Many dealers would long remember the warning that followed to those who refused to order their whole allotment of cars: "If you decide not to do that, we've got a good memory.""Our jaws dropped," said Alan Spitzer, who appeared before Congress on Friday and until last week owned eight Chrysler-brand franchises in Ohio. "It was clearly a threat. There was no other way to take it."
Chrysler officials dispute that view, saying executives were simply working to save the company and had no plans to go into bankruptcy at the time.
But the Call has become part symbol, part rallying cry for the hundreds of Chrysler dealers who say they have endured a litany of indignities at the hands of the struggling automaker. Referenced by dealers in numerous interviews and during Chrysler's recent bankruptcy proceedings, it offers a window into the carmaker's increasingly frantic final months, as it sought to bolster its bottom line by pressuring dealers to buy more inventory, even as their showrooms overflowed with cars they couldn't sell.
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