It's official: Chrysler's in talks with everybody and nobody. As if finally realizing that the North American market is lost to it, Chrysler has been going after the much-touted growth markets of India and Russia. Not that there's much to talk about yet. "When we look at alliances in different regions, we have had discussions with multiple companies in Russia," says Chrysler's Tom LaSorda. "In India we have had discussions with many companies." Mr Lasorda also confirmed that the sky is indeed blue. When the talk turns to Fiat, LaSorda gets all bashful, like an eligible bachelor accused of lowering his standards. "Have they approached us? Yes," LaSorda tells Reuters . "At this stage there is no formal discussion going on, but there was an inquiry." And he's quick to point out that Fiat will get with anyone, asserting that "we are not the only ones." In India, Chrysler wants to sell Wranglers through Tata Motors, and it's expecting to announce a new Russian hookup by the end of the year. Between Nissan, Fiat and Tata, the Chrysler plan is beginning to look like rebadging foreign cars while building trucks for others to sell around the world. Then leasing cheap American manufacturing as the dollar continues to slide. Or being sold for scrap when they run out of time to sort it all out. We shall see.
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Bring back the Airflow.
Bring back good looking cars.
I say, bring Chapter 11…
One has to believe that their US distribution network and the Wrangler & Caravan product line have “residual values”. No?
Maybe Chrysler should join up with Fiat.
Then, when the relationship goes sour, Fiat could pay 2 Billion to get rid of Chrysler.
As a die hard fan of vintage Mopars (despite their numerous shortcomings even during those years) please shoot Chrysler now, and abandon the name Dodge and Chrysler altogether.
Does anyone think that they can last beyond 2009?
Chrysler has denied rumors that Nissan is making their next midsize, saying that that isn’t even on the table and that “We’re doing that on our own,” I believe the quote was.
Robbie,
Great comment! I am not trying to one up you but I would prefer Chrysler to declare Chapter 7.
chrysler is burnt toast – except for the jeep brand
Flarn, Trishield, and Robbie:
I say bring back Cab-forward.
Bring back K cars.
If it winds up being 1/2 as reliable as a Mahindra
tractor, they may have a chance…
SteveL
Watch the auto industry long enough and practically every discredited fad will return triumphantly. Take Chrysler’s K-car strategy. By the late 1980s it built virtually its entire passenger car line around the K-car’s platform, from the subcompact Sundance/Shadow to the revived Imperial.
Say what you will about the execution of this strategy, but you can’t argue that Chrysler hadn’t at last found a way to maximize its economies of scale.
Perhaps Chrysler needs to take another look at the plausibility of a “modular” platform for its passenger cars. Bonus points for figuring out how to do the same with its truck line.
Just put a fork in it.
As more people get on the Internet and actually try to learn something about vehicles before they buy them, they’re learning how Chrysler is absolutely bottom-barrel in reliability, refinement, loyalty/repeat sales, and everything else.
Why even bother making more of this bottom-feeding stuff? Cut and run!
What is a big part of the problem today with automotive types like Chrysler, is too many people are bitchers & complainers! Yeah go buy a Toyota (I guess buying into that PR machine). Chrysler had less recalls than Toyota did in 2006 or 2007, but that did not make the Headlines.
You know how much money the Domestic 3 still dump back into the U.S. economy (or even North America)?
It was the Germans that started Chrysler’s slide, by initially cutting big time, the interior budget(or so I’ve read). The wallstreet types approved the sale of then Chrysler Corp. to Daimler Benz, just to make a quick buck off of the stocks.
grinchy has a point. I am not a socialist, but the Daimler Chrysler deal is a prime example of capitalisms failings. That whole deal was a bust for Chrysler, as well as its employees, suppliers and customers. The people at Daimler who orchestrated this disaster escaped largely unscathed (retiring with a fortune qualifies as unscathed in my book), the investment banking parasites made a fortune, and some big shareholders that sold in time made good money too. But now a corporation is dead on its feet and thousands of people are going to get shafted and there is nothing they can do.
NickR :
I am not a socialist, but the Daimler Chrysler deal is a prime example of capitalisms failings. That whole deal was a bust for Chrysler, as well as its employees, suppliers and customers. The people at Daimler who orchestrated this disaster escaped largely unscathed (retiring with a fortune qualifies as unscathed in my book), the investment banking parasites made a fortune, and some big shareholders that sold in time made good money too. But now a corporation is dead on its feet and thousands of people are going to get shafted and there is nothing they can do.
Absolutely. “The American Way” as we currently know it. See “Enron.” The rich walk away with massive wealth, while the working class lose absolutely everything.
But good golly, you sure couldn’t possibly consider REGULATING BUSINESS!! Lord, no!! We just need to make sure that homosexuals can’t marry each other, and then everything in this country will be perfectly fine.
That’s essentially the platform we’ll see in Minneapolis-Saint Paul next week, right?
Arrrgh, OK, apologies for getting political. Secretly, I enjoy getting reamed by Corporate America. Or, should I call it the one-tenth of one-percenters who actually run everything.
Oh, and don’t anyone worry for another minute about the US car companies. It just doesn’t matter if we turn up our noses at the best they can come up with — your government will give them your money, anyway. You just won’t get a new car in the bargain.
What a country!
The government has managed the markets and the unions have put such pressure on the revenue there is no escaping the failure for Chrysler. I only hope Ford and GM do not end up in the same graveyard.
I wonder who will build US army vehicles CHINA?