quickly, mr. wattly and mr. lopez, what brands do you sell, mr. wattly? >> chrysler, dodge and jeep. >> and mr. lopez? >> chrysler, dodge and jeep, chevrolet, pontiac and buick. >> okay. and mr. mceleney, is it mceleney? >> yes, that's correct. >> could you give me what percentage of your dealers in your association are multipoints across manufacturers? >> i'm not sure i can answer that. i can tell you, for example, 45% of the toyota dealers also have general motors franchises for one example. the average dealer has roughly two dealerships on average. >> in my former life, my first husband and his family had car dealerships. so i know a little bit about that. we had pontiac, bmw and chevrolet. and i know a little bit about the car business and under capitalization and the problems and struggles and i know the ongoing fights between the mothership and the dealers. there have been lots and lots of battles over the years. i understand the passion and the pain here. i think we vall to acknowledge that these companies are broke and they're not going to succeed

>> i know only mr. lopez's situation. i don't know about mr. wattly. but we have had communications with the dealers. and offered them the opportunity to enlist our assistance in the redistribution process. the majority of the dealers signed an agreement allowing us to do that. a small number of dealers have not. they're preserving their effort through a legal effort to stop this process. we went ahead and got commitments for their inventory anyway. as soon as they sign the agreement, they will be notified of how the status of their inventory is. and if you'd like, i'd be more than happy today to discuss that directly with mr. lopez. i think it is important that this transparency be known. >> well, you know, you said earlier that you appealed to the dealers and because mr. wattly took everything you asked him to take, every time you asked, you're not -- you didn't go into bankruptcy earlier this year. you are now. but here's mr. wattly. i hear what you're saying. i hear what they're saying. and it is not the same thing. so do you want -- >> i just don'

press, i have heard this from other dealers now, several besides mr. lopez and mr. whatley and if the company called and said help us in this and we need you to take these cars and then we will stave off bankruptcy, and then going forward, of course, you're in a bankruptcy now and the dealers are not -- they're not getting the assurance that you have given to me and you have said that you plan to give. it's not forthcoming to them. so could you explain how it is that you are going to take this inventory from the dealers, you have mentioned 89% or 90%, but that isn't happening, at least they don't see it. so could you help me with that? >> yes, i will. thank you. >> and perhaps help them. >> of course. we have established a program after we learned of the bankr t bankruptcy that would allow us to redistribute the cars from the affected dealers to those dealers that are going forward. as well as parts and their special tools. the process will begin when two things occur. number one, the terminations take effect, because they're not terminations -- the effective date h

quickly, mr. wattly and mr. lopez, what brands do you sell, mr. wattly? >> chrysler, dodge and jeep. >> and mr. lopez? >> chrysler, dodge and jeep, chevrolet, pontiac and buick. >> okay. and mr. mceleney, is it mceleney? >> yes, that's correct. >> could you give me what percentage of your dealers in your association are multipoints across manufacturers? >> i'm not sure i can answer that. i can tell you, for example, 45% of the toyota dealers also have general motors franchises for one example. the average dealer has roughly two dealerships on average. >> in my former life, my first husband and his family had car dealerships. so i know a little bit about that. we had pontiac, bmw and chevrolet. and i know a little bit about 'br and -- it talked about the budget for the old company. what troubles me in there, there is an acknowledgement there may be up to 15 employees of old chrysler working on this bankruptcy and there is a pool in this budget of up to $20 million for bonuses. i can't imagine what kind of kick in the gut that would be if we were to learn i

yes. >> mr. lopez, on january 9th, i think it was, of 2009, that being this year, mr. press, according to all reports, including newspapers, within the business, did indicate what you said. that is, got a lot of people on the telephone, said you got to buy 78,000 cars. >> absolutely. >> to keep us going. >> absolutely. >> you've already said that you got that, but what kind of pressure does that put on you? >> well, of course, you know, i said to her at the time, our chrysler representative, i said you know, i am not, right now i'm sitting on six months' worth of inventory. for me to take the kind of cars she wants me to take, i'm not going to put myself out of business. i think i'm a better businessman than that. i know how to run my store. i know what my store can sell and what we will sell, and i just didn't want to put that kind of money on my floor plan and i did help. we're a small dealer, like i said. i went through the inconvenieved told her i would take nine. i didn't have to take any. she demanded we take 35, then the 23 and then the nine and that's what we d

>> mr. lopez? >> well, i wanted to respond to what he said about the -- as far as the cars that they made us take. they are sitting there -- he says 97% that is taken care of. no one has called me. i haven't heard a thing. at that time, i had 41 cars. now i'm down to 24. and i'm selling them and i'm not going to take a loss, i can't afford to. i'm a small dealer. i'm selling them at net and i will do that, no one called me and said can we help you, can we send them to another dealership? we did it on our own. >> we have seen nothing. >> and also, i wanted to tell you, when you talked about the representative, there is no representative from chrysler or gm. it is all done by phone, by computer. how about our inventory that we have in stock? i have $138,000 worth of parts from chrysler and 128 in general motors. they're going to be worth nothing, not one penny. how can they say we cost them? we don't cost them a penny. in fact, we are their face. we are out there. we -- and, you know, in our communit

so mr. lopez, if you would be willing, sir, we call on you for your comments. try to hold them to five minutes. >> we want toities cuss how dealerships by gm and chrysler are drastically hurting small businesses. my name is pete lopez, from censer, west virginia. a small rural town of approximately 3,800 people about an hour out of charleston, west virginia. i'm the owner of spencer auto gl group, which is made up of two dealerships on main street america. chrysler, jeep, dodge, plus chevrolet and buick dealerships. we stfs six county areas in west virginia, and i am the face of chrysler and general motors to my community and my customers. mr. chairman, within the past three weeks, i have been informed that both of my dealerships will be closed. my chrysler deepership will be closed within six days now, while chevrolet dealers franchise agreement will be terminated by the 12th if i don't sign the new contract, which i haven't been there to see. i have learned about my chrysler dealership closer by a friend of mine who called me at 9:00 one morning while he had

but then compound that, a few days later mr. lopez learn that had g.m. was also going to terminate their franchise with him putting more of his workers at risk. the story is obviously not held to pete lopez. it's a nationwide tragedy. that a lot of us feel very strongly about, something that should not have happened and can be corrected. it's a story certainly that is echoed throughout west virginia nearly on a nationwide basis, you've got nearly 2,000 dealerships closed throughout america, $100,000 jobs at risk. those are not unfamiliar figures but 100,000 people potentially out of work is unhappy. so we have to do better. we can save some of these jobs and we can help some of these communities, and we have an obligation to do that. let me be very clear. i honestly don't believe that companies should be allowed to take taxpayer funds for a bailout. and then leave it to local dealers and their customers to fend for themselves with no real plan, no real notice, no real help. it's just plain wrong. you don't do that. so we're talking about dealers who have

well, that is the way it felt but then compound and that;hp w days later mr. lopez learned that also gm wasç going to terminate their franchise with m and a lot of other folks putting more ofç his workers at risk. the storyçç is obviously not d to pete lopez, it is a nationwide tragedy that a lot of us feel very strongly about, something that should notç have happened and can be corrected. it is a story certainly has echoed through out west virginia nearly anna nationwide basis, nearly 2,000 dealerships that are closed threat america, 100,000 jobs at risk. thoseç are not unfamiliar figus in these days but nevertheless 100,000 people potentially at a fork were probably out of work is on happy so we have to do better. we can save some of these jobs and we can help some of these committees and we have an obligation to do that. let me be very clearç -- i honestly don't believe that companies should be allowed to take taxpayer funds for a bailout of and then leave it to local dealers and their customers to fend for themselves with no real plan, no rea

well, thank you, mr. lopez. i'm just summarizing everything. it is always good to get it once, twice or three things, don't you think, like all those signatures you require when we buy cars. so the -- so the plan here would be that they would be able to be a dealer and we feel we have some profitable dealers in minnesota that would be very interested in doing that. so that's -- any other commitments that we can get here for helping these guys? >> on our continuation agreement, we will be meeting with the nada this week to -- friday, actually to address their concerns about our continuation agreement for those dealers going forward with us. thank you. >> okay. very good. one last question, just for you, mr. press, i know it is getting late, for -- did fiat require you guys to reduce the number of dealers? >> fiat did not require a number. the agreement does have a new dealer organization, viable dealer organization going forward as one of the requirements and we're producing that. they did not require a reduction. >> all right. okay. thank you.