For sixty years Bud Brown Chrysler did the unthinkable…
The Overland Park car dealer sold new and used Chrysler Corporation cars the old fashioned way – straight forward, honest and fair. The company’s reward for its high road approach in an industry where such values and tactics are not exactly considered the norm: a corporate dagger in the back.
“Well, after 60 years I don’t think you take it in stride,” muses owner Phil Brown. “I felt betrayed and I think our customers were betrayed. I don’t think (Chysler) did what’s best for its customers, and our customers tell us the same thing. Because we took good care of them and now they’ve lost their franchise dealer.”
Brown got his first Dear John letter from Chrysler in May, then a throat cutting memorandum June 9th.
“We came into work that day and 90 percent of communication with the factory was cut off,” Brown says. “And we were done.”
In preparation for the axing, Brown had sold down his new car inventory from the usual 130 to 36 cars.
“Well, we were a victim of circumstances,” Brown says. “And we didn’t expect it either, based on what they were feeding to the public and the press beforehand. The big part of it was political, not the conspiracy you’ve heard on Fox News, But I think the White House pulled a lot of strings.”
Brown stopped short of spelling things out, but the general gist is that somehow
jojo
my dad bought my first car there. A plymouth
duster with racing stripes and hood scoops.
But the engine was a 6 cylinder but it came
from my dad who bought it when he saw mr. brown
driving it on metcalf in 1971.
Our family became good friends with Mr. Brown
and whenever we had a problem they always took
care of us. His daughter Betty was always
at our house with my sisters so we knew the
family.
This is typical of corporations like Chrysler. They just don’t give a damn about the lives and
families of the people they do business with.
mermaid
This is just sad. I feel very bad that a dealership that did so well with so much history and integrity would go out like this. Shame on Chrysler!