NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors is toying with the idea of buying Chrysler but the No. 1 automaker would face major hurdles if it were to acquire its crosstown rival, a news report said Thursday.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported that GM has had talks about buying Chrysler and hasn't ruled it out.
[/align]But the report noted that both GM (Charts) and Chrysler have more U.S. dealers than they need, rising health-care bills for union worker and retirees, and excess manufacturing capacity in North America.
Separately, the New York Times reported that while DaimlerChrysler (Charts) would prefer to sell all of Chrysler Group, it seems hard to find potential acquirers interested in buying the unit as a whole, rather than letting bidders pick and choose assets.
The newspaper noted that selling the unit as a whole would eliminate buyers who want just Chrysler's valuable Jeep brand and its American dealership network, and also limit bidders to those able to the raise the asking price.

A GM truck owner sent this to me. Is it true is Daimler Chrysler trying to sell out?

 

as of right now it is a rumor and something GM wants to do there is no sure thing yet

 

I think a lot of GM boys are wishing real hard its true so that they can have a Cummins engine in their trucks and not the MaxiPad engine they now have[] I’m also waiting for the Ford boys to start saying the same thing any time now [:@]

 

They already have in away, the rumors flying that Ford bought Cummins and Dodge is going with Mercedes...at least Im praying it's just a rumor.

 

In Thursday 3-8-2007 Wall Street Journal
GM CEO Wagoner said that they were not
interested in buying Chrysler
but they were interested in 'sharing' design
costs on new SUV's and pickup trucks.

This is similar to what GM is doing with Ford on the 6 speed automatic transmission being built at a joint factory in Ohio. It is also similar to what DCxa and BMW on doing on hybrid drivetrain design costs.

However, my opinion is that the GM Delco brakes used on the 1994-1995 Ram pickups were horrible, and the 'New Venture' manual gearbox factory that Chrysler and GM operated for awhile turned out a pretty good 3500/4500/and especially 5600 manual transmission...but then the venture was killed off for some reason.

 

If GM or Ford want to put Cummins in their machines all eitherhave to do is go strike a deal with the Cummins folks. One of these days I want a V8 Cat in a pickup truck. Will Ford really put CTD in their trucks. What is at stake? How much do they have invested in Powerstroke? I heard this rummor several years ago and itaint happened yet. I don't think they will as they have too much invested in the Powerstroke to just dump it.

 

Ford and Cummins have an exisiting relationship. Cummins has been available in F550+ for quite some time.