Richard

By Tom Krisher
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS — The Belvidere-assembled Caliber was a hot topic at this weekend’s gathering of Chrysler dealers and company officials.

In short, dealers say they want more of the crossover.

At Chrysler’s gathering at the National Automobile Dealers Association annual convention in Las Vegas, dealers jumped on Chief Executive Tom LaSorda about the company’s making them take unwanted inventory and a slow supply of popular cars, including the Caliber.

Some Chrysler dealers walked away from the Sunday meeting still grumbling. Many said they were optimistic that LaSorda would earn back their trust and that the company is headed in the right direction.

At the Chrysler meeting, things got a little testy with dealers complaining about the company’s producing more trucks than the market would bear last year and forcing dealers to take them.

Dealer Steve Miller of Vestal, N.Y., said he was happy with the response on inventory and the direction of the company given by LaSorda and other managers on the stage. But there were some issues that weren’t fully addressed, he said.

“There’s a couple of glitches in the armor of the people on stage,” he said. “They still don’t kind of get it.”

Miller said the executives gave their opinions on what customers think of warranties, rather than asking dealers what they hear from customers.

He also said dealers are having trouble getting the Dodge Caliber and have been told the small SUV has been selling well in other countries.

“That’s not the answer that you wanted to hear. It doesn’t help us much,” Miller said.

Mike Manley, vice president for sales and dealer operations at DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group, said LaSorda has told managers to try to speed up Caliber production.

Manley said the popularity of the car overseas is a good problem for Chrysler. “Not that I want demand to drop off, but hopefully we’ll see the supply improve to our dealers.”

Belvidere builds the Caliber, the Jeep Compass and the Jeep Patriot, which went into production in December.

The company sold 175 Patriots in January. Many Jeep dealers didn’t receive their first Patriots, which style-wise are based closely on the old Jeep Cherokee, until the last week of January.

The sales of the Belvidere-built models were up nearly 283 percent from last January’s total, when dealers sold 3,347 Dodge Neons, which went out of production in October 2005.

DaimlerChrysler employs about 3,600 at the Belvidere plant, making it the second-largest employer in Boone, Ogle and Winnebago counties.

Source: Rockford Register Star

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blownpistons

hmm...well at least we know that they are selling!