Iaccoca To Lose Retirement Benefits
Apparently no good deed goes unpunished in Auburn Hills, as Reuters reports that Lee Iacocca will lose his retirement benefits under Chrysler’s bankruptcy reorganization. The man credited with saving Chrysler from bankruptcy in 1979 will lose all of his supplemental executive retirement plan (SERP) benefits and his lifetime use of a company car, according to CEO Bob Nardelli’s testimony before Chrysler’s bankruptcy court. Although Chrysler’s employee FAQ states that “SERP contributions are placed in a trust fund and are not subject to creditors in the event of bankruptcy,” it seems that applies only to tax-qualified contributions. “We are required by law to stop the payments of non-tax qualified SERP benefits,” the FAQ reveals. Clearly Iacocca’s benefits fall into this category. Time to make another ad with Snoop Dogg?
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In taking away his lifetime company car, they're actually doing him a favor - he just doesn't realize it yet. Once he spends some seat time in a nice Japanese or European luxury car, he's going to feel pretty embarrassed about his "if you can find a better car, buy it!" act from the '80s.
@ Copper: my bet would be while Chryco was owned by Daimler, Lee had more than his share of cool Mercedes rides.
Even worse than that (well, not for Lee) is the fact that Rick the Dick had Iacocca's template to follow if he really wanted to save GM. Iacocca pulled Chrysler out of the fire with ONE basic model, dressed six ways, one truck, and one large and one small van. Rick chose Pontiac, Buick, and Saturn (cloned) minivans, the Giant Behemoth SUV, (cloned), and business as usual.
One thing that always amazed me was Iacocca's timing. It was that and that alone that saved Chrysler. Chrysler had the K-Cars coming out of the assembly line in mid 1980, right when the nation was in a massive recession. Then, when the economy picked up and people started to splurge for bigger and more luxurious vehicles, Chrysler started to crank out the minivans and had them on showroom floors in late 1983. Now, of course, he would fuck up later in the decade by sending out the Dynasty and New Yorker to compete with the revolutionary Taurus. (And naturally, the Taurus slaughtered them). But that is owed more to Iacocca's traditionalism, and his false belief that the Taurus was too radical and would flounder. That is probably why he hated Lutz - Lutz wanted to build radical new cars while Iacocca was an extreme traditionalist who wanted to stick to simple three box designs. If I were to go by the Intrepid, I guess we can say that Lutz eventually got his way.