Define “soon.” Unfortunately, no one in federal bankruptcy court nailed that one down as Alfredo Altavilla, Fiat’s head of business development and future Chrysler board member, somehow managed to avoid the kiss of death. This despite Altavilla’s admission that the zombie automaker might not start making automobiles for an indeterminate amount of time. You know, given that the Chrysler dealers who didn’t take a bullet to the head have some 300,000 units sitting on their lots. Of course, it might help to know which units, their age and configuration. But the ChryCo bailout isn’t about selling cars, apparently. According to the Detroit News, all eyes were on soon-to-be-ex-CEO Robert “Run ‘Em Into the Ground” Nardelli. The failed former Home Depot despot “surprised a packed courtroom” when he testified that the whole “new Chrysler” thing’s a done deal, by close of play today [Friday]. The only real surprise: that someone would be surprised that Nardelli is happy to admit that the fix is in. ‘Cause the fix is in. Hang on . . . define “fix.”
This only the beginning of the next part of the fiasco. Now that auto industry jobs are a political football, Marchionne will be back time and time again needing more government money like an egg sucking dawg.
PT Barnum was never this creative. Seriously, the thought that the US government, the UAW and Fiat could get their shit together enough to turn around Chrysler reeks of desperation.
Shame really, because by all accounts Brantford (home of the 300, the Charger, and the Challenger) is a good plant. But I don’t see them opening up again anytime soon.
I am sure this is entirely hypothetical, but I wonder if a CarCo owned just that plant and the associated parts plants and produced only the
– Chrysler (in top trim…no rental cheapies)
– Charger (cheapie and a fast SuperBee), and
– Challenger (coupe and maybe a ‘vertible)
could make a go of it.
So with this much unsold inventory clogging up the lots, is anybody seeing anything in the way of exceptional deals on, say, a base Wrangler??
So 300k units at the dealers not counting the dealers that were forcefully terminated?? Oh my..
threer.. not sure on the deals but our local Chry/Jeep dealer has his Wranglers parked the length of his (small) dealership across the front row.
Chrysler is screwed until they’ve got some real mainstream products to sell. They’ve got nothing worthwhile once you get past the Ram. Even the LX cars have lost their luster, and they’re not volume players anyway. This whole Fiat thing is great, but how long before the fruits of this marriage appear in showrooms? There’s not enough to sustain the company until that happens. At least with GM they’ve got some reasonable products to sell. Chrysler really has next to nothing.
The big question is “How much money, per month, will Chrysler need to remain an entity until the first Fiat rolls off the Chrysler production line.”
Of course, that’s wearing the rose colored glasses and assuming that the Fiat designed products will speed through the NHSTSA/DOT/EPA hoops, and that Americans will want to buy them more than Hondas, Toyotas, Hyundais, Kias, and the Suzuki built Fiat that’s already for sale here.
I’ve got an idea…how ’bout a contest called “Guess when the first Fiat rolls off the Chrysler Assembly Line” contest?
Even though I believe the answer is “never,” there are a LOT of people who are certain I’m wrong.
Drive them off a cliff, like lemmings. Nice visual on the entire Carmageddon!
I like his big red hat. Kind of looks like a sombrero.
If the guy in the picture would step aside we could see the Fiat Dino behind him a lot better!
Floating these dead corporations is beyond stupid. American taxpayers are retarded.
Zammy-the big red hat is a Fiat Dino Spider.
Ferrari V-6 inside.
It would be a cool ride.
Bunter
No. The American taxpayer is screwed. All we do is pay for it.Between President Hope and Change and President “We’ll rebuild your golden mosque” Bush, the frigging tax payer isn’t even considered as a factor so long as there’s plenty of ink in the presses at the Treasury.
Just shut up and pay and we may just allow you a rebate check if we feel the need to placate you.
Too bad the taxpayer doesn’t have a lobby group to demand a bail out.Or a stop to this crap.
I’m still wondering what’s happening with the other hundred thousand or so vehicles sitting on the lots of the terminated dealers? With this much in stock at the remaining dealers I can’t see them eager to snap up the dregs.
I realize that Chrysler financial refused to take back the inventory but what happens when the closed dealers just declare bankruptcy and default on their floor-plan loans? The bankers aren’t going to refuse to liquidate the cars then, will they?
So either way, the remaining dealers are going to be competing against a whole lot of cars hitting the market at liquidation price but without incentive money on the hood. This is just ugly no matter how one looks at it.
I’m waiting for the “we’ll pay you $5 to take this new PT cruiser off our hands” sale.
So 300k sitting at dealers that need to be sold, good luck with that. How many are sitting at old airports, parking lots, etc. waiting to be shipped to the remaining dealers. They had a ton of cars cloggin up the supply chain before they stopped making them and have been selling at a trickle all year long. I would like to know how many cars they have total sitting around, 500k, 600k a million?
It will be interesting when the liquidated cars start hitting hte street competing with the incentive cars at dealers. What rock bottom price to Chryslers have to reach to sell in droves?
300,000 is actually not a lot of cars. Historically, the D3 (or D2.5) have had a 60 to 90 day supply.
Of course, in this business environment where you can barely give away a Chrysler, 300,000 units that probably have severe lot rot, is a bunch of cars that will require huge incentives to dispose of.
Chrysler should have been liquidated instead of saved.