When Larry Winter found out that his South Hills Chrysler Jeep Kia dealership would survive while almost 800 others across the country would not, he allowed himself to enjoy the sense of relief -- for a moment.

"It's just been a whirlwind. Now, a lot of it is getting your people back to focusing on what they need to do: Make customers happy," he added.

A lot of local Chrysler dealers say they want to do just that, but there's a growing issue that jeopardizes that: lack of inventory.

While Mr. Winter said his inventory was "just a little lighter than usual," other dealers have not been so lucky.

The sales staff at Monroeville Chrysler Jeep and at Monroeville Dodge said they were scrambling to find cars and trucks to fit customer needs.

Some dealers relied on an old tool: swapping cars.

"It's 'I got a red one, you've got a blue one. Let's trade," Mr. Winter said. It doesn't cost anything and its always been a "good way to balance inventories out," he added.

Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep dealers are elbow deep in order forms for 2010 model cars and trucks to be sold in August and September. Filling out the forms is an arduous task that dealers say can be time consuming and tedious.

"I know I spend part of the weekend at home on it," Mr. Winter said with a laugh. "It's one of those things you do late at night when everybody else is sleeping. We're ordering fairly heavy because we think business and the economy are on the rise right now."

Mr. Winter's dealership is on target to sell about 1,200 or more cars and trucks a year -- a figure that makes his one of the larger Chrysler dealers in town.

One reason why Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep dealers are doing well is that when Chrysler filed for bankruptcy, consumers began shopping for bargains. Other customers that held out, thinking prices would go even lower, are now hitting showroom floors, dealers say. And part of the increase in business at surviving dealers is due to the demise of dealers in surrounding areas.

"There's a level of camaraderie in our business," Mr. Winter said. "Most of those guys were friends with us for a lot of years. You feel a lot of sadness. On the day when we found out who was going -- all of that -- those of us who survived felt a lot of relief, but at the same time we had a lot of friends who were hurt."

Chrysler announced the closure of underperforming dealerships after it entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy this spring. But why did Mr. Winter's Peters location survive?

"I think it's a combination of past performance, stability of ownership, and most important, pretty good customer satisfaction numbers," he said.

While the remaining dealers are optimistic about the future, they are concerned about what products will be coming from Chrysler and Fiat.

Almost everybody is itching to see Alfa Romeos on their showroom floors. Fiat's luxury brand has a long, colorful history and is considered by many auto writers to be among the creme de la creme of the performance world.

Other dealers say that they think more small cars are coming.

"I think they'll address the small cars issue, Mr. Winter said. "These guys seem to have a good sense of direction."

But other dealers said small cars were the last thing the company needed now, and at least one cautioned Chrysler about putting too much weight on them in the new product portfolio.

"There's so much talk about small cars. What is the point?" asked one sales manager who asked not to be identified. "We get more people looking for SUVs and bigger vehicles than small cars. It's just not what customers are accustomed to."

But Mr.Winter and some others thought it was too premature to talk about what Chrysler is likely to sell in the future.

"Do we think that we will sell Fiats in our dealers? Yes. Do we know what that means? No, we don't know. It's way too early to speculate on all of that. Remember, this whole bankruptcy thing just happened at the end of April, even though it seems like it's been going on forever," he said.