FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Volkswagen is the latest carmaker to say it is not interested in acquiring money-losing Chrysler from DaimlerChrysler. But at least four private-equity groups have had preliminary talks about buying Chrysler, according to a report in the Financial Times newspaper.[/align]Christine Ritz, a spokeswoman for Volkswagen, said Friday that Europe's biggest automaker was not interested in acquiring the U.S. unit of the world's fifth-largest automaker, if it is put up for sale.
VW joins the Renault-Nissan auto alliance and Hyundai Motor, which said earlier they were not interested in acquiring Chrysler.
DaimlerChrysler, which said last week that all options were on the table for its U.S. division, is planning to offer detailed financial information about Chrysler only to selective buyers, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The automaker and its investment bank, JPMorgan Chase, are working together to explore a sale, the paper reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
Meanwhile, at least four private-equity groups have had preliminary talks about buying Chrysler, according to a report Friday in the Financial Times newspaper.
Apollo Management, the Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group and Cerberus Capital Management, along with several European private-equity groups, were contacted about a potential buyout before DaimlerChrysler announcement, the newspaper said, also citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
DaimlerChrysler had no comment Friday. The company has kept quiet since announcing last week that it had not ruled out any options for Chrysler — which, until a year ago, had kept the automaker profitable amid quality issues at the Mercedes Car Group.
But a failure to discern American consumers' changing tastes for more fuel-efficient models instead of light trucks led the German-American automaker to announce plans to eliminate 13,000 jobs in the U.S. and Canada, or about 16% of its workforce, and shutter a plant in Delaware in a bid to shave costs.
DaimlerChrysler's fourth-quarter earnings plunged 40% on weaker demand at the Chrysler unit, where sales fell 7%. Chrysler had an operating loss of 1.12 billion euros ($1.47 billion) for the year, compared to a profit of 1.53 billion euros in 2005.
Chrysler Group Chief Executive Tom LaSorda told the company's U.S. and Canadian dealers Thursday that Chrysler will make it through the current tough times.
He said the company will continue to invest $5.7 billion to $6 billion per year on future products, rolling out 20 new vehicles during the next three years and 12 updated ones between by 2009.
"Do these sound like the actions of a company uncertain about its future?" he asked. "Obviously not."
[/align]From the 'net[/align]

 

Sounds more like a company that has lost all the concepts of what it's buyers really want...

 

And what is that perse`? That they arent JAPANESE? Though sometimes I don't like some of the decisions they've made; I have grown to adjust to them. I've had really no complaints about any Chrysler product I've ever owned; event the pre-DCX have suited me well. People anymore expect to much. Because of the neat doo-dadds the Japanese put in their cars; consumers expect the same out the domestic brands. Well I will tell ya; I am happy with the common car, and truck. I don't need anything fancy, like Lexus' self-parking program, or GPS. None of that is necessary in a car!

 

Where's Lee Iacocca when you need him?
He could get us out of this mess.

 

He's retired and too old to really do anything. I believe he's in his mid to late 80's. But he was the best thing that ever happened to Chrysler...Let me put it another way...HE WAS A GOD SEND TO CHRYSLER! Not saying that Daimler is doing a bad job with Chrysler, but they care more about Mercedes; then they do about the company as a whole.

 

Tom LaSorda needs to be removed.

 

I agree that Iacocca was the greatest thing that happened to Chrysler; however, I don't know if he would be the right person for the job in the modern market. He stressed the idea of making cars inexpensive and practical, and even though this is something that Chrysler currently needs more of, he might take it too far. In the current market to compete with the Japanese, you need to make your offerings more premium in quality image and offer performance models on all cars. If he was incharge, I'm afraid we could kiss SRT-8 level cars and possibly R/T level on the LX goodbye. The problem the Chryslerdivision is having is they are becoming Plymouth. They are no longer a luxury competitor, now they brag about how they can undersell Toyota and Honda. This has to stop and I'm afraid he wouldn't change that factor since he was somewhat responsible for stripping some of Chrysler's exclusive luxury image.

I agree that Daimler puts Mercedes first too often instead of the whole company. That needs to stop. If Mercedes wants to be the best, they need to put in the effort to be the best. There are things they have done that I like (reintroducing the HEMI) and things I hate (making all thecar lineuse other manufacture's platforms, eliminatingthe luxuryfrom Chrysler). I still think thatthey would have been better off without the merger.

I'll agree with that.

 

I think we need to have a private invester buy Chrysler, bring back Bob Lutz and start producing the cars and trucks people want. I definately like the new cars like 300, Charger and Sebring to what we had in the past. But we can learn from our mistakes and just keep getting better as we go. I have always thought that the Mercedes merger was a mistake and if we needed a partner we should have gone with BMW instead.

 

I don't think BMW would have done any better; in fact I think they would have done the same thing. I mean didn't they almost single handedly demolish Land Rover?!?! If they did; its the same thing Daimler is doing...And now with the Chery thing being a GO...CHRYSLER IS GONE!

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...DATE/702270430

 

Lutz is the new Iacocca.