Chrysler Suicide Watch 37: No Lease on Life

Ken Elias
by Ken Elias

Chrysler Financial has pulled the plug on new vehicle leases. Given ongoing bankruptcy rumors, the automaker’s co-Prez immediately manned the PR barricades. Jim Press reassured the world that Chrysler is simply diverting lease subsidies into “traditional financing.” That way, “many customers” could enjoy “about” the same monthly payment that they “would have had” in a lease. Meanwhile, ChryCo spokeswoman Shawn Morgan sang the same old song. "Despite the challenges, Chrysler continues to meet or exceed its plan on all financial metrics." C’mon, really?

Talk about the smartest guys in the room! This statement assumes that Cerberus Capital Management knew the U.S. new vehicle market was about to implode when they bought Chrysler in spring 2007. If so, talk about disinformation! At the time of Chrysler's purchase from Daimler, Cerberus Chairman John Snow said: "Cerberus believes in the inherent strength of U.S. manufacturing and of the U.S. auto industry."

Inherent maybe. But since that fateful day last August when Cerberus took ownership of the Pentastar, the domestic auto market’s gone south. South Pole in the winter south.

In fact, truck and fleet car-heavy Chrysler couldn’t be worse positioned for the economic downdraft. Its cash cows are dead; the slaughterhouse is backed-up with carcasses. Their revamped minivan is selling less briskly than the model it replaced. The new Dodge Ram is scheduled for a fall launch, but it won’t/can’t get out of the gate unless dealers can get rid of the old Rams– which are stockpiled to fences. Many Dodge dealers have trucks on the ground that have had birthday celebrations.

The numbers speak for themselves…

In the first half of 2008, ChryCo sales slipped some 250k units compared to ’07. That’s roughly a 22 percent decline. Chrysler’s truck sales are down 25 percent, the biggest loss of any major truck maker. The automaker’s overall market share has dropped 1.8 percent; it’s now less than 12 percent. We already know the impact of sagging sales and lost market share on Ford’s financials. Does Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli really expect us to believe that his employer’s been meeting or exceeding its projections?

To accept that assertion we’d have to ignore Daimler’s Q1/08 public financials. These stats suggest that Chrysler Holdings (including the automotive ops and the finance arm) lost a staggering $2.9b in a three month period.

Not at all says Chrysler. Daimler included a whole bunch of items which cannot be used to make such a calculation. We lost only $509m. One of those “excepted items” includes a $200m difference due to US and Euro accounting standards. So Chrysler didn’t recognize certain expenses but Daimler did?

You’d be forgiven for thinking that under a more "aggressively conservative" accounting approach, Chrysler Holdings lost $700m in the first quarter, maybe more. Any way you cut it, it;s bad. Yet all we get from the CEO's office is an exhortation to ChryCo employees to “stick to the course we have set for ourselves for a return to profitability.”

No one beyond Cerberus founder Steven Feinberg’s inner circle of executives and bankers knows the exact truth about Chrysler’s financials. In the absence of solid information from Auburn Hills about the automaker’s financial health, speculation about Chrysler’s future, or lack thereof, is running rampant.

And why not? It's clear that there ain’t no mo’ money available to the company. The bankers have put down their ten-foot poles and run. If the well runs dry, that’s it, the gig is up.

Lenders to Chrysler’s suppliers, vendors and dealers are getting nervous. Extended payment terms, selective invoice discounts, and for some, delayed payments, exacerbate the tension. We’re told that there’s $7b in the kitty. But every dollar is precious. Prudent cash flow management or an internal scramble to manage the cash drawer to keep it from emptying? This could be the prelude to the “run on the bank” scenario RF mooted for GM back in Delphi’s dark days.

The dominoes will start to fall if and when a lender to a Chrysler supplier decides it doesn’t want to continue providing financing. Credit gets cut off. Facing extinction, the supplier puts Chrysler on a “payment on delivery basis.” The fire spreads. Every supplier insists on cash on delivery. Word gets out. Dealers stop ordering vehicles. Chrysler runs short of cash. Game over.

To forestall foreclosure, Cerberus needs to publish Chrysler’s financials (including the financial arm). If the automaker’s doing better than we think, that’s great. We’d like to share in the brilliance of the turnaround. Chrysler’s camp followers will support Nardelli’s public proclamations. Dealers and suppliers will have more confidence in the company and the stewardship by Cerberus.

If the dark clouds of bankruptcy are hovering over Auburn Hills, well Ford and GM aren’t doing so great either. At least it’s out there for everyone to see. But Chrysler’s continuing drumbeat of plant shutdowns, employee layoffs, sales declines and now a cut-off of leasing just leads to speculation, none of it good. The question remains: how much of it is right?

Ken Elias
Ken Elias

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  • John Horner John Horner on Jul 29, 2008

    "These three distinct V6 engine families are due to be replaced with a single new engine (available in several displacements) due in 2010." And if they make it, they will replicate a strategy Nissan has used successfully with their VQ engine series for almost 15 years now. Talk about being late to the game!

  • Josh34 Josh34 on Aug 02, 2008

    I drive by my local Chrysler dealer frequently. A few weeks ago their lot became stuffed with 300s and trucks. Nothing there I would look twice at. It's very obvious what isn't selling. I feel sorry for my dealer being stuck with so much of this unpopular stock. I hope they survive so I can get original parts for my oldie Chrysler until they build a car I'm interested in.

  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
  • Dave Holzman A design award for the Prius?!!! Yes, the Prius is a great looking car, but the visibility is terrible from what I've read, notably Consumer Reports. Bad visibility is a dangerous, and very annoying design flaw.
  • Wjtinfwb I've owned multiple Mustang's, none perfect, all an absolute riot. My '85 GT with a big Holley 4 barrel and factory tube header manifolds was a screaming deal in its day and loved to rev. I replaced it with an '88 5.0 Convertible and added a Supercharger. Speed for days, handling... present. Brakes, ummm. But I couldn't kill it and it embarrassed a lot of much more expensive machinery. A '13 Boss 302 in Gotta Have It Green was a subtle as a sledgehammer, open up the exhaust cut outs and every day was Days of Thunder. I miss them all. They've gotten too expensive and too plush, I think, wish they'd go back to a LX version, ditch all the digital crap, cloth interior and just the Handling package as an add on. Keep it under 40k and give todays kids an alternative to a Civic or WRX.
  • Jpolicke In a communist dictatorship, there isn't much export activity that the government isn't aware of. That being the case, if the PRC wanted to, they could cut the flow of fentanyl down to a trickle. Since that isn't happening, I therefore assume Xi Jinping doesn't want it cut. China needs to feel the consequences for knowingly poisoning other countries' citizens.
  • El scotto Oh, ye nattering nabobs of negativism! Think of countries like restaurants. Our neighbors to the north and south are almost as good and the service is fantastic. They're awfully close to being as good as the US. Oh the Europeans are interesting and quaint but you really only go there a few times a year. Gents, the US is simply the hottest restaurant in town. Have to stand in line to get in? Of course. Can you hand out bribes to get in quicker? Of course. Suppliers and employees? Only the best on a constant basis.Did I mention there is a dress code? We strictly enforce it. Don't like it? Suck it.
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