Damler is giving 16% of Chrysler's workers a Valentines day present, no more job.

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aXWU2Ya5jpo4&refer=home

Apparently they are looking to sell Chrysler too. GM may buy. Looks like the Big Three may be down to the Big Two.

 

that would be a great pick up for gm,on the benz part.

i thought chryslers last q. profit, was better than expected?

not to say that the profit they made was enough, but i was thinking they had the best results out of the big three.

 

Quotes from the article "Today's announcement follows Chrysler's operating loss of 1.12 billion euros ($1.46 billion) in 2006."

and "Mercedes Car Group reported operating profit of 1.3 billion euros in the quarter from 1 million euros a year earlier. Chrysler lost 124 million euros and the truck division had profit of 487 million euros."

and "`We want to ensure that the core of Daimler can be protected from a possible financial downwards spiral at Chrysler...''

I assume they just want to unload the unprofitable division, Chrysler as its losing market share and losing money too. They would surely keep Mercedes.

 

Looks like Chrysler exec's decision to over-produce vehicles and leave them in the factory parking lot worked very well... not.

It staved off the layoffs for a year or maybe more, looks like. Now it's time to pay the piper.

Sad, really.

Did you know Chrysler is number FIVE in the US? Ford's still #2, and GM is #3, Honda is #4. I think

 

Why would GM, a company that is bleeding cash, buy another car brand that is doing almost as poorly as they are? This is a serious question - I don't know that much about business.

 

Believe it or not, there is a reason...

"Growth". The stock market loves growth. As long as the company is "growing", it's a good thing.

Which you and I, being the logical people we are, do NOT understand.

 

Real growth means growth in earnings, not losses. I dont think automoblile industry executives are necessarily the smartest businessmen, so they just might try it. At least they dont seem as bad as airline execs.

Jim

 

I posted this awhile back when I read it on blue oval news. The article there hinted that ford would be interested in a merger with chrysler if they were cut loose. Benz is staying with Diamler. Fords main interest was in the jeep brand as they allready own land rover, they could some what corner that market. Chrysler would be marketable in the PAG group with linclon, volvo, jag and such. Dodge would be the stickler as it competes directly with fords main lines, but felt they could make it an asset in the end.f they could swing it, that would give them ford, linclon, mercury, land rover, mazda, dodge, volvo, chrysler, jag, jeep and austin martin, that quit a line up. So we would have to see how this would play out. I don't think GM or ford would want chrysler if jeep wasn't part of the deal. There's been some companies in Chinia showing interest as well, this could get exciting.

 

man, what a shame. never in automotive history has there been a company that has built better vehicles and been so grossly mismanaged as chrysler.

i dunno, though, jacques nasser did do one hello of a number on fomoco.......

however, mopar's mismanagement has actually managed to span DECADES. that's quite a trick.

 

Thier not afraid to take chances with designs, they think outside the box, I'll give them that.

 

Dr Z has been shopping Chrysler for over a year. Why would Ford want it? The Jeep, maybe. Why take on another ailing automakers problems? Chrysler is worse off than anyone.

The only company I've heard of that was interested in Chrysler is Chery Automotive Group....the largest vehicle manufacturer in....China.

If Chery bought Chrysler, you can bet your bottom dollar what they really want is the dealer network in the US. The cars/trucks are incidental, some will be kept, some won't.

Toyota, when they came to the US in the mid 1960's, got a complete dealer network for peanuts. They signed up 100's of former Studebaker dealers nationwide. Studebaker folded in South Bend, Indiana in the fall of 1963, moving production to Hamilton, Ontario Canada. Studebaker closed their doors for good in March 1966.

 

I thought I read that Ford was interested in selling Austin and Land Rover, as they haven't been profitable either. Sound like musical chairs on the titanic? Then again, this may be just Daimler's way of squeezing the union. I don't think anyone is going to step up to buy this loser. I'm guessing Daimler will be stuck with them.

 

...competition takes a form much different from what we imagine.

Rather than work very hard to produce a better, more innovative product, many companies try to defeat the competition by other means.

That could be buying them out entirely....

Or it could be buying off (or out) their suppliers...

Or it could be undercutting his price so much for so long (in a loss-leader scenario) that he eventually throws in the towel...

Or it could mean off-shore sourcing (knowing the competiton is tied to an "expensive" domestic production facility) (they think we don't notice that many of these products don't perform well, if at all, or that the guy down the street lost his job when they started buying from people who don't contribute to our economy or society)...

It also seems that ececs. worry far too much about what "The Market" (Wall Street) thinks and not enough about what Main Street, USA thinks about their business decisions and products.

You and I, being rational individuals, know that ultimately we, you and I, pay their bills and salaries, if only a little at a time. Every decision they make will eventually have an effect on our decision making process when it comes time to buy.

Their decision to over produce was indeed intentional and, for them, a VERY GOOD decision. Consider this:

They really don't know how many cars they will sell, only what they have sold in the past. But thet do know they need to make some cuts. If they cut too many people, a short-term shortage of product to sell will would cut off the cash. The over-production is money in the bank, ready to be turned into cash while they see if their cut-back plan is working as intended.

I've seen all sorts of factories do this as a normal M.O. Work like crazy, OT week after week until you can't wait to have some time off. Then BAM! layoff time. The guy on the line can't believe it. "We were so busy last month, now we're laid off! How could it change so fast?"

Well, it didn't change fast. Management filled the supply pipeline, the warehouse, maybe even the parking lot with "cheaper" overtime labor. Then when they close down for a spell, all they have to worry about is office/management, sales, shipping, and security. And the orders are still filled. Then, when unfilled orders back up enough, they'll call back a production group, work them like crazy for a while, and lay them off again. Seen it time after time.

I did my part back in the '80's helping bail out Chrysler. For my trouble I was rewarded with a Plymouth Reliant Wagon.

Need I say more?

I predict two of their brands will survive: Jeep and Dodge.

In an attempt to offer some "half-vast" humor:

That Jeep brand has sure seen some bumpy roads in its lifetime, hasn't it?

 

Ford isn't selling land rover, it is indeed profitable, it's jag that wasn't and thought they may have to let land rover go with jag just to get rid of it. However, they decided to keep jag and make it work. They do want to sell austin martin because it is such a nich car, hand built and very expensive. If they would build or import some lower cost land rovers like the defender 90, they could go head to head with jeep. The jag factory's were so run down when ford bought it, it's costing them a lot to modernize, unlike volvo, who's plants were in much better shape. Ford wants to make jag work and I hope they do, it's a great nameplate. There's so much that could be done with land rover, thier as famous around the world as jeep. They just need some lowend rovers for the wheelers instead of all thier imported products being up scale. Land rover was made famous in the taran movies and such. I would hate to see chrysler bought by the chinese, thats worse than the germans. Thier was a revived studebaker company in Georgia building suv's a year or so ago, they were using ford super duty drivetrains. They got taken to court by GM for infriging on the hummer design or something like that, never heard the out come. Isn't someone still building studebaker advanta's?

 

Wendell, as a Studebaker Hawk owner, I try to keep up on what Avanti Motor Company is doing, and it ain't much. They built a Hummer like vehicle, actually calling it a Studebaker. After GM complained it looked too much like a Hummer, Avanti modified the beast. Then the owner of Avanti, who's a "big wheeler dealer" in resort hotels in Mexico, decided to dump the whole operation. I haven't heard who bought it, as it went on the auction block recently. Only one of those Hummer like vehicles was built.


I've read that Jaguar is for sale, but no takers. So if Ford is keeping it, no buyers is the reason why. From the way Jaguar was purchased in the first place, I believe Land Rover is part of the package. The LR Discovery was a sales dunce, and it had all manner of quality issues. The other LR models have also had quality issues of late, and their overall reliability records are approaching the toilet level. I don't see Land Rover helping ford, I do see it as another money losing vehicle.


Ford, so far has spent 6 Billion Dollars on Jag, and will prolly spend more, as the upscale sedan is another dunce on the market. Personally, I believe Jag will never be able to go head to head with BMW, Mercedes, Infiniti and Lexus...especially Lexus, which is a far better vehicle than Jag could hope to be.


Meanwhile both Volvo and Aston Martin are profitible.