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In the last year, Shuman Motor Sales has dodged three bullets as a Chrysler-Jeep dealership. But owner Bob Shuman is looking forward to a "major upturn," especially when the Fiat 500 subcompact car goes on sale in 2010.
Shuman headed off a proposed new Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep store five miles (8 km) away. Then he ducked the fate met by 789 other Chrysler-brand colleagues who received dealership elimination notices as part of a Chrysler Group LLC reduction plan.
"As if that weren't bad enough, the Chrysler bankruptcy raised a stigma on our sales image that could have been a disaster," Shuman says. "But it didn't happen, and our run rate in the first half kept close to our MSR (minimum sales responsibility) of 100 new units a month."
Interviewed in his renovated dealership in the Detroit suburb of Walled Lake, MI, Shuman says the three Chrysler brands - Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep - have shown great resilience in the face of the dealership cuts, plant closings and management realignment.
Italian auto maker Fiat SpA...