Changes are slowly taking place

It’s hard to turn around a supertanker, as Bob Lutz found out when he became second mate of the sailing ship General Motors. Few were surprised when Cerberus’ purchase of Chrysler failed to result in a completely new lineup for 2009. It just doesn’t work that way. 

But things are clearly changing. The Challenger was almost completely bereft of the penny-wise, pound-foolish cost-cutting that characterized the Daimler years; small touches that could easily have fallen to the accountants’ axe were everywhere. The interior upgrades of the Compass and Patriot would have been unlikely under Daimler, as well. 

After turning in the Challenger, I got a call from the rear-drive carline PR manager, asking if I had any problems with it or with the vehicle loan. That’s probably the first time something like that has happened.

I also had to write in to a PR rep in another area, and got an answer back within half an hour. That’s also pretty much a first, aside from the field reps and Dan Bodene, who have been helpful and responsive all along. I’d gotten to the point where I figured most of my queries had to go through the legal department or something. 

The quality of press materials seems to have been increasing for a while, as well, though that started in the late Dieter era. I don’t care as much about cute tie-in themes (though I like the little Challenger promo car) as I do about good information. Admittedly Chrysler managed to give us two different horsepower ratings for one of their vehicles - each one used twice - but on the whole, things seem to be getting better. 

If a friendly engineer is to be believed, the electric cars are a major advance, and at least one of them appears to be nearly ready to go. The ecoVoyager was also close to production intent, it seems. Perhaps Chrysler is getting ready for, if nothing else, a PR push to say, “We can make economical cars, too.” (Half the battle is getting back into the customers’ range of fire.) 

Things are looking pretty bad in the global economy, but maybe Chrysler is recovering from the nine years of horrific Daimler ownership. Maybe the rumors of tie-ins with Renault will result in just that - tie-ins. Maybe Chrysler will lean on Nissan and Renault in the same way they leaned on SIMCA to get the Horizon and Omni, or in the same way Volkswagen is using Chrysler to get a minivan while they work on their own. (Or maybe Iaccoca’s Global Motors is becoming a reality.) 

I also have to admit that slashing the complexity of their options and model lineup is a good idea that’s long overdue, even as I propose (see last weblog) new models to get ahead in gas mileage. 

Anyway, despite a 600 point drop in the stock market as I write this and a bailout bill that I consider inane for numerous reasons (think the lack of investment capital might have anything to do with our massive budget deficits? Think cutting taxes by $150 billion and borrowing hundreds of billions will help that? Think the government will really sue to recover executive comp based on fraud? and how much do you think that’ll cost? Think Paulson deserves more power? Think they should have thought about it a little more?)… despite all that, my optimism regarding Chrysler is growing a bit.

Yes, they still  have to root out a lot of bad managers and foolish decisions, and yes, they will be paying for mistakes of the past for a long time. I don’t know why they still make Dakotas and Durangos when it appears nobody is buying them, and there are many things I would probably do differently — but on the whole I am seeing movement in a positive direction. 

Now we just have to wait for the economy to recover. 2012 might be a very good year.