World Economic

Chrysler LLC’s Chapter 11 filing doesn’t appear so far to be affecting May sales, a top executive said Wednesday.

Early sales data show Chrysler is on pace to sell 60,000 to 70,000 vehicles to individuals this month, better than expected considering its April 30 bankruptcy filing, Executive Vice President for Sales and Marketing Steven Landry said.

Also Wednesday, Chrysler announced that former Borden Chemical and Duracell Chairman C. Robert Kidder will become chairman of the new company once it acquires the old Chrysler’s assets and joins with Italy’s Fiat Group SpA. Kidder will succeed Robert Nardelli, who will step down when Chrysler emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Chrysler’s retail sales — cars and trucks sold to individuals — totaled about 61,600 in April, and about 77,000 including fleet buyers such as rental car companies.

Landry said data provided by J.D. Power and Associates showed retail sales for the full U.S. market down 35 percent so far in May, with Chrysler’s sales down about 40 percent.

"It’s respectable compared to where we had been," Landry said. "The fact that we’re only five or so percentage points off of the industry, we can’t complain."

Landry said he was confident that Chrysler could find homes for the 40,000 cars and trucks remaining on the lots of 789 dealers across the country that the company wants to shed payday advance low fees.

Chrysler told the dealers last week that it planned to terminate their franchise agreements in an effort to shrink its dealer network so remaining dealers can be more profitable and invest more in their businesses.

Chrysler is awaiting bankruptcy court approval of the dealer cuts but plans to end the agreements about June 9. The company then will stop paying the dealers incentives such as rebates and low-interest loans, and it will stop reimbursing them for warranty repairs.

Chrysler’s bankruptcy judge denied on Wednesday a motion from a pair of Indiana state pension funds and a state construction fund to delay the proposed sale of most of Chrysler’s assets, saying the funds’ plan to challenge the legality of the sale in another court wasn’t enough of a reason to push back the proceedings.

Chrysler, based in Auburn Hills, Mich., plans to sell the vast majority of its assets to a group led by Fiat and form a new company, leaving behind many of the liabilities and costs that had sent it into bankruptcy protection. A sale hearing is scheduled for May 27, with the deal expected to close about 30 days later.

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