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[News Feed]

In his latest column, Rod Meloni, business writer for "Click on Detroit," highlights Chuck Fortinberry, a former Chrysler-Jeep dealer from Clarkston, Michigan, a small town northwest of Detroit. Fortinberry he found his dealership listed among the 789 to be cut as Chrysler went into bankruptcy in 2009. He fought to keep his business and the 51 jobs that went with it, but in the end there was nothing he could do but close on June 9, 2009, literally days before he would have received his 25th anniversary trophy as a Chrysler retailer. He tried using the facility as for a variety of purposes, but nothing seemed to work. The he struck on the idea of doing vehicle conversions for mobility-challenged customers. He had the space, he had the hoists and there was a conversion business in trouble in Kalamazoo. Fortinberry took over the company and last fall he opened..

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[hotan80min]

After reading this story and hearing that this former dealer of approx. 25 years has moved into the business of building vehicles to allow the handicapped a means of transportation, I was impressed.  I really think that Chrysler needs to find some way to re-affiliate itself with this business.  After all, from the picture, he's converting Chrysler/Dodge products.  It would be nice to see Chrysler assist in some fashion to allow the production of these vehicles at a price that is affordable to the handicapped.  I can certainly appreciate they're needs myself after losing the lower half of my right leg below the knee a few years back.  I fortunately am not confined to a wheel chair and can still enjoy driving my trusty 300c AWD.  If anyone from Chrysler reads these forums, maybe they can be encouraged to step up and look at a way of helping the handicapped enjoy Chrysler/Dodge products.

[MoparNorm]

I still, to this day, don't understand the matrix Chrysler used. A lot of GREAT Dealers went down the tubes, almost every BAD dealer remained untouched...

..and what about the jerks who are suing Chover the LA Motor Village, they should have their franchises pulled as well.

[digitalrailroader]

MoparNorm, on June 29, 2011 at 04:50 pm, said:

I still, to this day, don't understand the matrix Chrysler used. A lot of GREAT Dealers went down the tubes, almost every BAD dealer remained untouched...

..and what about the jerks who are suing over the LA Motor Village, they should have their franchises pulled as well.

Sterling Marlin had a mediocre Sales staff, while the Service Department SUCKED. (The Parts Department was the ONLY Decent part of the Dealer.) even though they were a bad dealer, I still mourned their loss because now there is not a Chrysler Dealer for 40+ miles in my area.