The General Motors conundrum

According to the London Times, a fairly reputable paper, the CEOs of GM and DCX have indeed met over the possible $13 billion sale of Chrysler Group.

Why would GM be interested?

1. GM would be devastated if a Chinese company bought Chrysler. That would give a Chinese manufacturer access to state of the art automotive technology - despite what Mercedes loyalists claim, Chrysler is at the state of the art of computer design, flexible manufacturing, transmission engineering, and certain other key technologies. It would also give them recognizable brand names and a huge dealer base. Consider the impact on the American economy. Now consider how hard it would be for GM to compete with people who can rely on assembly plants with no pensions, no health care costs, and wages that no illegal immigrants would work for.

2. GM would remain the world’s largest automaker for a while longer, despite Toyota’s expansion, and despite cutting back on fleet sales.
3. GM would save a lot of money by being able to merge HR, finance, and other departments; and by getting bigger economies of scale in areas where GM’s sales are not especially large. Because there IS a lot of duplication between the companies, GM could eliminate quite a bit of Chrysler’s costs (or its own), without any visible changes to the buyers. It’s not unlike the plan to standard Chrysler and Mercedes on common engines, except that it makes more sense, because Mercedes will have to make a bunch of changes to pretend they aren’t sharing anything.
4. GM would, for less than the cost of engineering two new vehicles, get four new vehicles that they do not directly compete with: the Jeep Wrangler, Liberty, and Grand Cherokee, and the minivans. All are perennial good sellers, and would sell better if made by an American company that supported them in word and deed, rather than a German company that denigrated them as inferior to real German vehicles.
5. GM might just want to buy Chrysler out of a desire to see it back in American hands.
6. Bob Lutz might want to save Chrysler either to work on it himself - he was, after all, the best choice to lead Chrylser back in the 1990s, and the #2 man during the rennaissance.
7. GM could get a load of technologies that complement their own, such as a better MDS, six-speed automatics they wouldn’t have to share with Ford, automated-manual transmissions, flexible manufacturing techniques, and more.
8. It might give GM’s culture a quick kick in the pants that could save the corporation.
9. GM’s reach in international markets could really help increase sales of Dodge, Jeep, and even Chrysler vehicles.
10. Once the sneaky accounting tricks are eliminated, as well as the foolish “make ourselves look good” moves like the sales bank, Chrysler will probably be a profit powerhouse again.

Now, why might GM not want to do this?

1. It would be even harder to maintain the General’s many brands.
2. That’s $13 billion that could be spent elsewhere. That kind of capital isn’t free even for the world’s largest automaker.
3. Lutz just said minivans were passé.
4. Someone else might out-bid them.
5. It would bring leadership and management issues, cultural and process, financial and otherwise, that would be hard to deal with while still bringing the great ship around.
6. Nobody in their right mind would trust Daimler to treat them fairly in a deal like this.
   Of course, Bombardier did win quite a bit of cash after the AdTranz deal, so a company with a battery of smart lawyers might be able to take advantage of Daimler’s greed and alleged dishonesty.

As for duplication of product lines, there really isn’t as much as people have suggested. Jeep and Hummer occupy different turf; and there’s no GM equivalent for the Caliber/Compass/Patriot, or Chrysler equivalent of the Cobalt. The mid-size cars are an issue, but they can be eliminated - or kept for a few years if sales merit it. The rear-drive cars are also an issue, but again, they can be eliminated - or kept, since sales are high enough to justify having two rear-drive platforms, until they can be merged. Minivans are at Chrysler, not GM; CUVs are currently at GM, not Chrysler, except Pacifica. PT’s days are numbered, so that’s not an issue; that really leaves pickups, where the Ram sells enough to be kept on as a separate line (with slow sharing with Silverado over time), the Dakota has no direct GM counterpart, and the Durango is due to be axed anyway.

It would work, and frankly, I’d rather see Chrysler under GM than under Mercedes any day. At least they’d be run from the nation they serve, and there would be less room under American accounting laws for the kind of trickery Mercedes has been repeatedly accused of.

Likely buyers for Chrysler

Now that Chrysler has been all but demolished by the tender hands of Daimler-Benz, the management board is looking for a buyer. Those with memories may think of AdTranz, which was eventually dropped into Bombardier’s lap.

Here are our thoughts. Ready?

Renault. These guys would be great in terms of irony, since they used to own AMC before Chrysler bought it from them. They still really want to sell cars in the United States, and Chrysler would be an almost perfect fit. The two make mutually exclusive product lines for the most part, and they could use each others’ expertise. Most Americans would, I think, also rather buy small cars engineered in Europe and built in Canada than built in China. Renault was reportedly working on a deal with GM; Chrysler would be a natural second place.

Hyundai. This up and coming company has already found ways to shoot to the top of the quality heap, but they are terrible at engineering engines. Chrysler, on the other hand, needs some help making light, comfortable, luxurious-looking bodies, but is great at engines and suspensions. The two would be a terrific combination, practically unbeatable on the world market. Hyundai could finally give Chrysler access to world markets in a way the snobs at Mercedes never could - namely, without bribery - and Chrysler could give Hyundai the last pieces it needs to demolish half of the Japanese auto industry.

Peugeot. They bailed out Chrysler once, buying its European divisions - admittedly it was a great deal for Peugeot as well as Chrysler. As with Renault, they used to sell in America and don’t now, and have mutually exclusive product lines.

China. A Chinese company could do a Lenovo/IBM sort of deal, immediately pushing Chinese auto manufacturing into the 21st Century and eventually demolishing the American auto industry pretty much completely. However, capital to buy Chrysler might be an issue, and we don’t think they could run Chrysler all that well, either. Cultural differences would be huge and Americans might reject a Chinese Chrylser even more than they rejected a German Chrysler. As factories moved to China costs would go down and cars would get cheaper, but Americans wouldn’t be able to buy them after a while because the auto industry’s death would take much of the rest of the economy with it. This is not as likely as the others.

Fiat is big in small cars and as I recall, commercial trucks, and their last linkup with GM didn’t end up giving them entrance into the US, which they have mentioned a few times. At the moment Fiat has little credibility due to the quality of the Spyder and such.

Honda could be far worse than Mercedes, because the same arrogance is in place, but their line almost completely duplicates Chrysler - the only unique Hondas are Fit and Civic - and Chrysler would end up being Dodge Truck and Jeep.

GM is near-total duplication and wouldn’t make any sense — why would they want ANOTHER set of undesirable brands and ANOTHER huge inventory problem? They’re also still trying to figure out how to get themselves working right. They might want to reunite Jeep and Hummer; they might even want some components and the minivan line, though they’d look silly making minivans after Lutz said nobody wanted minivans any more. But there’s nothing they can’t contract with Chrysler or others for. The Chrysler and Dodge brands have negative equity now, in terms of needing extra incentives for buyers. On the other hand, GM could do wonders for the brands - partly just by not talking all the time about how they’re going to rescue, fix, or improve them. But GM’s been rationalizing its own offerings, and adding more lines doesn’t seem like a recipe for success. Unless they want to make good and sure they stay the #1 automaker in the world. Crazy as it seems, being #1 does count for something. (And if they added Dodge trucks, they could claim supremacy over Ford.)

Kirk Kerkorian. Yes, he started all the trouble by threatening to take over Chrysler and raid the cash stockpile, but to be fair he had reasons to think new (or old) management was needed. He still wants an automaker, and has lots of cash. He could probably make Chrysler work as an independent again, at least for a while, assuming he wants to be a Durant and not an Icahn.

Problems. Any merger would be fraught with problems as Mercedes relies heavily on Chrysler for its revenue. There’s the consulting fees, the royalties, Chrysler Financial, and the engineering work done in Auburn Hills (presumably at no cost) for Mercedes. Daimler would collapse without Chrysler, regardless of what the Germans and analysts like to say, because it survives by sucking cash out of its American industries, and Freightliner is drying up fast. Mercedes’ thirst for ill-gotten dollars could be quenched pretty quickly, though, with another “merger,” and a deal could include some provision for a cash flow to Stuttgart via royalties for a certain number of years, as well as the use of DAIMLERchrysler Financial for a certain number of years, to allow the Daimler parasite time to find another host.

Obviously there will be problems at Chrysler for a long time. The current issues started, as Bob noted, before the takeover, when Bob Eaton fattened up the company at the same time he stopped investing in it. The Neon was a perfect example of a car that should be selling 500,000 worldwide units a year, but ended up at under 150,000 due to foreseen and avoidable quality glitches. After that a succession of incompetent brown-nosers presided as those who could leave, did leave. Through the ranks, those who were not dedicated enthusiasts (and many who were) left and ended up with Toyota, Ford, GM, and other companies, helping to build the Tundra, GT, and other vehicles. Chrysler management will require a lot of work to whip back into shape. Dealers are going belly-up, and the entire dealer relations department might need to be replaced by people who have the right priorities, who will be hard to find (hint: hire away the staff of TARP). Demoralization will take time to heal, too. And the customers… well, many of us have been bittered and have left the fold. (We own three Chryslers, all with the wrong badges - a Plymouth PT Cruiser, Valiant by Chrysler, and Eagle 300M, to be faithful to the original intent. All three were purchased used, though.)

Splitting Chrysler off and selling it? Well, it could mean disaster, but we have disaster now, too. The only road ahead is for Chrysler to get smaller and smaller, and more and more integrated, until it’s a truck and small car subdivision of Mercedes, which was the original intent. Eventually, when all that’s left are two American truck assembly plants and a bunch of facilities in China and Germany, Juergen Schrempp’s plan will have been fulfilled.

Or Daimler can listen to its customers and investors, and jettison Chrysler, now that it’s broke and broken. Thank you, guys.

[Overview: http://dialoginternational.typepad.com/dialog_international/2007/02/daimlerchrysler.html]

Dr. Z’s plan for Chrysler

Not that Dr. Z. This one. Yes, I have a Ph.D. - in organizational psychology, the study of people in organizations. Like DaimlerChrysler. And my last name starts with a Z.

In my opinion, the biggest problem faced by DaimlerChrysler in a volatile climate where most people believe the Japanese make the best cars, fuel crises may or may not arrive, cut-throat competition is coming from Korea and soon from China, and technology and government demands relentless move forward… the biggest problem faced by DaimlerChrylser is internal.

Look at the past year and see how decision making has been influenced by the fatal compulsion to prove to the world that the acquisition of Chrysler was necessary and beneficial even to Chrysler, and to prop up Mercedes’ reputation as the world’s greatest automaker. This result in the waste of huge sums of money, from insane advertising campaigns touting German engineering to the siphoning of funds out of Chrysler, which desperately needs them - and which would use the money to invest in the future, which would in the long run deliver much higher profits - and into Mercedes.

It seems at times as though all decisions at DCX are made with two objectives: to make Mercedes look good, and to make the acquisition look good. Saving face is primary. Brown-nosing seems rampant, and people willing to tell the emperor about the state of his wardrobe are dismissed. The state of affairs should have been obvious the moment Bob Lutz, the only Chrysler executive really capable of dealing with the “merger,” was left out of the talks. The apparent absence of Schrempp has only made matters quieter, not better.

Once again, I make my humble proposal to end this state of affairs and return Daimler-Benz to a position where it can make decisions that are best for its long-term survival, as well as Chrysler’s. This means taking Chrysler Group public as Chrysler Corporation (or using a less confusing name, such as American Motors, so the Chrysler brand and the corporate entity would clearly be different). The new corporation would be incorporated in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and DaimlerChrysler, AG, would retain 49% of the stock.

In the short run, this would give Daimler an instant cash boost - American indexed funds would have to buy the stock, giving a huge capital influx to Daimler-Benz, as the seller of the stock. It would also raise the overall capitalization of Daimler-Benz. The German stock buyers who hate Chrysler Group would start valuing Daimler more highly as well, as an added bonus. Once the US company was indexed and its stock had gone up, DCX could sell off more Chrysler stock while still remaining majority shareholder and retaining effective control. This could be an excellent way to raise capital and pretend to be earning money.

Mercedes would still be able to siphon off billions of dollars from Chrysler in the form of mandatory consulting fees and royalties, while benefitting from Chrysler’s low-cost (compared to Mercedes) engineering excellence, economies of scale, and expertise in flexible manufacturing and larger vehicles.

The new corporation could validly claim to be an American company, which would help in the heartland and if we ran into a new patriotism somehow. The German-engineering campaign has failed, with sales dropping every time the ads run. Unfortunately, for this to work, the brown-nosers in the executive suites would have to get some pride in their own country and not be such incredible suckups. Calling the new corporation DaimlerChrysler, Inc. would sink the plan instantly.

There would be a morale boost among most of the Chrysler owners and employees. I know there are some people who really believe Mercedes has been great for Chrysler, even among those who realize the Hemi came from Auburn Hills, not Stuttgart. But as far as I can tell, the vast majority of people do want Chrysler to be independent; they just don’t want it to be tossed out on the street with no assets, and they would like to be able to tap into Mercedes’ parts bins when needed. This is likely with a spinoff that is still majority Mercedes owned. On the lighter side, bad decisions - like using Mercedes diesels when VM or Cummins engines are available - could be avoided, and Chrylser could do what is best for Chrysler. This would make more money from Mercedes even if it didn’t provide quite the same ego boost.

This would not change how the vehicles are engineered or built. We would not lose ESP, the five-speed rear-drive car automatic, VVT, or any of the other post-acquisition technologies. However, we would gain credibility, pride, and money. The Daimler would be gone from outside the factories; the Chrysler media web site would not require a trip to DaimlerChrysler’s Mercedes-obsessed site; and journalists would no longer continually point out that Dodge is German.

Let’s hope that’s what the Zetsche is considering now - and that they go whole hog and do it right. Unfortunately, I suspect what they are really planning is more of the same death spiral - cutting, cutting, cutting, and hoping that by cutting Chrysler’s roots, the group will somehow grow. Trying something that hasn’t ever worked before, and hoping for success, is insanity. I’m hoping Zetsche and the Stuttgart crowd are ready to try something new.

Postscript:

In reality, I expect the plan unveiled next month to be more like this:

1) Tighten control
2) Send over quality teams from Germany
3) Send over cost-cutting teams from Mercedes, known for its ruthless financial discipline and efficiency. Oops, it’s the opposite, isn’t it?
4) Early retirement for engineers and other valuable people who can be snapped up by competitors

5) Shut down Delaware
6) Eliminate some models and engines
7) Outsource something that isn’t already gone
8) Shut down and/or sell more parts plants, forging plants, etc.
9) New “German cars are better” ad campaign
10) Get the head of Willy the Mail-Boy

Why Chrysler is perpetually bankrupt

Just before its acquisition by Daimler, Chrylser Corporation was one of the most profitable auto companies in the world. Its investments and cost-cutting in the early 1990s - investments in people, technology, and equipment, and cost-cutting in waste reduction, letting extra layers of management “attrit” out, and eliminating unnecessary rework - led to low production and engineering costs, with dramatic increases in quality, marred by a few supplier gaffes. The company was earning rave reviews on just about every model, with the Intrepid, Ram, Neon, and (to a lesser degree) Cirrus all setting new standards in their niches. The Neon forced all competitors, including the Japanese, back to their drawing boards to get extra power, cornering, and space into their small cars; the Ram forced other truck vendors to revamp their interiors and boost their power and capacity. The Intrepid proved that you could have a big car that handled like a small car without losing comfort.

While Chrysler started to lose it in the mid-1990s, with Bob Eaton reportedly making foolish cost-cutting decisions that hurt the cars (Neon head gaskets, anyone?) and letting fat grow in middle management, it was still insanely popular, and technology continued to progress, with the company constantly innovating and forcing others to catch up.

Then came the acquisition, led by a frightened, crying Bob Eaton, and opposed by the only other American in senior management who had worked in Germany for any length of time - Bob Lutz, who spoke German, understood what was happening, and would have held out for far more favorable terms. Had Lutz prevailed, it might still be DaimlerChrylser, but Chrysler would be equal to or above Mercedes, not the other way around; the Crossfire, if they ever made it, would have had a Chrysler powertrain; and Chrysler would probably still be insanely profitable, despite the market hit in big trucks. Before the takeover, Chrysler made fuel-efficient cars, and it could react quickly, without the need to consult Germany for permission.

It took a year or two for the Mercedes crowd to worm their way in, accompanied by CEO musical chairs, but worm their way in they did. They took away Chrysler Credit from the Chrysler reporting line, changed all the signs, and started boasting of German engineering, in sales campaigns that invariably killed off sales. (But we’ve gone over that often enough.)

What Chrysler proponents often note is the sudden disappearance of Chrysler’s $8 billion emergency fund. This would have paid for ALL the losses sustained to date - most or all of which would not have happened if the takeover had not happened! Particularly because Chrysler Credit was a major profit driver. Talking about Chrysler revenue without looking at Chrysler Credit is ignorant at best, and cunning at worst.

But now we have more evidence of how things worked. We were told by insiders that Chrysler was forced to pay massive consulting fees to Mercedes engineers, even when they were assigned to help those same engineers on Mercedes cost reductions and quality improvements. We were told that Chrysler had to pay massive royalties on items they were forced to use, like the Mercedes automatic, which apparently is not quite as good as the ZF automatics which some say they were copied from, and which seems to have cost as much as the ZF. (ZF is not part of DCX.)

The Freightliner case has shown us that DCX has had no compunction about illegally shifting funds from one company to another as needed. Perhaps that is why Chrysler suddenly went from very profitable to very unprofitable, in a mere two years, with little other reason than being acquired by Daimler-Benz. We were told that Daimler-Benz was mis-led by Chrysler management and executives, and that the books had been cooked. Maybe. But given that DCX has been defending itself in courts across the world against charges of bribery, illegal movement of funds, and fraud, we somehow doubt that the poor innocents at Daimler-Benz were the victims. Indeed, we can point to their general modus operandi of buying companies, sucking them dry, and leaving them to try to salvage what they can - Fokker and Freightliner being two examples.

Of course then there are the benefits to the acquisition. Access to Mercedes’ parts bin - which means nothing. Chrysler could have bought active suspension technology from anyone, along with those ZF automatics. They don’t seem to have a choice on what parts they use, from those steering columns in the 300 to the apparent inability to pick a non-Mercedes diesel in their cars and light trucks; and when they do get parts, they are limited by Mercedes’ marketing demands (e.g. to five speeds in the LX automatics). The Mercedes parts are also almost certainly more costly than what Chrysler could design itself.

Then there’s access to Mercedes expertise. Well, that sure worked out well - it added three years to the development time for their vehicles, meaning that Chrysler is now behind instead of ahead.

Then there’s access to Mercedes’ quality. Mercedes quality ratings are almost invariably below those of Chrysler, and we think they’re experts? Why is that? Because Mercedes charges more?

The Germans apparently want DaimlerChrysler to drop Chrysler and sell it to the Chinese. We say that we also want Chrysler to be separated; but selling it to a Chinese company would be foolhardy, to say the least. Our solution is to make Chrysler independent but largely owned by Daimler. This would fix the problem of Chrysler’s profitability in short order, while allowing Mercedes to continue using Chrysler technology, engineering, manufacturing expertise, and volume discounts, all which they now depend on. However, they couldn’t continue to allocate massive amounts of money from Chrysler Group to their beloved Mercedes, so they can pretend to make a profit. That, in my opinion, is why Chrysler will never be set free, but will continue to spiral downwards, until there’s no more money to be sucked out. At that point, Chrysler will be set free, but probably not under the same favorable terms as Rover; and quite probably it will indeed be a Chinese company that takes it.

Set Chrysler free!

Rumors are flying about DaimlerChrysler, AG finally letting Chrysler Group go. While some speculate that they’d keep Dodge trucks and Jeep, I don’t think that’s what will happen.

The best thing for DaimlerChrysler would be to take Chrysler Group public as Chrysler Corporation or a less confusing name, such as American Motors (AMC), which was swallowed by Chrysler some time ago. (The advantage of not using Chrysler Corporation is ending the confusion over Chrysler brand vs Chrysler the corporate entity). The new corporation would be incorporated in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and DaimlerChrysler, AG, would retain 49.9% of the stock.

Here are some of the advantages of this arrangement for DaimlerChrysler.

First, the size of the company and its location in the US would force most American indexed mutual funds to buy the stock, instantly giving a huge boost to the stock price and raising the overall capitalization of DaimlerChrysler.

Second, the German stock buyers who, for some reason, hate Chrysler Group would start valuing DCX more highly, ending Chrysler Group’s claimed negative equity of $10 billion.

Third, once the US company was indexed and its stock had gone up, DCX could sell off more Chrysler stock while still remaining majority shareholder and retaining effective control. This could be an excellent way to raise capital and pretend to be earning money.

Fourth, Mercedes would still be able to siphon off billions of dollars from Chrysler in the form of mandatory consulting fees and royalties, while benefitting from Chrysler’s low-cost (compared to Mercedes) engineering excellence, economies of scale, and expertise in flexible manufacturing and larger vehicles.

Fifth, Chrysler Corporation or AMC or whatever it was called could claim to be an American company, which I think would help them quite a bit in the heartland, the South, and in the police markets (the cost of doing this is more than the police Charger is worth, on its own). The German-engineering campaign has failed dismally, with sales dropping every time the ads run. (This wouldn’t work if they kept Daimler in the name.) Unfortunately, for this to work, the brown-nosers extraordinaire in the executive suites would have to get some pride in their own country (where this is the US or Canada) and not be such incredible suckups that they think calling the new corporation DaimlerChrysler, Inc. is a great idea.

Sixth, there would be a huge morale boost among most of the owners and employees - at least, I think there would be. I know there are some people on the forums who really believe Mercedes has been great for Chrysler, even among those who realize the Hemi came from Auburn Hills, not Stuttgart. But as far as I can tell, the vast majority of people DO want Chrysler to be independent; they just don’t want it to be tossed out on the street with no assets, and they would like to be able to tap into Mercedes’ parts bins when needed. This is definitely possible and likely with a spinoff that is still majority Mercedes owned.

This would not entail changing anything about how the vehicles are engineered or built. We would not lose ESP, the five-speed rear-drive car automatic, VVT, or any of the other post-acquisition technologies. However, we would, I think, gain quite a bit of credibility, visible pride, and money. The Daimler would be gone from outside the factories at long last; the Chrysler media web site would not require a trip to DaimlerChrysler’s Mercedes-obsessed mediasite; and journalists would no longer continually point out that Dodge is German. The stage would also be set for more independence as time went on, or at least a more equal relationship.

Let’s hope that’s what the Daimler people are considering now - and that they go whole hog and do it right, instead of setting up another German-owned LLC or separating Chrysler and Dodge’s cars from Jeep and Dodge trucks, or creating a new subsidiary corporation in Germany, or a new corporation in America named DaimlerChrysler, or, worst of all, selling Chrysler to a Chinese company.

SEMA Challenger comes out; media site blank; we make do

A new red, white, and blue Challenger, clearly a prototype, rolled out for SEMA, wearing a paint scheme direct from Sox & Martin’s legendary Mopar racers. SEMA was also the grounds for a Challenger ragtop, a Nitro panel van, a new Hennessy Viper, and other new Chrysler Group vehicles.

So we went to Chrysler’s media site, media.chrysler.com, to see if there were any photos we could use, and got a depressing insight into what’s wrong with Chrysler and why journalists prefer to find their bright news just about anywhere else.

Type in media.chrysler.com, and you are directed to the media.daimlerchrysler.com site. Here are the top stories there:
* Long Distance Drive Paris - Beijing 2006 (This is a fleet of Mercedes E Class diesels)
* Swedish bus operator Bergkvarabuss receives the 15,000th Mercedes-Benz Citaro
* Mobile navigation systems for retrofitting: the StreetPilot II generation for Mercedes
* DaimlerChrysler sells former Group headquarters in Stuttgart-Möhringen to IXIS Capital Partners Ltd.
* smart fortwo in new dream role

Oh, but wait! There are photos on the right! Let’s see…

* E-Class Experience
* Paris-Beijing Web Special
* Mercedes-Benz S600 Guard
* BlueTec
* Mercedes-Benz at the 2006 Paris Motor Show
* Chrysler Group 2006 Auto Shows
* Maybach 57 S

Maybe under events?

* July 27 - Interim Report Q2 2006 and Live Web Cast of the Global Conference Call
* Annual Report 2005

Maybe under press kits? Nope, the top five are E-Class Experience again, S600, Mercedes Paris, Maybach 57S again, and smart at Paris. Followed by DCX at IAA Commercial Vehicle show, ten years of the SLK, the new CL, the new S-Class, … you get the idea.

The order of the breakouts in the middle column, under the news, is company, Mercedes passenger cars, smart, Chrysler Group, Mercedes commercial, financial services, technology, and motorsport.

Want Chrysler news? Well, go straight to the Chrysler media site. Except that to get there you have to drop in on the Mercedes news pages, search for the Chrysler Group media site - which is in regular size type underneath an oversize American flag and a large-type “Visit your MB USA Media Site” banner.

Click on that small type, if you can find it, and the Chrysler site will show up, with the DaimlerChrysler logo again, in a smaller window on top of the Merc- I mean DaimlerChrysler main media site.

That’s the way it works even if you tried to follow a story from the link in their press release.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t see why the people who do this still have jobs. Can you imagine going to General Motors and having to wade through a bunch of Caddy news in order to find out about the new Chevrolet? Or, if you visited Google to read their latest press releases, having to open a slow-loading Froogle press site with a note about Google’s web search having their own media site somewhere in the corner?

Chrysler’s $8 billion cash hoard funded Mercedes’ buying spree. Chrysler Financial profits goes right into corporate coffers. Chrysler itself reportedly helps to fund Mercedes via hefty royalties, “consulting fees,” and other siphon methods. Chrysler sells many more vehicles than Mercedes, yet gets less respect on the media site than smart.

Something is wrong here.

Oh, and in case you were wondering… there was no mention of SEMA on the Chrysler media site, either.

Update: see http://www.allpar.com/cars/concepts/sema-2006.html