[mrssan]

I don’t think you understand this man’s issue. Nobody took his land or his building. He lost his Chrysler Franchise...or in other words, his right to sell new Chrysler vehicles with dealer incentives and his Authorized Chrysler Repair Center.

This is a tragedy, and my prayers go out to this poor man, his family, his employees, and all the other dealerships who face the same dilemma. This is not the America where I was born and raised. :(

[Alberta's Child]

I see -- and thanks for the clarification. I know someone who lost his Chrysler franchise some years ago -- for reasons that had nothing to do with bailouts, Federal strong-arm tactics, etc. Chrysler simply decided that they didn't want his dealership open anymore (probably because of its limited exposure in a small-town setting).

He bitched and complained about it, but I got the impression that something in his franchise agreement made it perfectly legal and acceptable for Chrysler to do this.

He re-branded himself as a dealership for high-end imports, and apparently did quite well for years (they just moved to a new, bigger location a couple of years ago) before the recent downturn in the economy really cut into their sales.