Breakdown

The latest news from Detroit, the city of lack of opportunity and of impossibility and the place where anything can go wrong (and does), is the elimination of several GM and Chrysler dealerships in the U.S. to get Chrysler out of bankruptcy and to save GM from it. Roughly forty percent of dealers representing each company are to go out of business as soon as possible.

Most of the dealerships being eliminated are small, local ones that stick to one GM or Chrysler brand, and each company hopes to cut costs on maintaining their franchises by relying on the larger dealerships. Wayne Dodge - a small dealership that handles the immediate area in Wayne, New Jersey, based in the township's Mountain View section - is one of the many small local dealers known for friendly, one-on-one service that is closing down. By cutting out local dealers - some of whom have been in business since the Wilson administration (including Chrysler-affiliated dealers who predate the company itself and probably started out selling Maxwells) - and staying with the big, impersonal dealers known more for their obnoxious radio commercials than for quality service or a strong commitment to their customers, GM and Chrysler are only proving themselves to be more out of touch with the consumer.

Either way, there'll be a whole lot fewer dealers, and thus fewer opportunities for reasonable, sound deals. A lot of customers are going to get screwed.

Meanwhile, GM is looking to sell Opel and Vauxhall to Fiat. Since these brands (Vauxhalls, sold in Britain, are just rebadged Opels with right-hand drive) are the crown jewel of GM's foreign operations, it only goes to show how far the General has fallen. To leave Europe and to sever itself from Opel's stellar engineering and design (not to mention the GM employees responsible for it) shows how diminished the once-mighty company has become.