Chrysler Threatens Bankruptcy Court
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the sale of “old” Chrysler to “new” Chrysler by June 15 was a done deal. Otherwise, why would Fiat feel free to tell the American taxpayer which three amigos will control “new” Chrysler’s Board of Directors (Fiat Chief Executive and future ChryCo CEO, Sergio Marchionne; Alfredo Altavilla, head of Fiat Powertrain Technologies; and former ExxonMobil executive, Lucio Noto)? Lest we forget, federal bankruptcy judge Arthur Gonzalez swept aside the non-TARP bondholders. But there’s growing, well-organized, politically-connected resistance from the terminated Chrysler dealers. In fact, their Congress critters are calling ChryCo’s (and GM’s) CEO onto the carpet next month, compelling them to testify why they done did it, reports Automotive News [sub]. As part of a rearguard action, Fiat has submitted papers to Arty that say “You don’t let us do this thing we must do and your people will suffer.” Minus the paraphrasing . . .
“Any material delay in the implementation of the bidding and sales process that the Bankruptcy Court has carefully but expeditiously set in motion will destroy Chrysler, put hundreds of thousands of people out of work, and devastate communities in both the United States and Canada,” Chrysler said in court documents.
Automotive News [sub] reports that the assertion comes after Indiana’s pensions funds requested a delay in the government-sponsored left hand to the right hand fire sale. File that one under not bloody likely. But the dealer showdown post GM’s C11? That should be interesting.
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To those who say "the dealers have it coming..." are wrong in the context they're to blame for Chrysler and GM's problems. The fact is, Chrysler and GM are making both business and political decisions in the selection process. The political reasons should not be mixing with the business decisions. I can assure you that Chrysler has axed some EXCELLENT (and profitable) dealers. Why? You'll have to ask Chrysler, but it's probably because the "dealer didn't play ball" or had "attitude" with the factory reps. The factory didn't win many friends when it tried to stuff an extra 60 days supply down the throat of the dealers... Long term, reducing the # of dealers is necessary, but the excess # today is NOT the big problem of the Big Two. The dealer is a customer of the factory, and the factory giving the finger to the dealer (i.e. customer) isn't a very good business decision here.
Ronnie Schreiber writes: Minus 10 demerits on the left wing scale of morality for working in the fossil fuel industry. So if you are taking away 10 demerits, you're moving him up 10 units on the left-wing scale, so it's a clever way of saying that left-wingers give due recognition to the skills evidenced by holding down a job in the real world, even if it is in an industry they don't like?
Nancy says the CIA issue is over and done. Obama says Chrysler bankruptcy is over and done. What is it that you don't understand?
97escort, our local Chrysler/Jeep dealer that has been axed also has Toyota on the lot. He sells them 4 to 1 over the Chrysler product. He claims no layoffs as a result of this.