jpcavanaugh: “The fact that the Ram pickup is not holding its own, despite the fact that it is one of the company’s nicest and most competitive products should be scaring them to death.”

Maybe it has something to do with Chrysler concentrating on spitting out nothing but the most expensive, highest-profit (but hardest to sell) Rams.

The vast majority on the dealer lots seem to be loaded, crew-cab 4WDs. It’s either that or the occasional white, strippo, contractor special.

Consider these facts:

* Jeep came about in the late 1930’s, when the US military requested that US auto makers design a light, 4X4 vehicle for military reconnaissance use.
* American Bantam, a small car maker, was first with a promising design. The US gov bought the design from American Bantam, and gave the drawings to Willys-Overland Motors and Ford Motor Company for further development. The final Willys design was accepted, and it became the standard WWII Jeep design, produced by both Ford and Willys. American Bantam went out of business in 1941.
* After WWII both Willys and Ford made claims to the Jeep design and brand. A court case settled the matter in favor of Willys.
* In the immediate post-war period, Willys-Overland Motors hit the skids financially. Teetering on bankruptcy, Willys-Overland Motors was purchased by Kaiser Motors.
* Kaiser Motors dropped the Willys name entirely in 1963 and became Kaiser-Jeep. By this time all the Willys and Kaiser car models were dead, and Jeep was the only model left in production. In 1969, Kaiser sold the Jeep brand to AMC and got out of the auto business for good.
* In 1983, French car maker, Renault, acquired a controlling interest in near bankrupt AMC. In 1986, the chairman of Renault, Georges Besse, was assassinated in Paris by Maoist rebels. A year later, financially struggling Renault, sold AMC to Chrysler Motor Corporation.
* After acquiring AMC, Chrysler dumped all of the AMC car models, keeping only the Jeep models.
* In 1998, a financially struggling Chrysler was acquired by Daimler-Benz and the new company was renamed DaimlerChrysler. In 2007, after the Chrysler portion of DaimlerChrysler threatened to drag the entire operation into bankruptcy, the management of DaimlerChrysler paid private equity investment firm, Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., to take Chrysler, and the Jeep brand, off its hands.
* Cerberus is named for the mythological three-headed dog that guards the gates of hell.
* On April 30, 2009, Chrysler declared bankruptcy and was bailed out by the US taxpayer.
* As of today, it appears that the US gov will hand over control of Chrysler, and the Jeep brand, to Italian car maker, Fiat S.p.A. If I were Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Group, I’d keep my lucky rabbits foot in my pocket at all times.

Seriously, I’d really like to know which moron in DC made the call on that.

Well, the first batch of funds were from Bush, punting the problem to Obama. Then Obama’s team came very close to shutting Chrysler down (there was an informal vote in the administration that was 4-4 at one point whether or not to do so), but the final decision was that the loss of all of the manufacturing, management, and dealership jobs in the middle of the worst recession in sixty years that a total shutdown of Chrysler would result in would be A Very Bad Thing, so they helped keep the patient alive for a year or two.

Seriously, I’d really like to know which moron in DC made the call on that.

But who didn’t expect it when they disbanded the group tasked with designing a real Accord fighter?

It’s the ‘Flyover Country’ market that Chrysler elected to decimate in the dealer terminations. In many of these former strongholds for the Big 3, there is now nothing for Chrysler but embittered former customers and dealers who will go to their graves converting Chrysler customers into drivers of another brand.

It seems like the Aspen sales function is a log, and it is already beneath 10.

Chrysler brand Total: -36%

Jeep fared only slightly less badly:…Jeep Brand Total: -37%

-36 > -37, right? Cascading adverbs translate to tortured phraseology.

That aside, I certainly hope for Chrysler’s sake that Fiat’s got one hell of an ace up their sleeve.

As for the rest of their models, as the Far Side said, “if a tree falls in a forest and lands on a mime does anyone hear”?

I love Mopar, but if they were to disappear from the market, the only niche I see suffering would be minivans. The rest…pfft.

Now I’m not so sure. Of course these are also places where the Great Recession hit first and will end last so it’s possible that Chrysler’s core fan base simply can’t afford to get rid of the dilapidated Sebring until someone in the house can actually find work.

Or everybody’s waking up to the fact that their vehicles suck.

The Avenger is avenging Dodge sales… har har!

I see so MANY of their products all across town and most appear to be new or newer vehicles.

That might be a plausible tactic to stimulate sales.

Maybe cheaper than advertising on traditional media what with so many folks out of work willing to take any job for a few bucks.

I don’t.

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