well,, Chrysler's done

ohskigod

if the bankruptcy wasnt bad enough, they make this decision? Glad out bailout money is going to Italy............for ridiculous bad marketing campaigns

http://adage.com/article?article_id=140855

nooshinjohn

Like it or not, Chrysler is now an Italian car company. The real question needs to be how did we allow ourselves to get in this predicament in the first place, and more importantly, how do we get ourselve OUT of it?

amulford

At the very least all of the people involved in the previous ad campaign...

Jstas

Honestly, this is old news. BBDO was on the way out the day after Fiat forked over the cash.

But honestly, if people didn't see moves like this coming after the very favorable agreement Obama put in Fiat's hands then they obviously forgot how Daimler-Benz handled Chrysler so of course history is going to repeat itself.

I've read many news stories on this Fiat-Chrysler merger and none of it looks favorable at all. There are no financial assets left with Chrysler. Diamler-Benz milked Chrysler dry. But Chrysler still has many concrete assets in production facilities, dealer networks and parts suppliers that Fiat does not have here. Chrysler here also has light truck chassis that Fiat, while they have them, they are lacking and will not compete with the already firmly established Ford/Chevy/Dodge market stranglehold.

So Fiat is gonna milk what's left of Chrysler to their benefit. Hopefully they aren't too big for their britches like Daimler-Benz was because Chrysler will die if it gets cast off again. As far as "letting it happen", again, history repeating itself. Chrysler stopped being Chrysler when it was merged with Daimler-Benz AG in 1998. It created DaimlerChrysler at that point and things were never the same.

As far as the actual question of how it happened, nobody was paying attention. The primary shareholders saw big profit in golden parachutes, agreed to the merger and plummeted lazily to Earth after leveraging their stock options and leaving the employees and lesser shareholders languishing on the line to dry. After the merger, DaimlerChrysler stock dropped about 30% and never recouped and leading to massive loses for Daimler AG who just didn't have the expertise needed to run a company as large as Chrysler was at the time. They did "brand management" the German way and use complex platforms that were outdated thinking the Americans wouldn't notice. Well, they did and they stopped buying Chrysler stuff.

Now Fiat offered a bailout and just look how many of the original Chrysler head office people are still there. Not many and the ones who are know they are on borrowed time. At least Government Motors is turning stuff around albeit slowly. But some say that the lack of urgency with which General Motors is changing direction is detrimental to the long-term health of the company and could, ultimately, lead to it's demise, again.

nooshinjohn

Agreed Jstas...

ohskigod

I remember Daimler Chrysler well, as I worked for Chrysler Financial when that went down. they didn't just rob financial assets, they robbed Chrysler of talent as well.....ALOT of it.

for that, Robert Eaton should be dragged out of his house and beaten.

danny1436

I tend to stick to my Fords.

nooshinjohn

danny1436 wrote: »

I tend to stick to my "eF'd Over Re-built Dodge's.

Fixed it for ya!:D

brettw22

Who knew Gorbachev had a future in commercials........how funny for them to get some of the same people to walk out of several different vehicles over the same message........

ohskigod

oddly enough I saw the commercial about an hour ago....are they fu*king KIDDING ME?

Chrysler actually paid an add agency for that piece of ****? That add will sell exactly 0 frikkin cars~

tonyb

When the government says GM isn't making changes fast enough,what exactly does that mean ? Really....companies that size don't turn on a dime. Or does it mean they are not making the kind of cars the government wants them too ? Hmmm.......

Jstas

tonyb wrote: »

When the government says GM isn't making changes fast enough,what exactly does that mean ? Really....companies that size don't turn on a dime. Or does it mean they are not making the kind of cars the government wants them too ? Hmmm.......

I never said the government said that.

inspiredsports

Chrysler is just one tiny example of the giant clusterfu** that this country has become. When are people going to wake up and realize we are on a pathway to total government control.

Systems

inspiredsports wrote: »

Chrysler is just one tiny example of the giant clusterfu** that this country has become. When are people going to wake up and realize we are on a pathway to total government control.

Denial is a wonderful thing....