Anyone who remembers mid 70's thru mid 80's chrysler products, or more to the point those who owned one, they were junk. At this time Chrysler had huge money problems and were closeing factories left and right trying to get out of the red in the black. They laid off over 30,000 workers world wide and had one man doing the job of four. Quality took a nose dive. I remember being with my dad as he was looking at buying a new Chrysler New yorker, this was like 75 or 76, this was there flag ship car at the time, there answer to lincoln and cadilliac, they had the car on the show room floor, it was a huge blue 4 door vinyl top 440(225hp!) three speed automatic car. I was able to actually crawl around under it, hey i was 6 at the time, what i remember the most was this black metal pan under the engine, with this black stuff in it. Oil! This was a new car with a pan under the engine to catch the oil leaking from it! But it just wasn't chrysler it was all the U.S. companies, Harley-Davidson was as close as Chrysler to going out of business. But the new import markets were thriveing and setting all time sells records. Because they offered a new model among a sea of decades old american big three styling. And they had new ideas to go along with there new styles. Its funny that chevrolet was the first car sold with fuel injection in the 50's, but no one wanted it, untill Toyota made it an industry standard in the late 80's early 90's. The 1955 Chrysler saratoga was the first car to offer 4 wheel disk brakes, they sold 19 cars with the option that year but unlike chevys fuel injection they kept the option going, adding a few more models each year till it disapperd from the option sheet in 1978. Nissian made it an industry standard with the maxima that hit the streets in 86. And this list goes on and on. The big 3 had the technology and the clout to stop the import car makers dead in there tracks. But the CEO's and share holders and investors refused to see them as more than a new fad that would go away after a few years, not as a changing of the guard, that was happening under there nose.

Another big kick is the way they(imports) sold there cars. I'm sure everyone in here remembers the toyota commerical with the guy or girl jumping up infront of the car yelling "toyota! Oh What a feeling!" And the fact that most import car makers used there own countries banks to finance new cars sales, like a friend of mine who has had three cars repo from him in the last three years, but he was able to finance a '04 nissian titan! And it was a japaneese bank that made it happen! There was not a bank in the U.S. that would touch him, but the bank and nissan new it would make them look good, sales and word of mouth.

But today Chrysler is a diffrent company with diffrent goals, And being owned by Diamler Benz, With haveing the bragging rights under the Mercedes line as having the guiness book of world records for the car with the most miles, over 1 million 2 hundred thousand and still running! I don't see any big quality problems sticking there heads up, Most of what we are seeing and buying today was tested under Bob Lutz, even as far back as Lee Iacocca, Diamler Benz and present Chrysler employees just made it happen. But the Big three has a lot of catching up to do. Its hard to convience someone to buy an "American dodge truck" that is put together in Mexico, and call a nissan an import when its built in Tenessee!
European cars are a whole other story. Every who is somebody owns one, Mercedes, BMW, Land Rover, Jaguar(Even if its owned by Ford Mo CO)Lotus, Lambos, Ferrari, Etc. They are status symbols and cry look at me i'm well off or rich. That is never going to change. I actually no someone who won our state lottery a few years back, won like 20 something mill, after all the if i win im buying a viper, vette, etc he ordered a porsche carrara convertible and a Mercedes SLk 320(I think) for the wife.....

 

Bottom line is, J.D. Power says DCX cars/trucks are about average when it comes to quality, which is MUCH better than many European vehicles and not that far behind the Japs. Businesses ebb and flow with the times (it's referred to as the "business cycle") and right now DCX is doing pretty good, despite troubles with their Mitsu and Hyundai holdings, and an effort from "within" to get rid of the CEO.......[sm=smiley14.gif]

 

Aye..