I would laugh my @ss off….

AMC would be the low priced, economy cars (think Subaru crossed with pre-suv Kia), Saturn would be the slightly upscale euro-line, Hummer would be the sport utility vehicles which come back strong as AMC re-discovers 1970s hydraulic hybrid tech and diesel engines and Buick would be the luxury barges from low-cost China.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Places_in_The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Golgafrincham
“Golgafrincham is a red semi-desert planet that is home of the Great Circling Poets of Arium and a species of particularly inspiring lichen. Its people decided it was time to rid themselves of an entire useless third of their population, and so the descendants of the Circling Poets concocted a story that their planet would shortly be destroyed in a great catastrophe. (It was apparently under threat from a “mutant star goat”). The useless third of the population (consisting of hairdressers, tired TV producers*, insurance salesmen, personnel officers, security guards, management consultants, telephone sanitizers and the like) were packed into the B-Ark, one of three giant Ark spaceships, and told that everyone else would follow shortly in the other two. The other two thirds of the population, of course, did not follow and “led full, rich and happy lives until they were all suddenly wiped out by a virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone”.

The B-Ark was programmed to crash-land on a suitably remote planet on one of the outer spiral arms of the galaxy, which happened to be Earth, and the Golgafrinchan rejects gradually mingled with and usurped the native cavemen**, becoming the ancestors of humanity and thereby altering the course of the great experiment to find the question for the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, or so Ford Prefect presumes. A lot of them didn’t make it through the winter three years prior to Arthur Dent’s reunion with Ford Prefect, and the few who remained in the spring said they needed a holiday and set out on a raft. History says they must have survived.”

It’s a theory… but I don’t see it.

I’d assume the only negotiation there would be how much Daimler pays Cerberus to take that 19% tumor off it’s hands.

GMAC/Cerberus is literally choking the General into submission with the latest move to head for the sidelines.

If Chrysler really does have the cash to outlast GM, it’s not impossible to envision Cerberus making a killing on this deal by winding up with both GMAC and a major holding in GM.

Oh wait…this is not a cartoon…

Next stop for Chrysler: NISSAN

VW has a history of growing through acquisition, and the idea of VW buying a distressed company with lousy branding is not unknown to them. The joint venture minivan suggests that they have some knowledge of the current operators and would get their calls returned.

But whether all or any of these are in the running, I don’t know.

I feel for them as it appears that ChryCo is near the end of a long and painful death spiral.

And now for the “if only’s”….

The Case for Volkswagen Buying Chrysler:

Volkswagen CEO Winterkorn has publicly declared his company’s intention to sell at least 1 million units per year in the US by 2018 ( http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/COPY/683833640/1176/ANE ) as part of the plan to catch up to Toyota by the same time. Last year VW moved just a bit over 300,000 cars in the US and this year they are going backwards from there. On a global basis, VW is now number three behind front runners Toyota and GM. VW enjoys the rare and enviable position of having an extraordinarily valuable stock right now; with a market capitalization of over $145 billion. Don’t you think Cerberus would be tickled pink to trade off Chrysler for a few billion dollars worth of VW stock? VW needs North American manufacturing capacity and a cheaper product line to offer in this country. Check. The product lines of the two companies have so little overlap that VW is already re-badging Chrysler minivans and calling them its own. But wait, there’s more! VW’s US problems in part are the result of a long history of cluelessness about the US market. Enter Jim Press, stage left. There probably isn’t another executive on the planet who knows more about selling a foreign brand on US soil than does the former Mr. Toyota USA. Criminologists talk motive, means and opportunity. Volkswagen has all three elements. Probably the only thing holding them back is the way Daimler-Benz botched the prior merger of equals. But surely Dr. Piech, you are much more capable than the buffoons in Stuttgart, jah? Settle this little intra-family feud between Porsche and Volkswagen; then get on with marching towards global domination.

P.S. Volkswagen is also the largest automaker in the world’s largest market, China. Oddly enough, Chrysler was WAY ahead of the curve there with the establishment of Beijing Jeep by AMC way back in 1983.

I hope this a savvy move by GM’s management to distract the Cerberus long enough and then pull out of the deal at the last minute.

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen too many savvy moves from Rick Wagoner and his team.

Today is Friday and GM likes to spring news and press releases after the markets close…..

Just a thought !

When Dumbler was selling it, I remember the workers of the company offered or made this proposal.

This way, and also taking it public, the people who really will hurt if Chrysler goes C-7 will have at least a “opportunity” to try and fix it.

And get rid of many stupid suits in the process.

Thank f-man.

Bunter

Clearly the only reason they want to own 100% of Chrysler is so they can sell it to Tata or whoever. And the value of this sale must be greater than Chrysler’s real estate value minus their debt.

So who wants to bet that the deal between Daimler and Cerberus only gets signed IF they are able to sell Chrysler. AND I’d wager that Tata is playing chicken with Cerberus on the price – every month Tata waits means the price goes down. But if they wait too long, Cerberus files CH.11 and no sale.

Fixing the business? No way.

Waiting for gov’t bailout? No way. These guys want out way before that money shows up.

Text amended. Thanks.

If that’s the case, should the GM death watch be a GM complete bailout watch?

Down the rabbit hole time. Right, we have the GM and Ford Deathwatch, a Chrysler Suicide Watch, and a Bailout Watch (not to mention the other timepieces). The BOW covers the general bailout. The other three are self-explanatory. I hope.

I didn’t see PCH101’s comment on GM being too big to fail, but I would tend to agree – the ramifications of a failed GM would be too terrible for any legislators or the new Pres. to swallow. If that’s the case, should the GM death watch be a GM complete bailout watch?

The scale of the stupidity necessary to facilitate this merger is simply unfathomable to me. No one could possibly be that dumb.

Haven’t been paying much attention to GM have you?

Most assuredly GM, the definition of dumb, will be a major source of information of what not to do in business class textbooks for many years to come.

The real driver would seem to be Cerberus. If it wants out now then something will happen. If GM were careful it could pick up a few useful items as one might at an estate sale. And given the p.r. consciousness of GM management, I imagine that whatever they do will be designed to change the current media narrative.

Honest question: Why wouldn’t an estate sale be a good thing? Cerberus would presumably get a greater return by parting out Chrysler than by selling it intact. GM and Nissan could pick off what they want without taking on too many additional liabilities. Meanwhile, the Detroit automakers would presumably benefit by keeping a Chinese automaker from gaining access to Chrysler’s complete infrastructure.

Someone over at GMI who seems to have an inside line on the discussions is saying that the ‘rationale’ (I hesitate to imply rationality) is to create a firm that’s Too Big To Fail.

I stand by my assertion.

Honestly, the aim for big bailout bucks is the only way this makes sense to me.

I can hardly wait to watch people drive from GMC to Chev to Crysler to look at 3 rebadges of the same vehicle to see who will give the “best price”