As others mentioned, Chrysler is slowly going through a death spiral. Since the Iacocca revival in 1978, we have seen a failed marriage with Renault, a failed marriage with Daimler Benz, bankruptcy and subsequent buyout by Europe’s weakest and lowest quality car maker.
If it was not for the Jeep brand the company would have disappeared long ago. Look for better quality “Jeeps” coming from China and India in the future.
Mahindra, the Indian tractor maker, already produces a basic Jeep similar to the CJ model.
What will FCA do with the three models: 300, Pacifica, and Pacifica hybrid? I know several people that are interested in the Pacifica hybrid. The idea of a hybrid minivan is excellent, and the Pacifica hybrid gets 32 mpg combined city/highway mileage. Even Car and Driver got over 31 mpg in their road test.
I suppose it isn’t necessarily bad news if Chrysler is combined into one of the other FCA brands. On the positive side, Toyota dropped the Scion brand and combined the most marketable cars into the Toyota line.
+1
Back in the mid '40s, NYC’s Sixth Avenue had its name officially changed to Avenue of the Americas.
If somebody asks for directions to Avenue of the Americas, that is proof of their tourist status because NOBODY from metro NYC uses the term Avenue of the Americas.
REAL NYers still refer to that boulevard as Sixth Avenue, more than 7 decades after its name was changed.
When I was a kid, one of the favorite jokes in my Brooklyn elementary school involved the following question and answer:
First kid: Why are the lights brighter in lower Manhattan?
Second kid: I don’t know. Why?
First kid: Because it’s closer to the battery!
Yes, I know that it’s not very good–or accurate–but to 8 year olds, it was comedy gold.
Back to cars. The only CC car I owned was a 68 Dart. It was an OK car but not a great car. My folks had a 66, 68, 72, and 78 and maybe more Plymouth or Dodge. The went from good to terrible in 78. I don’t propose to know why CC has had such a problem. Clearly quality tanked for a while but still the minivan was a success and Jeep. Maybe overhead as it related to the production quantity, I really don’t know. Still I believe there was enough of a base to continue operations with a struggle and enlightened management.
But like I’ve said before, I think the killer is when the investment companies get involved. They aren’t concerned about making products or the long term. They are concerned with stock price and sales gains first. Then they are concerned with selling off parts to put cash back in their pockets. This has been the ruin of many businesses that otherwise would be functioning reasonably fine. Being more of a libertarian, I really think something needs to be done to reduce the ever expanding conglomerates and the impact the investment companies can have on businesses. As a first step I think their voting rights should be very limited. One vote per person or organization would fix it instead of one vote per share.
I agree though, Fiat? They are not an on-going car company and are not interested in building cars except maybe in Italy. Why they should be a part of Jeep and Chrysler is beyond me.
My Ford truck has a NP transfer case. Maybe it came from the same plant.
As far as Chrysler experiences, only have two. When I was a little kid our family had a two door late 50’s Newport-Windsor. Two tone. Fin city. It seemed to be a pretty good car. At the 10 year mark, it got hit from behind by a drunk driver, and that was the end of that car. More recently I had the opportunity to drive a Chrysler SUV from San Francisco to San Jose. Lots of room, but didn’t like the ride quality. Not nearly as good of ride as a Chevy HHR imo.
I’ll be sorry to see Chrysler brand disappear, if it actually happens. I like the look of that 300, but no experience driving one.
Places keeping their original names doesn’t bother me as much as a road changing names sever times. Here in northern VA if you start in Great Falls on Springvale Rd. It goes from Springvale Rd to Baron Cameron Ave. to Elden St. to Centreville Rd. to Walney Rd. to Westfields Blvd. to Stone Rd. without ever turning onto a different road. It can make giving or following directions difficult.
FCA had sales of more than $133 billion in 2017. They look like an on-going concern to me. They also have factories in Africa and South America in addition to Europe and North America. Fiat wanted Chrysler to increase their presence in North America and have the Jeep brand for export opportunities IMO. Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealerships also offer a full North American dealer network to sell other products, like Fiats and Alfa Romeos.
There’s no denying Chrysler’s quality declined in the 70s but what caused that decline? The oil crisis and subsequent rise in gasoline prices seemed to hit Chrysler worse than GM or Ford and the link with Mitsubishi to deal with the need for economy models seems in hindsight to have been a mistake. But maybe it’s time for a shake up in Detroit that result in the Big 3 becoming the Not So Big 7 or 8.
Maybe Hyundai or a Chi-Com manufacturer will build and market a power train package that enables many automotive startups to build and market various niche market models and be able to adapt to quickly changing trends in their chosen niches. Before WW II there were several automobile manufacturers who used Continental engines and a few afterward
Is that comrade Bing speaking?
Sorry, but if I have $1M invested and someone else has $100, they do not get the same weight in deciding how the company operates…
The real way to do it is to tax the stuffing out of income from selling stock. That would severely curtail the day traders, which would make corporate boards less eager to chase short-term gains in favor of long-term viability.
When a gang of rich idiots can vote you out because they didn’t make a killing in 3 months, you’re much more likely to pursue strategies that maximize short term gains no matter what those strategies do to you in the distant (i.e. >1 year) future.
See: General Motors in the 80’s. They chased short term profits by charging the same for their cars while filling them with cheaper and more poorly-designed components. And their investors were delighted. But the company nearly went under and had to be bailed out by the government because people finally got tired of buying rolling crap piles and their income went down.
I agree wholeheartedly with you, even though my total equity investments are only ~$750k.
However, I don’t think that I am the only long-term holder of shares in Ford Motor Company who thinks that the unequal voting rights enjoyed by members of the Ford family are unfair to other holders of Ford stock. IIRC, the Ford family members get 8 votes per share of stock that they hold, and all of the peons–like me–are only entitled to one vote per share.
When you consider the millions of shares held by the Ford family members, and then multiply that number by 8, it is virtually impossible for the other stockholders to effect any change via their votes.
