On The Brink: Is It Too Late To Save Chrysler?

It's a shame that a company that was once the technological leader of the U.S. auto industry has come to this.

It certainly is a shame. Thanks Daimler! Thanks Robert Eaton and Jurgen Schremp cocktail! What a couple of greedy aholes!

Chrysler has too many ghost from the 70's and 80's to ever fully recover in my opinion. Mercedes had great ideas and products with their bid with Chrysler and that just didn't work.

When I was young my mother owned a Dodge Colt that she bought new and was garbage within 4 years and at the age of 7 I just knew I'd never buy a Dodge in my life. It's impressions like that that make it hard to ever recoup.

Also I think they focused and invested too much into the minivan market and never fully adjusted as the market changed. What was the best sedan they had before the Charger/300. The Durango never broke through as a dominant player in the SUV surge, the caliber can't hold a candle to the Neon sales wise, and as soon as the minivan crowd ventures to crossovers... It's over.

Not at all. They just need to invent an electric flying car that costs $30,000

that was funny.

It's pretty apparent that the New New Chrysler is on the brink. Again.

I've always been a big fan, but the reasons for its continued existence are not clear to me anymore. It's really sad, but maybe its demise would be the best thing for the domestic auto industry. In the long run, it might help GM and Ford become healthier.

Chop it up and sell it off.

Yes. Sell the distribution network to a Chinese automaker, sell the factories, tools, and misc. assets for cash, and tell the unions they won and finally broke the corporations back.

Here's a question - is it better to get $28/hour and be unemployed, or get $16/hour and have a job? Not that union workers are totally to blame here (they're not), but if this doesn't make it clear to the UAW, I don't know what will.

20 new vehicles (and 13 refereshes) from 07 to 09? Are there invisible Chryslers we dont know about?

Don't worry, GM and Ford will die out along with Chrysler anyway. So no worries!

What a dumbass comment to make! If the US auto industry goes down, so does all the jobs connected with it. We all suffer in the end whether one flips burgers, works at a bank, is an accountant, real estate agent, minister, lawyer, whatever. Every US citizen should be very concerned!

It really is not the job of the government to protect the auto industry from themselves.

Now if the market was being manipulated by another country then yes, but in this case the writing has been on the wall for over a decade. They simply have chosen not to react.

First of all, the U.S. government doesn't even care about the American society but themselves, so why do you care about the other people?

GM, Ford and Chrysler, we all know that they can't make cars, so let them just die out.

Oddly (and I wish I could find the article), this was the predicted concerns when Cerberus decide to allow Bob Nardelli to their head guy.

You reap what you sown.

Here's some of the articles I spoke of:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/13/business/13bob.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/N/Nardelli,%20Robert%20L

http://www.workforce.com/wpmu/bizmgmt/2008/03/14/vacation_or_else/

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2008/06/11/does-bob-nardelli-have-the-worst-job-in-america

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2007/01/lessons_from_ho.html

It's funny, I can't remember the last time I shopped at a Home Depot (probably 2006), but it wasn't until early last summer that I had any ideal why.

"We believe that this is an active decision by new owners to rationalize the product portfolio in advance of a breakup/sale."

So does it seem rational that combining the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep dealerships into one is an idication that they are going to sell Jeep off to someone else? Doesn't make sense to me.

I think I heard someone purchased a Crossfire once.

I purchased a 2005 Chrysler 300C back in April 2004.

(I know, I know. Start the harsh comments now)

I really dont care what others think. As far as the industry is concerned, this car was promising when it made its debut.

I think I also might add that I cant recall EVER owning a car that has got as many compliments/questions/stares/etc when I first purchased it.

...IDK but recently, somewhere Chrysler went wrong...

Not just is it late to safe Chrysler but late for Ford and GM. Extremely sad to see such great American companies go down the drain with their garbage products. Now we need to ask ourselves why we produce garbage products. The story is long, but simply put, if the leaders of those companies truly cared about America and the companies they would've been on top today, but sadly all of our leaders care about making money as fast as possible and not thinking of the future. So guess what, we're witnessing the future and look where their greediness has brought us to.

I think if Obama get's in he will try and help the American 3. Frankly I think they need government help.The costs of product development are not as cheap as foreign auto makers on Ameircan soil. This needs to change.

Obama? Are you serious? Do you even know who he really is and what he wants to do with this damn country?

Chrysler has made consistently crap product for 25 years. They were bailed out by the government once,
only to offer such stellar vehicles as the K-Car, Nitro and PT Cruiser. They make bad, unreliable vehicles, and they haven't become competitive in the global market. I'm amazed they're still afloat.

The government didn't bail them out. You are either too young to remember or just uninformed. The government did guarantee the loans should they default. Instead they paid the the banks back seven years early. Chrysler was at the top of their game as the most efficient and innovative US auto company in the late 90's which is why they were an attractive takeover target for Daimler. Daimler then mismanaged the company, lost top Chrysler management talent, engineers and designers to other companies, and cost cut their development and materials budget to nothing while siphoning all the profits to improve the Mercedes brand, which actually was having major quality problems at the time. Check your facts before making ignorant comments!

They proved they can do it. Look at the 300. Why don't they just focus on a fine replacement to a great car?

Yes.

The government did indeed bail out Chrysler.
The government backed loans were the bailout, as no bank would touch Chrysler.
Chrysler then screwed over its vendors and suppliers for 400 million in debts.
It was hardly a success story.
Here are some facts.
http://www.heritage.org/research/EnergyandEnvironment/bg276.cfm