Captain Kerk arrives at Ford
After his lawsuit against DaimlerChrysler and his ill-fated idea of a tie-up between GM and Renault-Nissan in 2006, then his attempt to buy Chrysler from Daimler (which involved a huge amount of employee ownership; he lost to Cerberus, and quite probably was never seriously considered), “Captain Kirk” Kerkorian bought a stake of 5% of Ford, after seeing that Ford had begun a turnaround.
Will “Captain Kerk” do a call to another automaker for a tie-up with Ford? If that theory is true, before thinking then it could be Ghosn of Renault-Nissan. It could also be one then Ford have currently a joint-venture currently like Peugeot-Citroen for the diesel engines and Fiat (the next-gen European Ford Ka will use the Fiat 500 platform) or a new player like Tata, who they sold Jaguar and Land Rover to them (and besides, Tata might rename themselves Ford since in the French-Canadian slang, “tata” means idiot.”)
Do you think then Kirk’s arrival at Ford is good news?
I watched a very troubling cable TV interview with Carlos Ghosn a few days ago and got the distinct impression that Chrysler will be dismantled and sold off in pieces within five years. No, he definitely did NOT say that in so many words, but through his discussion with the interviewer about the state of the automotive industry, there will be only the Big 2 in the USA and not the Big 3 as before.
The stupid mis-steps in advertising which we have witnessed would seem to confirm that top management certainly has no idea relating to Chrysler as a CAR COMPANY, thus confirming - to me, at least - that possibility.
That’s something analysts have been saying for years. That’s one reason Chrysler sold itself to Daimler - listening to the overpaid, unthinking, lemming-inspired analysts. They have a theory, with no proof outside of case studies, that no industry can ever support more than three profitable players. They point to the PC industry as an example, though there are literally dozens of profitable players, and the leaders may not be as profitable as the bit players - compare HP/Compaq to Apple!
Sure give the new guy a shot. He can’t do as badly as Bill jr. did running the show….think about it, every new car from ford starting with F & and Mercury with M. The slow decontenting of a former No. 1 seller, then killing the Taurus. What kind of business sense is that? Ford will survive on it’s own though. If Chrysler doesn’t start making a profit soon it will be dismantled to make back some of the investment the multi headed dog made.