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Part one of KSL's exclusive five-part series: Watching Utah's Money. Save more and spend less with Clark Howard.SALT LAKE CITY -- GM and Chrysler continue to struggle for survival. Chrysler will permanently close five production plants as it works through bankruptcy protection. Prices on many of the carmakers' models are at rock bottom, so we asked Clark Howard, "Is this a good time to buy a Chrysler?"
He said, "Not right now, but I will tell you there could be an opportunity for Chrysler, and I'll talk about GM in a second. There could be an opportunity for Chrysler later this year because Chrysler is going to close an enormous number of the dealerships, whether the dealerships want to close or not. And then they're going to have all that inventory from all those dealerships with cars not already selling. Then they're going to have this huge supply of vehicles that they're going to have to dump in the marketplace. So there's going to be great deals."
Things aren't much better at GM, where the chief financial officer for General Motors says the fear of bankruptcy is hurting GM's sales. Clark actually thinks the lines GM is going to end, like Saturn and Pontiac, are going to be the best place to find a bargain this year.
But he cautioned, "You need to buy one of those vehicles that you plan to keep for a long, long, long time, because those cars are going to have no value in the used vehicle market. So this is one of those things. I bought a car for like a song, if I would sell it I wouldn't even get a note for it."
Clark says the other GM lines won't be such a gamble and there could be some good deals on those models too.
"Buying a Buick or Chevrolet or GMC truck, that's going to be fine, and oversupply of General Motors products right now, OK, get this, if GM did not make another car all summer long, at what they're selling cars at, they wouldn't even work off the supply they have already in the pipeline until maybe October."
Tune in to Clark Howard's special reports "Watching Utah's Money" all this week at 5:40 a.m. and 7:40 a.m. on KSL Newsradio 102.7FM/1160AM.
