Last day for two Valley Chrysler dealerships

Performance Dodge in west Phoenix and Darner Motors in Mesa were among hundreds of dealerships across the country which lost the Chrysler name Tuesday.

Performance Dodge plans to become a Nissan dealership; Darner will focus on selling used cars.

What is Darner going to do with its huge Chrysler sign?

Owner Joey Darner said, "Well, Chrysler actually owns that sign and they've told us they'll come get it within 60 or 90 days. I've got a sign painter coming out to paint Chrysler-Jeep off our sign. Actually, what we were going to do originally, we were going to put a red circle around it with a line through it. But, we decided we wouldn't do that because we'll be selling used Chryslers and Jeeps, also."

Darner and Terry Lee, manager of Performance Dodge, said it probably will sell any remaining Chryslers to other dealerships.

Meanwhile, customers could get some smoking deals. At Performance Dodge, Lee said some fuel-efficient cars were still available for a song.

"Surprisingly enough, the sports utilities and trucks -- things the government is trying to legislate out of existence -- those were the things that were going first," said Lee. "There aren't too many trucks left."

Darner said he's purging his business of all things Chrysler.

"I started taking the brochures and some of the posters and some of the banners down over the weekend and putting them in the back," he said. "Actually, I'd like to have a big bonfire and burn them all, but I don't think the city would let me do that."

Darner's thinking about finding a new car maker for his dealership, but he said, "This has left such a bad taste in my mouth, I probably won't be looking at anything for a little while. But, eventually, I imagine we'll have something else here."

Lee also said Chrysler could have been more helpful in closing dealerships.

"We haven't received the type of help that we would like to have seen," Lee said.

While sellers of other makes have been slashing prices on new cars, the president of the Arizona Automobile Dealers Association, Bobbi Spencer, doesn't see the price cuts as aimed specifically at Chrysler's and General Motors' troubles and rock-bottom prices at their abandoned dealerships.

"I think that they have been cutting the pricing back all year," Spencer said. "Incentives and rebates have been going on, and I think that's been in the works. I think the dealers are using them heavily to recruit people."

Sanderson Ford's David Kimmerle said he hasn't changed any window stickers.

"We haven't gone down in price. We've just added more incentives which consequently lower the total price out-the-door for our customers," Kimmerle said.

A 2009 Ford F-150 Supercrew 4-by-4 pickup truck has a sticker price of $43,650. But, Ford has a "save the difference" promotion in which the customer can choose $2,100 off the price or skipping three months of payments. Couple with another $1,500 rebate, the price drops to $39,000.

There are signs incentives may work. In May, Toyota sales were up 21 percent; Ford 20 percent and GM 11 percent.

While the government pumped billions into Chrysler and GM before they ended up filing for bankruptcy, Kimmerle said Ford has been working since 2006 to solve financial issues and that he doesn't expect it will go in the same direction.

"There was a lot of criticism, we had to close plants and so on to re-size the company," said Kimmerle.

He believes Ford is making strides.

"We've paid back over $9 billion of debt already, so consequently we are very viable. We are going to be a stronger company."

He said Ford is in a good position because it refused federal bailout money and "The American people are looking at Ford not taking the money."

Ford is banking on more people buying its products because of that, said Kimmerle.