Yes, Chrysler IS American.
May 26th, 2010 • by David Zatz
Joe in Harrisburg wrote the following:
Chrysler Group is 75% owned by North American member shareholders [eventually going to 65%]. This North American dominated membership contracted with Fiat to manage Chrysler Group. Marchionne still has to go to this board for approval; thus, it is not wholly controlled by Fiat. During the BK process, I read this management contract as it was downloadable via the BK website. Hiring Marchionne was a sound business decision as was allying with Fiat. Fiat is not Daimler and this is no merger of equals.
It is as American as any other manufacturer. I do not know what percentage of Ford or GM is owned by foreign investors but there certainly is some.
What I am interested in is what percentage of the profit (assuming there IS profit) stays in the US. This is the money that gets re-invested into the US. There are several assembly plants here that are owned by foreign ownership auto manufacturers. These plant DO provide income for their employees, which is good. I have no problem with foreign investors investing here and adding to our employment roles – up to a point. But remember where the profits go. And also remember what happens when the profit goes away; the plants shut down. When VW sales tanked for the Rabbit, it was the US plant that was shut down, not Wolfsburg. Witness Toyota also. This is normal, sound business practice to shut down plants on foreign soil rather than put employees in the Mother country out of work. Unfortunately, non-auto manufacturers in the US don’t seem to grasp this and are only too happy to send production jobs overseas….and north and south of our borders. Sometimes I think all the people involved in these decisions should be tried as traitors (which they are) but then we would have to do the same to most of congress. Gee, wouldn’t that be a shame. Hmmm, maybe it should be a goal.
Well, anyway, I am still comfortable to consider Chrysler an American company. Even if NASTYCAR makes them second rate behind Toyota.