The US Govenment, (I mean White House), is forcing Chrysler to do a deal with Fiat or face losing billions in US loans. Why does Obama want it to be a Fiat deal? Fiat cars suck. Their quality was so bad that they had to leave the US market once before. They are the bottom of Italian cars and that is pretty bad. They have deep roots in the Socialist Govt of Italy. Looking at Obama's plan for the US govt, maybe that explains it. Unlike the Benz relationship "merger" of a few years back, it is unlikely that there will be much of a gain in platform quality with Fiat. It could be the opposite. We may have a bunch of junky Fiats with Dodge and Chrysler written all over them. With Benz, Chrysler got some great rear drive platforms that lead to some great cars. I was hoping for a Nissan deal since Dodge was going to build the next Titan, but that does not appear likely at all. Thanks Wall Street greed for the $4.00/ gallon gas and credit crisis that tanked the US auto industry.

 

Don't be fooled into thinking this is all because of Wall Street greed. There's plenty of blame to go around, but big government gets the majority of the blame from me. The truth is that none of the sub prime loans would have went out to the number of people that they did if Fannie and Freddie weren't buying them up and guaranteeing them. Thank Congress for that. Now 'change' has come and government is getting even bigger. NOT the solution to our problems, in fact it is the problem. A government big and powerful enough to give you everything you want, is also powerful enough to take it all away.

Chrysler is just a preview of what is to come. Government is spreading its tentacles into our financial systems and healthcare systems. Did you know that the government run cafeteria at the US Senate had lost 18 million dollars since 1993 and lost 2 million alone in its final year? And it was fixed by... drumroll please... going with private vendors. These people can't run a cafeteria yet so many Americans want them to run the auto industry, the banks and even their healthcare. If all this goes through, these will be known as the good 'ol days...

Ok, rant over...

 

FIAT makes excellent small cars. Don't compare 1970's crap with what they have now. They are one of the biggest sellers in Europe now, not from building a bad product. Unlike Toyota, they have earned their reputation for quality. I really wanted to see a Renault alliance (pun intended), but this is even better. I can't wait to get my mits on a 500 convertible.

 

Fiat also ownes Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Maserati. The Fiat investment group could be a very good thing for Dodge. Certainly it shouldn't be the governments job to dictate the business plan for a private corporation though.

 

The "credit crisis", the recession, the failing mortgages, etc, etc, etc are NOT what has caused these problems in the auto industry.
You might remember, back in August-ish 2007, Daimler(Benz)Chrysler sold Chrysler. The reason they sold Chrysler was because Chrysler was losing money.
The recession officially started in December 2007.

GM had been losing money for years. I remember hearing about them losing billions in like 2004.
The Recession 2008/2009 has merely sped-up what was going to happen anyways.

The only blame should be on GM and Chrysler for not putting out vehicles that customers want. After all, producing vehicles is their only job.
The blame doesn't belong to customers for not buying GM and Chrysler vehicles. The blame doesn't go to the recession, for these issues pre-date the recession by years.

President Obama didn't force Wagoner out. He suggested it. And Wagoner did the right thing, allowing someone else in the position, and hopefully it will help.
President Obama didn't say, "Chrysler must combine with Fiat." Yes, they're giving Chrysler fewer days to sort things out, but this should help them with the plan Chrysler already HAS IN PLACE, if they know a deadline is set.

 

Hmmmm fiat, ferrari, maseratti, now dodge...... V12 viper?

 

I hope not, the V10 is part of the Viper heritage. What I wouldn't mind seeing is some Ferrari engineers getting involved in improving the Viper's engine.

 

Isn't the Viper line up for sale as part of Chryco's restructuring plan? The last I read on the CAB was that they had 3 potential buyers. The problem with the v10 Viper is fuel mileage. I know they wanted low tech, but a better fuel management system and a high geared transmission would go a long way toward fixing that. But it would still be classified a gas-guzzler and hurt Chryco's CAFE, which is one of Lord and Saviours er Obama's bail out stipulations-higher fuel efficiency and CAFE increases.

 

+1 on that!!