The construction crewshave checked out of the Flamingo Motel, a $35-a-night motorlodge across the state road from a gleaming andstill-unfinished auto parts plant that may never hire a singleworker.



'It's a big, sad story,' said Kishor Patel, who owns theFlamingo and has watched guests slip away along with the town'sdreams for a bonanza of 1,200 steady jobs making transmissionsfor Chrysler LLC.



With the U.S. auto industry pushed to crisis, Detroit'suncertainty is rippling out to towns like Tipton, Indiana,where auto suppliers and their workers wait in an uneasylimbo.



German transmission supplier Getrag has suspended work onthe $530-million plant in Tipton, now 80-percent complete.



In a dispute that will shift to a Michigan court, Chryslertold Getrag this month it was terminating the deal to supplyfuel-saving transmissions for a new-generation of enginesChrysler had hopefully dubbed its 'Phoenix' project.



The breakdown of the Getrag deal is one of several disputesbetween Chrysler and its suppliers to have shot to public viewin recent months, as the struggling automaker's sales haveplunged and its private equity owner Cerberus CapitalManagement has ordered steps to shore up cash.



Now with Cerberus in talks to sell Chrysler to GeneralMotors Corp, Chrysler's supply base has gone to code redas companies small and large scramble to assess the risk theywould face from lost business in a merger.



According to people familiar with the talks, GM has alsopushed to clarify how many of Chrysler's suppliers could befacing deep financial problems or bankruptcy in the event ittakes over its smaller rival.



Chrysler said on Friday it would cut about 25 percent ofits white-collar workers, near 5,000 jobs, and cut capitalinvestment. A day earlier, Chrysler announced it was cutting1,825 jobs at SUV plants in Ohio and Delaware.



The downdraft has also hit Tipton. The Getrag plant wouldhave been a welcome boost to a county where the unemploymentrate is near 8 percent. It would also have been first step inan industrial food chain meant to feed union-represented axleand engine plants in Michigan.



But Chrysler has now put much of its future productdevelopment work on hold as it hunkers down at a time whenindustry-wide U.S auto sales are near two-decade lows.



'Anything they have been investing from 2010 onward isbeing put on hold or delayed,' said Lars Luedeman, an analystat Grant Thornton.



TALE OF TWO TOWNS



Meanwhile, less than two hours drive to the south, Japan'sHonda Motor Co this month started production at a newassembly plant in Greensburg, Indiana, that will make 200,000compact Civic sedans annually when it hits its stride.



The good times in Greensburg underscore how the pain of thecurrent auto downturn has been uneven. Riding high on thestrength of its fuel-efficient line-up, Honda is now in astatistical dead heat with Chrysler for the No. 3 spot in theU.S. market.