Chrysler Dealers to Boot'em Bob Nardelli: Build Me Something I Can Sell
The financial press [and TTAC] has had its say about ex-Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli's ascension to Chrysler's throne. The general consensus: there's gonna be some major ass kicking in Auburn Hills. But what do Chrysler dealers think of the executive who never met a problem that he couldn't sic Six Sigma upon? Dealer Magazine surveyed Chrysler stores around the country, asking owners for their thoughts on Boot'em Bob. Obviously, the results were carefully edited and selected to represent a wide range of opinions (lest anyone think Chrysler dealers have an adversarial relationship with the company that turned channel stuffing into an art form, dreams of culling them like an African game keeper facing a plague of elephants and restricted access to the corporation's used car inventory). We get the expected "we are hopeful" and "it's too early to tell." And then… "There are too many name plates in the Chrysler Jeep Dodge lines, many of which are in direct competition with each other. How would Chrysler Corp look if Chrysler were the car line, Dodge the truck line, and Jeep the SUV line?" "Nardelli may be capable in GE or Home Depot areas but the auto biz is a whole different game." "The first thing to do is make products that people truly want to own." I guess they told him.
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When certain vehicles have a common problem with head gaskets; this results in all of those vehicles winding up in the junkyard. There are a lot of older models that we just don't see on the streets anymore on a daily basis. Previous model Grand Ams come to mind. Not those current giant land yachts that are prowling the streets for who knows how much longer. I bet those tanks weigh 3800lbs. I see very few Neons on the streets these days. And when I do, it's seriously dogged out, ratted, raggedy, and on it's last leg. One major breakdown and that car is off the streets for good.
This sounds an awful lot like what happened to Oldsmobile. In the late 90s at a meeting for dealers, the GM representative was shouted down by the dealers who were shouting, "Product, product, product!" And we all know how that went.