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Ralph Hanson

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674 views May 11, 2009

The precipitous plunge in used pricing comes as a result of bankruptcy announcements

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It's simple math: carmaker plus bankruptcy equals uncertainty and lower resale values. But Chrysler owners are feeling the bite of that equation as the value of their vehicles dropped 6% on average in a single week.

In the week after Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, owners of Jeep and Dodge vehicles saw their 36-month resale value go from 38.4% and 37.3% of their original price, respectively, to just 32.4% for Jeep and 31.2% for Dodge. Chrysler-branded vehicles fell an even 6% from 34.8% to 28.8%, reports the Detroit Free Press.

That's a very rocky patch, worsening Chrysler's already middling place in the world of resale value, and making it that much harder for current Chrysler owners to get out of their current cars and trucks and into new ones.

What effect a similar drop in General Motors resale values might have on a marketplace already biased toward used car sales is unclear, but it can't bode well for the people trying to move new cars out of stagnant dealer inventory.