Salesman Ed Gross writes up sales figures on a window at a Chrysler dealership in San Jose, Calif., Thursday. Chrysler will file for bankruptcy after talks with a small group of creditors crumbled just a day before a government deadline for the automaker to come up with a restructuring plan, President Barack Obama said.

Junior Brubeck wishes his auto supplier hadn’t needed to file for bankruptcy protection Thursday.

But now that the move has been made, he’s looking forward to an accelerated court proceeding that could be completed in 30 to 60 days — and pave the way for a beneficial partnership with Fiat, additional products to sell and a financial cloud to be lifted.

“We go forward from here,” said Brubeck, president of Jim Clark Motors, which sells Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep vehicles at 2121 W. 29th Terrace in Lawrence.

Brubeck and other dealers in Lawrence described the filing as both unfortunate and somewhat essential, as a method for reorganizing an iconic automaker so that it can emerge as a viable company.

In the meantime, Jim Clark Motors will continue to honor all warranties, provide continued service and make vehicle sales just as it has since the dealership opened 53 years ago.

“Nothing’s changed,” said Brubeck, who’s been a manager or owner of the dealership for all of those 53 years.

Dale Willey, president of Dale Willey Automotive, a General Motors dealership, said he was taking it “one day at a time” as GM navigates its own set of financial complications. While Chrysler had until Thursday to come up with a plan or face bankruptcy, GM has another month.

GM already has announced that it would be closing 2,600 of its 6,200 dealers, and would eliminate the Pontiac brand after closing out Saturn later this year.

Whether it’s Chrysler or GM, he said, going to court to work out a reorganization plan is not good.

“I don’t think bankruptcy is in the best interest of anybody,” said Willey, a former chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association. “It’s going to trigger a lot of companies going out of business (including suppliers). Everybody gets touched. I don’t think Uncle Sam has any idea of the business crashing and unemployment drops that will occur. It will be phenomenal.”

But Willey’s operation, at 2840 Iowa, still has a manageable inventory and an expanded lot to handle used vehicles, a segment that is doing best during the economic downturn.

“The sky is not falling,” Willey said. “We will live to work another day, some way or another.”

John Ellena, president of Ellena Honda, said that the biggest problem with Chrysler’s bankruptcy filing would be the public’s perception about the auto industry as a whole.

“If people sit there and continue to lose confidence in us, we’re going to be in this situation for a long, long time,” Ellena said. “This is a reorganization. It’s not, ‘I’m going out of business.’ It’s not, ‘I’m shaky, I might not be here next week.’ It’s a reorganization, a restructuring of debt and coming up with a better plan that’s going to make them viable.”