With Chrysler's best assets already sold to Fiat of Italy, "I am not sure this is going to do any good," Rick Shaub, owner of a Maryland dealership, told the New York Times Friday.
About 2,000 General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC dealerships will close under bankruptcy plans that terminated their contracts.
GM filed for bankruptcy June 1. Chrysler filed at the end of May.
But dealerships found lawmakers sympathetic to their plight.
Rep. Frank Kratovil, D-Md., has introduced a bill that would reverse the decision to close dealerships. Government intervention amounted to a "bailout for the big guys, but a force-out for the little guys," he said.
The Senate Commerce Committee also recommended Chrysler give dealerships a chance to appeal their closures. The committee also urged car makers to give closed dealerships first rights to buy in if companies return to dealership expansion.
"Profitable dealers ... should have a right of first refusal for the new dealership when Chrysler returns to that particular market," Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV wrote.
Dealerships also pressed for an explanation of why the rescue plan included closing profitable businesses, the Times said.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International.
Post new comment