Chrysler falls to #12

Chrysler Corporation in 1998 was ranked among the world’s largest automakers, though most of its sales were within North America (around 200,000 sales were outside the U.S., Canada, and Mexico).

For the first six months of 2008, Chrysler was #12. Toyota has a comfortable lead in the top spot, followed by GM, then Volkswagen, and then Ford.

Suzuki, a minor presence at best in the United States, made more vehicles than Chrysler, in the first six months of 2008.

Given that Chrysler was on an upward trend in profits and vehicle desirability, in both cars and trucks, before Daimler arrived with promises of international sales, expensive technologies, and bags of cash for hard times, the blame can be laid less on Chrysler’s foresight and more on Daimler’s abuse of a once great institution.

Lest we forget, Chrysler saved many lives during World War II by engineering and building highly reliable tanks - making its quota nearly every month, and in many months making up for the production deficits of other companies - as well as increasing the reliability of aircraft engines. They did all this while giving rebate checks to the government when they spent less than they expected to. That’s not even mentioning their contributions to the atomic bomb and rocketry.

Now is the time for investment in the future - the kinds of investments made in the early 1990s, which resulted in the 1993-98 renaissance of Chrysler Corporation. Does Cerberus have what it takes, or will they be happy to have Chrysler a niche player, pretending to be a full-line automaker by restyling other manufacturers’ cars? Will Chrysler be allowed to play to its strengths, or will it buy engines and transmissions from others?

Only time will tell.