[sm=huh.gif][sm=lame.gif]All I read was Blah, blah, blah; Pension. Blah, Blah, Blah Honda, and Toyota, etc.. That gibberish is exactly what we are tired of hearing and seeing..Alot of words with no real answer to the question..It had nothing to do with the question!

 

Its a good thing, and it gives Chrysler more leverage to make their own decisions instead of Zee Germans.

It is said that many projects that Daimler canceled will be reevaluated and looked at closely for future releases.


People need to calm down, anyone with common sense knows when someone purchases a company they dont want them to go out of business, the whole point is to get more successful.

 

It will be interesting to see how this Private equity firm works out. I like that Chrysler is now 80% American owned, but I also know equity firms generally break up a losing concern to sell the individual components at a greater return than the whole. Tom L. said the day after the deal that Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep would NOT be separated....That was the 1st good sign for me. Next will be to see the Challenger make it to production and the hemi to survive.

I'm also curious see whether Dodge stays in NASCAR. Not that I really care, but it may be sign of their intentions as that is a very expensive and visible arena to play in. Dr. Z was starting to waiver on it too.

 

Yeah I definitely doubt that this is the end of Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep as we know it, that seems like a load of hooey to me. I'm on the fence as to whether they'll see it through or hack it up and sell it off. I suppose it directly depends on how well things go after they restructure what they want to.

 

Here's a thought.... Is this a master plan by DZ? Think about it, was he THAT pushed to sell Chrysler that he gave it away to Cerberus Capital Management? All they got out of it was that they would not have the pension, etc debt and about $650 million.

Something stinks in Denmark to me.

With Wolfgang Berhard @ Cerberus, my thoughts is that either DZ wants to keep Chrysler close enough to do some "long arm" deals (i.e. Dodge Sprinter, some platform sharing, etc) but as a "payment" transaction, so Daimler Benz makes some $$ on the deal, even if it is only book $$$. This always opens the door to a "closer" working arraingement in the future (i.e. 40% or so, but not a 100% merger)

Or, they are expecting Cerberus to trash Chrysler sell off parts and with their 20% ownership, they take the Jeep division in exchange and let the rest of the company fade into history.

 

While I can't comment on NASCAR or the Challenger, I can't imagine the Hemi would go anywhere. From a marketing standpoint, the Hemi's been a goldmine....now when you think of Dodge, you think Hemi. They won't take that away while that's still the public's perception, and it's still selling vehicles, especially Rams.

 

Inside Cerberus
they think the only part of Chrysler that is truly valuable
is the Jeep division.

They will try to come up with a way to sell Jeep
free of any retiree pension or health care obligations.

USA Jeep factories will stay open long enough for enough capacity
to be built overseas in low wage countries,
then they will be phased out.

Jeep division could be sold for about $10 Billion
if structured this way.

 

Sadly I think we could see the end of some of our performance products now. Not that they have really been selling that well anyway, but from an enthusiast's point of view it's kind of a bummer. Chrysler has acutally started putting some of their reps in SRT vehicles just to move them. On the more positive side, those who already own SRT vehicles will have a very desireable piece if production stops. There is also talk of dropping a large number of the available options packages on the rest of the vehicle lines to help cut the fat. This is going to be interesting.