Utah dealerships ready to face Chrysler in arbitration

SALT LAKE CITY — It's been almost a year since Chrysler cut ties with 10 Utah dealerships, but those dealers are not driving into the sunset.

Most of them are taking their cases against the automaker to arbitration, beginning this month, seeking to reinstate their statuses as Chrysler dealers.

Fred Barber's date with the arbitrator is June 21.

The owner of Barber Brothers of Spanish Fork was among 25 percent of the Chrysler dealers nationwide who had six weeks to liquidate inventory, shortly before the Auburn Hills, Mich.-based company filed a prepackaged bankruptcy and received a government loan.

Barber sold his first Chrysler in 1970 and opened his Spanish Fork business in 1985.

Barber wonders whether, if he's successful in arbitration, he can afford to sell Chryslers.

"I'm talking to dealers that are getting reinstated under arbitration and requirements are horrendous," he said. "They've got to spend so much on their facilities. They've got to do this, they've got to do that —things out of the ordinary when a dealership is fighting to survive."

Barber survives because he has a service department and sells used vehicles, Mitsubishis and Chevrolets.

General Motors also cut Barber from its dealership network last year but gave Barber more time to liquidate before later reversing the decision.

"GM has reinstated us," he said. "They're very cordial. They're very nice. They're pleasing. Yeah, I want to be back with them. Do I want to be back with Chrysler? At this point, I'm not sure."

Chrysler has emerged from bankruptcy as a private company owned by the U.S. and Canadian governments, Italian automaker Fiat and its employees' union. An attorney and a spokeswoman for Chrysler were in Salt Lake City on Thursday, getting details ready for arbitration and meeting with news media to discuss the company.

The attorney, Louann Van Der Wiele, said dealers who are not confident that they want to sell Chryslers should not be in arbitration, since the process is costly and time-consuming.

And Chrysler is not asking the dealerships involved in arbitration to do anything other than it is asking of other dealers, spokeswoman Kathy Graham said.

Chrysler, even with its remaining 2,330 dealerships in the United States, has almost twice as many as Toyota's 1,400 dealerships. In 2004, Chrysler embarked on a plan to slowly cut dealerships, called Project Genesis, Graham said.