Rival backs Chrysler consolidation
Rival backs Chrysler consolidation
February 12, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — A top Toyota Motor Corp. executive Monday endorsed Chrysler LLC President Jim Press’ stepped-up efforts to consolidate its dealer network.
"It’s what has to happen," Jim Lentz, president of Toyota’s U.S. sales arm, told the Free Press following the American International Automobile Dealers annual meeting in San Francisco.
Chrysler’s Press, who had been a longtime Toyota sales executive, has rolled out a plan to significantly reduce Chrysler’s product offerings and has warned dealers they won’t have enough models to support single-brand dealerships.
Chrysler wants all three of its brands — Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep — sold under one roof.
The automaker is also talking about a slimmed-down network, noting in Detroit, for example, the need to go from 44 area dealers to about 19.
Chrysler executives promise that dealers will decide the ultimate number to remain. They’ve also said dealers need to double and triple their net income.
"He needs to make sure that his dealers remain profitable so that his dealers can invest in the future," Lentz said. "That’s the big advantage that Toyota has, quite frankly, as well as Lexus."
Before Press came to Chrysler, he had been Toyota’s North American president and worked with Lentz for years.
Another top Lexus executive, Deborah Meyer, has also left the Japanese company to work at Chrysler as the newly private company speeds through a massive realignment under Cerberus Capital Management’s control.
Lentz, meanwhile, says he isn’t planning to bolt from Toyota. "I am very happy where I am right now," he said.
