Auto dealers look for ways to stay open after cuts from Chrysler and GM

Imagine after years of building a business, you're told you've lost your dealership. That's what's happening to 800 Chrysler and 1,100 General Motors (GM) dealership owners this week. Thousands more will be cut in the months ahead. Eventually, hundreds of thousands of workers will be out of a job.

Car dealers are not giving up quietly, as fellow blogger Jonathan Berr wrote yesterday. He reported that the National Automobile Dealers Association is starting a major lobbying effort to try to stop these cuts. He quotes NADA as saying, "A rapid reduction in dealer numbers would further CUT manufacturer revenue and market share and do NOTHING to improve the manufacturer's viability in the short-term."