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Overnight Open Thread

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DistantThunder5/20/2009 4:42:22 am PDT

This is an awesome interview with a Chrysler car dealer whose been in the business since the 1960’s. This is who should be running the industry because he understands the needs of the customer.

Greta interviews car dealer

FITZGERALD: Oh, yes. When I opened my Chrysler store in the ’60s and the ’70s, 23 percent all of the cars recommended in “Consumer Reports” were Chrysler models — 23 percent. Forty-three percent of the cars were GM models. Those two guys had two thirds of the recommended models in “Consumer Reports.” You know what they’ve got today? Chrysler has 6 percent. GM has 8 percent.


FITZGERALD: The imports have 75 percent.

VAN SUSTEREN: Why? What happened?

FITZGERALD: Well, what has happened is that these brilliant managers out of the Wharton School and other places have figured out that they know more about the business than anybody else, and so they keep taking money out of the product and selling it with smoke and mirrors. And that might work with soap or canned goods, but it doesn’t work with automobiles.

VAN SUSTEREN: So if you can always sell them on steep discount, who’s taking the hit, Chrysler or you?

FITZGERALD: I’ll take the hit. Once Chrysler’s in bankruptcy, everybody gets hurt but them. They stop hurting, they hurt everybody else. That’s how that works.