October 23rd, 2009 by Bill Cawthon
Chrysler Group’s deputy CEO, Jim Press, may have already received his last Chrysler paycheck. According to Kenneth Feinberg, the U.S. Treasury’s special master for executive compensation, payments already made to a senior Chrysler executive exceed the allowable maximum for companies that have received government bailouts.
Feinberg did not name specific executives, simply saying that three senior [...]
September 18th, 2009 by Bill Cawthon
According to the Detroit Free Press, Chrysler Deputy CEO Jim Press owes the U.S. government nearly $1 million in back taxes and the Internal Revenue Service has put a lien on family’s home in Birmingham, Michigan.
A lien notice filed with the Oakland County Register of Deeds says Press and his wife, Suwichada, have an unpaid [...]
August 21st, 2009 by DaveAdmin
The Wall Street Journal reported that Jim Press, who made his name at Toyota, is planning to leave Chrysler before the end of 2009. Press led Toyota’s United States sales group, but moved to Chrysler in 2007 as part of the Cerberus team. He was widely praised for his handling of press conferences, where he [...]
June 12th, 2009 by DaveAdmin
Jim Press attacked several “dealer myths” in front of Congress, defending Chrysler’s actions:
Despite completing a painful restructuring, the New Chrysler Group will retain 86% of Chrysler dealers by volume, and 75% by location.I can empathize with the dealers who were not brought forward into the new company, and can understand their disappointment. This has been the most difficult [...]
June 3rd, 2009 by DaveAdmin
Dozens of blogs have reported that President Barack Obama forced Chrysler to remove franchises from 789 dealerships for political reasons. On June 2, Jim Press testified that not renewing franchises for these dealers was necessary for corporate profitability. The 25% of dealers being dropped accounted for 14% of Chrysler’s overall sales; but sales are not [...]
June 3rd, 2009 by DaveAdmin
Judge Arthur Gonzalez has delayed a hearing on Chrysler’s request to terminate 789 of its dealers until Thursday, to give dealers more preparation time; the Senate Commerce Committee is questioning Jim Press and Fritz Henderson about Chrysler and GM’s dealer-dropping plans today. While Chrysler plans to terminate 789 dealers’ franchise agreements, GM is planning to drop [...]
May 22nd, 2009 by Bill Cawthon
Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison, the senior Senator from Texas, has ended her opposition to federal funding for Chrysler because of the way it handled 789 dealer terminations.
Hutchison had proposed an amendment that would have blocked the automaker’s lifeline unless it gave dealers 60 days’ notice of the revocation of their franchise. Chrysler dealers were given [...]
