Tell me that it's just an ugly rumor.........

I think the only thing "official" is the dismantling of it; it's been unofficially dead since the Nazi era, really, as has most of Chrysler. The only thing really left over from Chrysler being its own company are the Poly V8 sold as a Hemi, the truck 6-speed automatic (it's still based on a 727, but not nearly as strong), and the 5-on-4.5" wheel pattern used on the cars.

It's too bad. Then again, if they drop it as a trademark there's plenty to be made in the bootleg merchandise market... hardcore guys will always want Pentastar logos around. :D
 
Well, I kinda thought the final insult was the takeover of what remained by Fiat.... But it appears they found one last little slap in the face.
 
Not A Duster said:
Well, I kinda thought the final insult was the takeover of what remained by Fiat.... But it appears they found one last little slap in the face.
Click to expand...


Well at least they didn't name the new organization....

Fiat
Automotive
Group

:doh:
 
Well, thing is... though I know you're a fan of them, the reason Fiat, Alfa Romeo, and Lancia couldn't maintain a foothold in America in the first place is that they were tempermental, unreliable shit-bags with the frequently-required repairs not being inexpensive. Though attractive and in many cases well-engineered, they were sadly lacking in execution, workmanship and material quality. Hell, in places without salt or even winter they often evaporated into rust if they ran long enough. Rust-free examples aren't that hard to find, though--they're usually still broken in the garages of people that gave up on them long ago. So no, not everyone has warm, fuzzy feelings toward Fiat or other Italian non-exotics. My Mom couldn't tell you a single one of the funny "name breakdowns" for Ford, but even she knew "Fix It Again, Tony!"
 
You pretty much hit every point Doc, although in a few more words than I would have. In the late '60's I had a Fiat Spider that i took in trade for one of my many "flippers". It was fun to drive & economical, (37 mpg), even when no one cared about economy.

But the rust, even for being only a 5 year old car. :doh: The floors were so bad that that the seat frames would scrape when pulling into a gravel parking area. :D And when the temp dropped below 30 deg. starting it was a lost cause. I tried everything, full tune up, huge battery. I even rebuilt the motor, thinking maybe the compression was weak. Still NADA. Come springtime I put fresh paint on it, put the top down and gave someone a swingin' deal.






 
fiat has done wonders with companys in the past..and i cant be thankfull enuf for them to get there hands on mopar...better than any other company i can think of

as for the past..alfas were VERY well built..the issues they had all stemmed from idiotic hamfisted americans who didnt do any maintinance and neglected them.....as far as the rust went...hit n miss..alot of italian steel wasnt up to snuff back then but i still find perfect rust free examples all over the place..still running
 
69.5CUDA said:
fiat has done wonders with companys in the past..and i cant be thankfull enuf for them to get there hands on mopar...better than any other company i can think of

as for the past..alfas were VERY well built..the issues they had all stemmed from idiotic hamfisted americans who didnt do any maintinance and neglected them.....as far as the rust went...hit n miss..alot of italian steel wasnt up to snuff back then but i still find perfect rust free examples all over the place..still running
Click to expand...
That's pretty true... to a point.
Those cars simply weren't built for North American climate or North American drivers and mechanics.
European cars and domestic cars were two totally different animals back then.
Still are.
The only European make to really get their foot in the door was VW, largely because of their mostly top quality materials, sound engineering and the cars' ruggedness and simplicity.
...And don't forget, back then, import anythings were still viewed as inferior. North America had great pride in products created here. Those cars has suspect reputations even before they made it to this shore and a lot of people set out to NOT like them, whether it was driving them or fixing them. Imports were doomed to failure in a lot of cases.

The Fiat/Chrysler thing doesn't bother me in the least. The Chrysler Corporation I grew up with is gone.
Period.
Mis-management right here at home killed them.
Being raped and sodomized by various other entities is largely due to those North American execs who saw profit before anything else. If you need to blame someone for what's now not the Chrysler you want, blame those guys. They cleared the path for what followed.
What's in it's place - literally - is a new company, carrying out their plans as they see fit.
 
restoman said:
Mis-management right here at home killed them.
Being raped and sodomized by various other entities is largely due to those North American execs who saw profit before anything else. If you need to blame someone for what's now not the Chrysler you want, blame those guys. They cleared the path for what followed.
What's in it's place - literally - is a new company, carrying out their plans as they see fit.
Click to expand...
That's not actually true. The "merger of equals" turned out to be essentially a hostile takeover by Daimler and you can't blame Chrysler execs for the behavoir of stockholders. Mismanagement? Hardly. Chrysler Corporation, at the time of the takeover, was by far the most-profitable American car company. They owned everything they had--inventory, parts, factories, office buildings--free and clear, and had $27 billion in cash atop all that. Twenty-seven billion dollars is a lot of money to have just lying around; GM's never had that much at any point in history, even adjusted for inflation. Daimler emptied all those accounts within two years, and turned Chrysler into a dumping ground of re-hashed Benz models to stretch out the profitability of long-ago amortized tooling. Crossfire, 300C, Charger, Challenger... all Benz to the core with the exception of the Poly V8 sold as a Hemi that is nothing more exciting now than a 305 Chevy was in 1982. It's just the corporate V8; there is no other available V8 and hasn't been for years. When Daimler saw Chrysler was in a nose dive because of it, they bailed. They'd gotten what they'd come to take--the money--and made more by churning out model after model using parts from Mercedes tooling that was, in some cases, dormant for nearly a decade until it appeared here as a Chrysler product (Crossfire). The suspension under the vaunted LX cars? Old-school C/E-class bits. Fiat may keep the name alive and even return it to some semblence of majesty, but until they kill half the product line Daimler laughs every time they cash a Fiat check for components.

Unlike GM and Ford, who needed bailout money because of mismanagement (don't drink the Kool-Aid, Ford was better at disguising it but they got plenty of tax dollars), Chrysler was flying high and kicking ass in the marketplace until Daimler came in and figuratively raped, beat, and left it for dead.
 
No, I was referring to the "old" Chrysler Corp being run into the ground long before Daimler was even a twinkle in Eaton's eye.
The #3 automaker's issues started in the late 60s and were exacerbated with the horrendously-poor quality cars they tried to foist off onto the buying public well into the 70s. Throw in a couple oil embargoes and recessions along with a company refusing to build what customers wanted - quality cars - and you have the beginning of the end for Chrysler Corporation.
Throw Bob Eaton in there in the 90s - thank you Lee - and now you have a guy more than willing to convince stockholders that Daimler was going to make them even more money, and that is exactly what he did.
Like it or not, the old Chrysler was brain-dead long before the Germans came along. Daimler was just ass-fucking the corpse.
 
Last edited:
Then why were they the most successful car company extant at the time? Their products were hot sellers, their bills were all paid, profits were high and dividends for stockholders exceptional, and they had $27 billion in cash. Cash. Money. After all else. Tell me again how they were fucked prior to Daimler's involvement? Chrysler had never done so well at any time in the past as they were doing in the mid-'90s. Period.
 
Perhaps, but there is no denying the Chryco of old was dead and gone, which is exactly what I said at the beginning.
I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to them through the nineties and later - just another car company to me. I still don't really give a flying fuck what they do, as far as being a loyal patron anymore.

But if they were so flush - and i'm not doubting what you say - then why did the stockholders bail over to Daimler so fast? Could it be the love of even more money, like I said earlier?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

SiteLock

SiteLock
Back
Top