Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. provided an update on its credit exposure to Chrysler LLC and General Motors (GM). The company announced that it has no credit exposure to GM and has potential exposure to Chrysler, its principal supplier, comprised of the following:

• Approximately $11 million in trade receivables from Chrysler under incentive and vehicle repurchase programs.

  
  

• Approximately $5 million in estimated exposure for residual value guarantees provided by Chrysler on approximately 690 program vehicles that have been returned to auction but not yet sold. Vehicles have been at auction an average of 172 days. At the time of sale, Chrysler will be obligated to pay the company the difference between the auction price of the vehicle and the residual value agreed by the parties at the time of purchase. Auction proceeds will be paid directly to the company by the auction.

  
  

• Approximately $23 million in estimated exposure for residual value guarantees on approximately 3,600 program vehicles currently in the company's rental fleet. These vehicles are subject to return to auction in the third and fourth quarters of 2009. In the event of a Chrysler bankruptcy, the company has the ability to extend the holding period of these vehicles by converting them to risk vehicles. This would allow the company to generate additional revenue over the useful life of the vehicle to offset the cost of the loss of the residual value guarantee.

"These are extremely difficult times in the automotive industry and there is significant uncertainty surrounding the impact of a bankruptcy of GM or Chrysler. We have aggressively reduced our exposure to Chrysler from over $215 million as of Dec. 31, 2008 to a more manageable level, and we expect additional reductions going forward," said Scott L. Thompson, president and CEO. "Our reduced exposure is a result of decisive actions over the last six months to reposition the company. These actions included changing our fleet mix from high program vehicle content to a predominately risk vehicle fleet, ceasing orders of certain program vehicles, modifying the timing of vehicle incentive payments, extending holding periods and executing a secondary supply agreement with Ford Motor Co. We believe these actions will significantly mitigate the direct impact on us in the event of a Chrysler bankruptcy."