Wild Ass Rumor of the Day: Chrysler C11 Between July 7 – Aug. 3
“We have a model that is buy, fix and hold,” Timothy Price, managing director of Cerberus, told the Financial Times last Thursday. “It is not a problem for us to have a 10-year holding period.” Riiiiiight. The FT reckons "Chrysler was forecast to lose $1.6bn last year following a $1.4bn loss in 2006." This year's sales are a 9mm slug to Chrysler's chest. With no immediate or even medium-term prospect of undigging that hole, and ChryCo banking a $2b loan, TTAC sources have reiterated their belief that the company-wide summer vacation signals the end. The Canadian Press reports that Chrysler "told workers in a memo on Wednesday that the Toledo North Assembly Plant, which makes the Jeep Liberty and Dodge Nitro midsize SUVs, will be shut down for seven weeks from July 7 through the week of Aug. 18 due to sagging sales. The Newark, Del., Assembly Plant, which makes the Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen SUVs, was shut down starting Monday for five weeks, with workers scheduled to return Aug. 4, and the Warren truck plant, which makes the Dodge Ram pickup, will close for five weeks in late June and July." Normally, these are one to two week breaks. This time, the rumor mill insists, they will be permanent. [NB: the August third "hard stop" represents the last day Cerberus can sue Daimler for false conveyance.]
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I didn't know that A-Rod posted here. How's the money George and Hank giving you doing?
The Liberty is a very good vehicle. The last model (the KJ) was a best seller in it's class. What is killing it now and most of Chrysler's vehicles is MPG. Their product line includes mostly below average MPG vehicles. I do not understand why the Big 2.8 has never tried to take on a car as well built with the great MPG like the Civic? Well, of course that would mean that the UAW would have to build it, to answer my own question. ;)
It's not the UAW's fault, any more than British Leyland was the fault of the unions. The unions didn't help, but they're not the root of the problem. It has been written before: the Big 3 were run almost completely incompetently. GM, led almost exclusively by imperial bean counters since approximately 1959. Ford, forever a stratified company of fiefdoms, taboos, and political intrigue. Chrysler, chronic underinvestment in (earlier) styling and (later) R&D. I think Honda would find a way if they had no choice but to deal with the UAW.
St. Louis minivan plant shut down too: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121484581164616365.html?mod=googlenews_wsj The article says workers were sent home early today. More time to look for a new job, I suppose.