dodge and Jeep vehicles, which are also owned by the Chrysler LLC parent company,” noted Edmunds’ AutoObserver.com Editor Michelle Krebs. “Chrysler didn’t play favorites in making the decision; a handful of the stores being closed are owned by well-connected industry ‘hot shots.’”