I'm curious, does your family own a dealership or do you work for one?

I'd like to see an analysis of the franchise contracts. These kinds of actions cannot be a total surprise.

I think that if a franchise owner is truly surprised by all of this they are living with their heads in the sand. They have been sellling a brand that has been on it's way down for years. How could they not be aware that the quality ratings on Chrylser are very low? That oil is going up, not down? That perceived climate issues are affecting the kinds of cars people buy?

Any business person with good sense would be looking 5-10-20 years down the line and perhaps think to themselves, "you know, I bet we can't sell Hummers and large SUVs forever. What are our options"? Or perhaps, "you know, this company is just not profitable". Or " you know, Chrysler vehicles are consistently in bottom rankings of Consumer Reports quality", maybe we should look at selling the dealership before it gets really bad.

I agree that lots of people losing their jobs is really unfortunate, incredibly unfortunate. But the market also needs correction. There are very few companies that can sell an inappropriate product and carry lots of debt on their own, and survive.

I'll put my flameproof undies on now.