Hammer Time: The Eagle and the Phoenix
I made my first fortune in Chrysler. Back in 1991 I bought 250 shares of the company at a mere $10 a share. It was all I had at the time and everyone in my family thought I was plain nuts. When it got to 12 I was a bit less nuts but definitely screwy. 15 and I was a lucky guy. It wasn’t until the stock hit $25 a share when they realize that if I had a knack for anything, it was following the auto industry.
By 1996 everyone and their dog was announcing the second coming of Chrysler. I sold my shares in late May 1996 at around $60 and bought the most safe and enduring investment of that time… a house. A lot of car companies have soared to the skies and plummeted to insolvency since then. My question for all of you today is…
Who’s next!
NOTE: Kia, Hyundai, Suzuki, Mitsubishi and Saab are yesterday’s news. I want your take on tomorrow’s Midas and minus.
More by Steven Lang
Comments
Join the conversation
Rising stars include BYD, Tata and Mahindra. BYD is selling an absolute megaton of Corolla-clones in developing countries. Tata is proving to be a smart owner by not messing with Jaguar's DNA too much. Mahindra makes a mean tractor, and if they can get their importing strategy together I predict they'll make huge strides here in the U.S. auto market. Failing? Let me get out my crystal ball... All the easy marks have fallen. But, I'll venture a guess that the company that has strayed purposely farthest from its successful roots is Honda. Yep, I said it. They need to get their design priorities in order - pronto. They're being carried by their reputation right now, not their product line. Dangerous territory. Example - no direct injection from the company that was first and foremost known as a leader in engine technology? For shame.
I don't know much about BYD or Tata (I can't take a car-company seriously when they name it after a woman's attrbutes)... ...but Mahindra has been around a long time; and not very successfully. They made Jeeps under license; and there were folks tempted to buy their CJ-3B clones...but the reliability of those was execrable. They were, literally, junk...more value in their body-panels than assembled as working units. The idea that after fifty-plus years they're now able to assemble a world-class automobile, for a good price, and market it well enough to give the major players a run for their money...surpasses belief.
That's just what folks said about the Japanese cars before they took over the world, and the Koreans after them. Time will tell.
Plastics