PORT ANGELES — After 75 years of business, Murray Motors is on a list of dealerships that struggling automaker Chrysler wants to close.
Mark Murray, the third-generation owner of the oldest car dealership in Clallam County — and the only Chrysler dealer on the North Olympic Peninsula — confirmed Thursday that he had been notified, but declined any further comment.
Murray Motors Inc. — located at 302 E. First St. in Port Angeles — is one of 15 Chrysler dealers in the state and 789 nationwide that will have their franchise agreements terminated on or around June 9 if a federal bankruptcy court judge approves it, said Chrysler spokesman Scott Brown.
“All that has happened at this point is, we submitted a motion to the bankruptcy judge. It is before the judge now,” he said.
A hearing is scheduled for June 3 in bankruptcy court in New York for a judge to make a decision on Chrysler’s plan.
General Motors Corp. also plans to lose some of its dealers by not renewing the franchise agreements of 1,100 dealers when they expire at the end of September 2010.
In a motion filed with the court in New York, Chrysler said that slightly more than 50 percent of dealers account for about 90 percent of the company’s U.S. sales.
More than half of the dealerships on Chrysler’s list sell less than 100 vehicles per year and account for 14 percent of U.S. sales, company executives said.
Any inventory that the closing dealers still have after June 9 will be reallocated to the remaining dealers, Brown said.
He said that inventory includes about 44,000 cars at all of the dealers listed for closing, and those dealers will be compensated for the inventory.
Brown said the dealers that Chrysler plans to close were notified in an overnight letter sent Wednesday.
No appeal process
He said there is no appeal process for the dealers outside of bankruptcy court, and he didn’t have any further details.
“The court has a process for dealers to be heard, but I don’t know what that is,” Chrysler spokeswoman Kathy Graham wrote in an e-mail.
Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection on April 30 and plans to sell most of its assets to Fiat Group SpA.
Murray Motors has been in Port Angeles since 1946 and employs about 15 people.
The business also operates a used-car dealership at 402 E. First St.
Bart Murray Sr. began Murray Motors in Clallam Bay in 1934. He kept an active hand in the business until his death in 1971. Bart Murray Jr. and Rolland Murray took over the business in 1953.
The business moved to Port Angeles in 1944.
Chrysler has received $4 billion in federal loans to keep it afloat.
The company’s sales are down 46 percent when compared with the first four months of 2008.
Last year, Chrysler dealers sold an average of 303 vehicles, and the company reported a net loss of $16.8 billion.
In comparison, Honda Motor Co. sold about 1,200 vehicles per dealer, and Toyota Motor Corp. sold nearly 1,300 per dealer.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
