The financial press [and TTAC] has had its say about ex-Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli's ascension to Chrysler's throne. The general consensus: there's gonna be some major ass kicking in Auburn Hills. But what do Chrysler dealers think of the executive who never met a problem that he couldn't sic Six Sigma upon? Dealer Magazine surveyed Chrysler stores around the country, asking owners for their thoughts on Boot'em Bob. Obviously, the results were carefully edited and selected to represent a wide range of opinions (lest anyone think Chrysler dealers have an adversarial relationship with the company that turned channel stuffing into an art form, dreams of culling them like an African game keeper facing a plague of elephants and restricted access to the corporation's used car inventory). We get the expected "we are hopeful" and "it's too early to tell." And then… "There are too many name plates in the Chrysler Jeep Dodge lines, many of which are in direct competition with each other. How would Chrysler Corp look if Chrysler were the car line, Dodge the truck line, and Jeep the SUV line?" "Nardelli may be capable in GE or Home Depot areas but the auto biz is a whole different game." "The first thing to do is make products that people truly want to own." I guess they told him.
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Building vehicles that don’t blow head gaskets (Neon) but instead with quality as good as best practices (Toyota) would go a long way, but it isn’t going to happen by way of yet more cost cutting, nor are the Chinese badge-engineered cars going to be worth a d***.
Glen– You’re aware the headgasket issue was resolved in the 1998 model car, aren’t you? The neon I’ve had for a decade is just fine at 160,000 miles.
Drop the attitude– you couldn’t get more go or room for 13 grand in 1998, and you still can’t.
The problem isn’t overlapping product, and neither is it bland interiors– it’s the dealer-network itself. Here’s a fun story or two:
My parents leased(Gold-Key) a Grand Cherokee in 1997 with the intent of purchasing it– put a 3x downpayment, had them add $100.00 to each payment out-the-door, and paid double and triple-payments throughout the 36-month-term.
The dealer dicked them around until they could legally repossess the vehicle, and then attempted to sell them back the car **for what they paid new** as a used automobile.
This was at the height of the SUV craze(fall of 2000) so they knew they’d pocket all the extra that my parents meant to lower their balloon-payment with. With dealers like that, even competitive product doesn’t sell… It stays in the dealer-network.
The lesson learned? Pay cash every 10-years; don’t finance every 5.
I will not drive a Chinese car. It doesn’t matter who badges it and brings it over.
RyanK02: people said that about Japanese cars once. Also, the world is becoming a bit too small these days to engage in stereotyping of entire nations.
people said that about Japanese cars once. Also, the world is becoming a bit too small these days to engage in stereotyping of entire nations.
Sure, and as soon as Chinese cars meet the safety standards that Japanese cars do, then I’m sure people will buy them. It has nothing to do with stereotyping, it has everything to do with the atrocious crash ratings and the number of chinese-made products that have been recalled in the US lately.
iNeon:
The lesson learned? Pay cash every 10-years; don’t finance every 5.
Or, rather, just buy the car instead of leasing-then-buying.
When certain vehicles have a common problem with head gaskets; this results in all of those vehicles winding up in the junkyard. There are a lot of older models that we just don’t see on the streets anymore on a daily basis. Previous model Grand Ams come to mind. Not those current giant land yachts that are prowling the streets for who knows how much longer. I bet those tanks weigh 3800lbs.
I see very few Neons on the streets these days. And when I do, it’s seriously dogged out, ratted, raggedy, and on it’s last leg. One major breakdown and that car is off the streets for good.
This sounds an awful lot like what happened to Oldsmobile. In the late 90s at a meeting for dealers, the GM representative was shouted down by the dealers who were shouting, “Product, product, product!” And we all know how that went.