Inanity surrounds coverage of Chrysler sale
The conventional wisdom of journalists sometimes amazes me as much as the filth that comes out of talk-show hosts’ mouths (even when they don’t get caught and canned). In this case, I speak of the reality-is-no-barrier type of armchair theorizing that passes for news in some publications. The epitomy has been Business Week’s article where the writer posits that Chrysler is too small to go up against companies like PSA - which, in case you were wondering, is smaller than Chrysler, and by a good margin, too. Indeed, Chrysler Group alone is much larger than most auto companies in the world - once you take out Honda and Toyota, it simply dwarfs any automaker outside the United States. The slow international sales are also not a huge issue; it’s not like Honda has penetrated every world market successfully. If American sales suddenly ground to a halt, Honda and Toyota would be badly hurt, too.
Another oddity was the suggestion that Chrysler no longer had any loan capability since that was mixed in with Daimler. Somehow I doubt this will be a real problem, especially since at least one now-famous import automaker used GMAC for years. The “journalist” at Business Week apparently also forgot what the majority of the DaimlerChrysler Credit organization used to be - namely, Chrysler Credit. But DCX would be crazy to let that moneymaker go any time soon. They’d also be crazy not to demand that Chrysler continue to use it. One more goofy argument gone.
Chrysler is working hard on international sales, and they’ll get there eventually, if they make the right vehicles. So far, they haven’t done much to tailor vehicles to destinations, other than drop in diesels and offer steering wheels on the other side; but to be fair, there’s been profit in their slow growth. The type of car they’d need to really crack foreign mass markets is either luxury cars that look like luxury cars, or A and B segment (small) cars - like the ones they’re about to have Chery build for them. Lack of manual transmissions is also an issue, but that’s partly a result of the money crunch.
Frankly, selling Chrysler wouldn’t bother me that much, depending on who got it. Kerkorian I might be able to trust a little; he’s clearly in love with the idea of controlling an automaker, for whatever reason, and though MGM’s movie business suffered under him, the parts of the business he really wanted seem to have done well. Magna, too, I could live with quite easily. The sleazy, politically connected private equity firms I don’t trust to have the resources or long-term willpower to make up for years of Chrysler abuse by Daimler (Kerkorian claims to be willing to go five years without an eye on the bottom line), and the very fact that they are so well connected to a particular political party tells me not to trust them - and that would hold true if it was the other party, too.
Let’s face it, DCX has already done its share of damage to Chrysler. There’s the bad-mouthing, destroying SCORE, driving off talent throughout the organization, promotion by brown-nosing, forcing bad, overpriced parts on Chrysler so Mercedes can get discounts, dropping Plymouth, losing capacity that could have been used to keep a Neon replacement while making Calibers, the badly designed dealer incentives, the slashing of customer center costs, the driving out of huge numbers of engineers and testers so that there are flexible plants but not enough vehicles or options to run in them, and the incredible damage to public confidence caused by all those “off the record” comments and insinuations from board members, the sale itself, and the losses apparently caused by accounting tricks. Would even a private equity firm do any worse?
DAVE:
I agree with you 100% about the Damage to Chrysler courtesy of Daimler, how ever Mr. Kerkorian is not well seen By Detroit Workers, u can revew the surveys in Detroit News, some even say they rather have an equity firm buyout, instead of Mr. Kerkorian´s hands.
They point out reasons which i ignore, so i wont take a stand on this one, the only thing that Itches me, is that in those surveys, most Detroit Workers DO NOT support the idea of Mr. Kerkorian, and at ALLPAR, things are quite diferent, i guess its just like politics, we cant really tell whats gonna happen with Chrysler if one or the other takes over, untill it happens.
Best Regards
Loved your comments. Anyone who truly believes The Chrysler Group lost money in 2007 has an accounting IQ of 0. It is time to cut these winers loose and move on.
We can then stop paying inflated prices for their old technology and let them put it on shelf to rot like they did before the merger. Why allow them to further recoup their engineering costs on our backs. It will serously drive up their costs at MB.
We will make our own supplier deals for our own reasons. They will loose “our” buying power and have to pay much higher prices for raw materials and parts.
We do not have to be dragged down with the boat anchor SMART division whose losses have been much higher than MB has let on.
We can stop selling their overpriced Sprinter vans and laugh while we watch them try to match the volumes through the Benz or truck dealers.
We can avoid the coming crash in heavy truck sales that will hit in 2008 and run for at least 3 years. Good luck with that MB.
We can bring back moral, spirit and true company loyalty and get rid of the MB management style of measure everything until you get blood from a stone. Home Depot found out the hard way that management by fear and loathing never works in the long term. When it comes to performance you CAN measure yourself out of business.
We can put more real quality and design in our cars and trucks instead of being forced to use tier 2 parts and engineering.
We can hire and advertising agency that did not have the imagination of a mushroom.
We can include the financing profits from the sales of our cars & trucks in our own net earnings instead of having it burried in the profits of MB to avoid paying profit sharing and decent wage increases. They should truly be ashamed of themselves for how they have been accounting for this. They must think the average employee is a grade school dropout. Your foolishness is as transparent as glass.
We can distance ourselves from the current european sharholder base who are under the misconception that MB stock will rise long term when we part ways. Boy, have you been led down the garden path by the MB board of management.
We can begin to build the net cash balance in the company that MB made disapear into thin air. At least they did not leave us as broke as FORD is.
I personally have had enough of these clowns and can’t wait to go back to being a NORTH AMERCIAN company.
I don’t trust Kerkorian one bit. I suppose it’s possible things could get worse under a PE firm, but who’s to say the same fate wouldn’t meet them if they stay under Daimler’s foot?
Getting out from DCX is their best chance, IMO. I live in hope…..
Bad company gets worse. No I’m not talkin’ about a musical group but of the
chrysler corp. group, grope, gripe. Let’s face it most of America could care less about C.G. This corp. group has so bad a reputation/reality that most of the car/truck buying public shutter & think keep that crap away from me. Chrysler is to blame for it all, by making inferior products thru out the years. Most people here want to blame everything on Daimler which is totally wrong, Chrysler’s stockholders are. Their greed is to blame for the merger but hey without the merger C.G. would probley be owned by Toyota.
So, DCX SUCKS, you think that the car buying public has a low regard for CG products and that CG products are and have been inferior over the years. Considering what the CG has gone through in the past few years, it is a miracle that they even exist! The fact that people know and trust CG products , in general , is a testiment to a long standing reputation to well engineered cars and trucks. Yes, there is and have been a few duds, but all companies have their share of duds. Maybe some more than others. Right now Toyota is riding high, just like GM did for years. I’ve stayed with CG products because they don’t nickel and dime you to death and I get where I’m going with confidence. So if CG could have the freedom to do what they do best, they’ll be around a long time.
I do agree with the idea that public perception holds Chrysler somewhere around the same level as Kia - if it is indeed that high. If Chrysler had to give up fleet sales they’d instantly drop down below Honda according to the latest figures in Automotive News.
Dave,
I also agree with the idea of the low public perception of Chrysler. I feel Chrysler has become a joke under Daimler’s control. Wiping away almost 9 years of the “merger” is going to be hard to do especially now that GM and Ford are starting to get their act together. Factor in the dominating performance of Honda and Toyota and the market just got that much harder to compete in. I don’t know if Chrysler is around the same level of Kia, but this latest “Buy One, Get One Free” promotion some of the Chrysler dealers are doing sure seems to be at the Kia level. Last year one of the local Kia dealers was promoting this same thing and I found it so full of desperation it was sickening.
I didn’t know Chrysler’s retail sales were almost even with Honda. I guess Chrysler is lucky to have all those fleet sales to help keep it above Honda, although I figure it is only a matter of time before Honda pushes Chrysler to fifth place in sales.
DCX SUCKS,
At first, your post looked exactly like something I would have written. I am of the opinion that I don’t think most of America even cares if Chrysler stays or not. I do think Chrysler cannot escape some of this blame. It hasn’t exactly been known as the highest quality car company in the world. However, I think Daimler played a big part in Chrysler’s latest chapter as well. From what I’ve seen and read, Chrysler’s quality hasn’t taken off (in relation to the rest of the industry) under Daimler’s control. I also think the latest over-production strategy was one pushed by Daimler because they didn’t want Wall Street to see how bad things were really going. I also think the product strategy and the loss of some great talent can be tied to Daimler’s control of the business entity. Really, both sides are to blame for this mess, but if the egoes and overally optimistic mindset would have been left at the doors, the “merger of unequals” wouldn’t have happened - and Chrysler would probably be in better shape.
I JUST WANT CHRYSLER TO BE FREE FROM DAIMLER, AND IF THE NEW OWNER KNOWS SOMETHING ABOUT BUSINESS, WHICH IS ALL ABOUT, HE SHOULD USE SOME OR ALL OF THE NEXT STRATEGIES, MAKE DODGE THE VALUE-PERFORMANCE CAR, LIKE PLYMOUTH USED TO BE OR “PHOENIX PLYMOUTH”, AND FOCUS ON THE MAIN SELLERS WORLD WIDE (SMALL 4 CYL SEDANS AND HATCHBACKS) GET DIESEL ENGINES IN ALL MODELS RIGHT F…ING NOW (THEY WORK FAR BETTER THAN HYBRIDS TODAY), AND FOR THE TOP DOGS, VIP KIND, “CHRYSLER” WITH ALL THE GADGETS AND HIGH-TECH THINGS WE COULD THINK OF, AND THE BEST CAR INTERIORS MONEY COULD BUY, A SIMPLE ELEGANT DESIGN ITS NOT A BAD THING IF MATCHED WITH GREATE INTERIORS, BUT A GREATE DESIGN MATCHED WITH CRAPPY PLASTIC TRIMS, SUX.
AND ABOUT JEEP KEEP IT ALMOUST LIKE IT IS, JUST MAKE THE NEW 4CYL “CALIBER PLATFORM” JEEP´S LOOK TOUGHER, WE ALL KNOW THEY ARE GREATE PRODUCTS FOR THEIR NITCHE AND PRICE TAG, BUT THEY LOOK WEAKER THEN THEIR BIG BROTHERS.
JUST TO WRAP THIS COMENT:
HAVE YOU EVER DRIVEN AN AUDI CVT WITH A DIESEL, ITS AWSOME, AND GIVES OVER 55MPG ACORDING TO VW USERS IN EUROPE, WITH PEPPY DRIVING, I BET WE ALL COULD USE THAT MILEAGE IN THE LARGE PLANES OF THE U.S., AND IF CHRYSLER GROUP WOULD DARE TO TAKE THE FIRST HIT ON MID SIZE SEDANS WITH 50 MPG MILEAGE, COULD WORK GREATE FOR THEM-US
I think a big problem has been that whoever approves things like interior designs and fabrics, looks at them and says “that’s ok” instead of “that’s a beautiful interior!”. They’re just settling for ok all across the board. Exterior designs, components, engines, etc. They’ve got to get rid of this mediocre attitude and that goes for whoever the new owners are.
mediocre attitude its not the issue regarding the interiors or equipment in my opinion:
The choose those interiors becouse they are the cheapest and the penny pithcing has hit rock bottom in the Dodge Brand, i thought the Calibers were cheap, until i got inside an AVENGER SE BASE MODEL, even the samble lines dont match and look twisted, yeap they dont even bond tougether correctly, it handles like the besto of the pack, thats right, and it looks good also, but the owner its not gonna be steping outside every stop light to see something nice about his car becouse the inside it´s plain and simple CRAP, that is not OK INTERIORS, they are plain and simple the CHEAPEST they could FIND.
Weird - is all I can say about a couple of the comments above. I had been a diehard/rabid Mopar fan for decades until I kept getting nothing but crap from one dealer after another, especially the dealer from whom I was buying new cars. That settled it. Come time to replace my beloved B250 Wagon, I sure as H wasn’t going to get that 3-story monstrosity that replaced the Dodge vans of old and I wasn’t going to put up with the crap from any more Mopar dealers and buy a used one. So I researched around and - guess what? I bought a USED 1995 CADILLAC FLEETWOOD to tow our PopUp RV. It’s rated for 7k towing plus, just like my B250 which I GAVE to a relative who was starting a business. But we still have the 1999 Stratus which we love and there’s another tale; the dealer tried to screw us on that head gasket thing even though we had the extended warranty. When I threatened to take the whole problem to a neighbor who was a reporter for a local TV station, you should have seen how quickly that situation changed and how quickly we no longer had to pay $1,700.00.
So the problem at DCX is one of “Trickle Down.” Like a dead fish, it ROTS FROM THE HEAD. And unless something is done, the once feisty, smart and damn good outfit - producing excellent vehicles excellently engineered - will wither away.
This is really a weird situation for mopar. It’s odd because in 2005 mopar hit the roof with sales from the 300 and the Magnum. I even remember hearing that mopar saved themselves like they did in 1994 with the Intrepid and Concorde line. However, Mopar dumped the Eagle and the Plymouth line which was inexpensive lines that offered quality, and people appreciated that more than they did having to pay additional prices for names like Dodge, Jeep, and Chrysler. However, mopar has presented themselves well since then, but almost has eliminated the middle person. It used to be that a neon base in 1995 could be bought for 8995 new and now a caliber starts at almost 14000, so it seems mopar is raising prices instead of lowering them. Young people see this and run for Chevrolet and Toyota who can offer a car at 9-11000, new, and it looks better for a younger generation. But mopar is smart targeting people with a better financial foundation, but still they need smaller and more practical cars to compete. This leads me to whether Chrysler should be sold. The latest article published that Chrysler is in debate with Mercedes Benz. “They do not share chassis, but they share parts.” This is productive in cost, but not quality. There is so much agitation between automotive enthusiasts about the new Sebring. It looks genius, but the quality sucks, supposedly. If Mercedes would have loaned over their C series line chassis it would have been exceptional building material for the new sedan. If Mopar and Benz would work like Toyota and Lexus they would also be renowned car companies. However, Mopar really needs a small compact that offers what the neon did in 1995, room, power, convenience, utility, gas mileage, and a starting price that is equal or better than Chevrolet, Toyota, and Honda. I think that Chrysler need to use the C230 Kompressor chassis to build a small car and use it’s world 1.8 liter engine, which would need some work to obtain better gas mileage. However, these platforms alone are great and cheap along with a sporty manual transmission. If Daimler Benz decides to sell Chrysler, hopefully people have great ideas to personify Chrysler and make it a better company than it was before.
I haven’t heard anything bad about Sebring quality. What’s more, the C-Class quality has been, like all Mercedes, in the toilet. It’s expensive, but does that mean it’s reliable? And how do you define “cheap”?
Dave:
isn´t chrysler`s unfortunate timing afecting Daimler too? The Dodge Challenger in the 70’s was released too late at the end of the muscle car era (just as an old example) the NEON was killed in the times when Americans are Downsizeing becouse of Gas Prices, Plymounth was doomed when their lineup had Good valuable product´s, yes they were rebagadge dodge´s but in the costumers mind´s they were PLYMOUNTHS, then The 300 with Big V8’s worked fine, but again a bit late and now their sales are dropping and the Charger´s is next, The Challenger its gonna be at Dealerships at the same time the GAS is gonna be quite close to $4.00 for a gallon, and at last, Daimler said it was tired about Chrysler in february, and right now, the sales are growing world wide?, that reads bad timing in my book and it looks like Daimpler chose to sell Chrysler Too Soon, better for Us any way´s.
DCX certainly has not done itself any favors by their treatment of Chrysler. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Sadly, everyone just keeps bashing our beleagured friend. Although I think it would have been better for both to work things out, I don’t see that happening now, Daimler has gone too far down the road to stop this process now. Best Scenario is for someone like Magna to take control and try to save what’s left. I’m really tired of hearing Chrysler get trashed for it’s (perceived) poor quality and reputation. If you came here to s… on Chrysler, save it for some other website, no one here is interested in uninformed, uneducated opinions. Although I think DCX made some bad decisions re; new product, most of Chryslers stuff is pretty good these days, nothing a diet and some exercise wouldn’t fix. I get the feeling that all you naysayers may be from the daimler (mercedes) side of the fence. Don’t let the door hit your a.. on the way out.
Sebring and Avenger are both getting raked over the coals for their styling. Don’t know about the quality.
Chrysler will continue to lose sales to Toyota and Honda because they cannot offer a small, sporty, reliable car. The Caliber ain’t it, and everything else is a bloatmobile, a fugly gangsta car. Most of these cars also come only with automatics. So they’ve lost more people than they realize there. And the gas mileage is abysmal. It’s actually worse overall than it was 15 years ago. That’s why I am putting $3K into my car’s driveline to ensure that I can continue to motor on with MoPar until something good comes.