Chrysler: Who's Number Three?

Part of the problem also is that many bought Chrysler products a few years
back since it was a US manufacturer...one of three options. Now they are a
foreign company, which causes probably 1/3 to 1/2 of their customer base
that won't buy a foreign car to move on to Ford or GM. Daimler made a bad
move buying Chrysler and the Chrysler execs at the time did a disservice to
the US car buying public to have allowed it to happen. Daimler, spin off
Chrysler into it's own US-owned company again...please!!

James C. Reeves wrote: 

I don't doubt that is a factor. I'm a long-time Chrysler owner, having
owned a Chrysler or Jeep vehicle continuously since 1976. I now
consider Chrysler in the same vein as Toyota, Mazda, Mitsubishi, etc. (I
owned one Honda and won't make that mistake again), but not the same as
GM and Ford. I probably won't own a Ford again either, but have had
good luck with GM cars of late and wouldn't hesitate to buy another.
I'll probably replace my Grand Voyager with another Chyrsler van only
because the Sienna is too expensive, I won't buy a Honda on principle,
and the GM vans just aren't yet the equal of Chrysler in design.
However, if the next generation of the Venture catches up, I'd favor it
over a Chrysler product.


Matt

In article <com>,
"James C. Reeves" <nospam.com> wrote: 
Business Week speculates 2 ways DC could break up:

1. DC declares bankruptcy for its Chrysler group.
2. DC sells Jeep and Dodge trucks to a buyer, and then sells the car business
for $1 to some "interested Chrysler" fans.

For the 2nd scenario, who needs another truck/SUV line? Not Ford (Ford,
Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda, Land Rover), not GM (Buick, Chevy, Cadillac, GMC,
Isuzu, Suzuki, Subaru), not Toyota, not Nissan. Honda maybe? Or a European
concern such as VW, or Renault? (That'd be ironic!)

What's the definition of "foreign?" Long before the DC merger/takeover,
we looked at buying a Dodge Stratus or a Mercury Mystique. In neither
case was the power train built in the USA: the Stratus's was built in
Japan, the Mystique's was built in Mexico.

Our '02 Chrysler 300M was built in Canada (as was the old Dodge Mirada
my late father-in-law owned -- all the while insisting that he would
never buy a foreign car). Isn't Canada foreign?

-=-
Alan


On 09/28/03 10:55 pm James C. Reeves put fingers to keyboard and
launched the following message into cyberspace:
 

I think it has something to do with who heads up the board of directors or
makes the decisions.

I don't think any of the production workers in Japan or Mexico have the
ability to change the direction of the entire company. Guess what? The
Germans do.

This is a question of management and decision making; not outsourcing...


"Alan Beagley" <net> wrote in message
news:net... 
years 
are a 

Alan Beagley wrote:
 

I personally have no problem with buying a vehicle made in Europe,
Canda, or Japan - because they have proper wages and standards of living
as well as environmental controls in place.

Unfortunately, it seems like the "domestic" makes are all being
built elsewhere in order to remain competetive.

That leaves Mitsubishi, Nissan, Honda, and a few smaller ones as
good choices because they are the only independant companies left.

David Little wrote:
 

It's even worse than that. Most people in the factories just south of the
border don't have electricity 24 hours a day(among other things).

How skilled can your workforce be when they spend half of their day
working and the other half trying to get food and basic necessities?

Alan Beagley wrote:
 

Fortunately, Chrysler got rid of that POS Mitsub*shy engine years ago,
replacing it with their home-grown 2.7L engine (which has its own set of
problems, but not nearly as rotten as the mitsu garbage was).

I don't count cars made in Mexico or Canada as "foreign." Chrysler has
been building cars in Canada for decades- my '66 Dodge Polara was built
in Windsor Ontario.

I will not buy a Japanese branded car even if "assembled" here in the
US- I want to buy cars where the engineering brainpower AND the assembly
force are north American.

As for whether Chrysler is now "foreign", I consider the car lines to be
very corrupted by Daimler, but the trucks (Jeep/Truck Engineering Group)
has remained very autonomous. I now have to do some background checking
to see if a Chrysler-branded vehicle is "really" still Chrysler or not.

Just my personal view of things.