History COULD THE BIG THREE BECOME THE BIG TWO

Automotive News is reporting that Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne is announcing to investors at a meeting today, June 1st, he will end the Chrysler brand leaving only the Dodge brand of the once glorious Chrysler Corporation fleet of cars and trucks. Only the 300 and Pacifica carry the Chrysler nametag today. Walter P. Chrysler must be rolling in his grave.

 

Ending the Chrysler brand?! What, I say what are they thinking? Have they no shame? ( feelings that is, guilt for the mistake they’re making).


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Study the beginning of Chrysler Corp. Walter P. worked for other companies until he started building cars in 1924. In 1928 be created Plymouth and Desoto, AND bought Dodge Brothers Corp. for $146 million dollars. It was the largest cash sale in history at that time. Talk about BIG balls!! It's been a good run but it sounds like the fat lady is about to sing.

 

As long as we have Chevrolet, the sun will continue to rise. I guess we're still good then....

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changing world

 

Maybe investors won't go along with it.

 

Been waiting for this shoe to drop for years. Ram and Jeep are all the CEOs want.

 

I thought this would be about the swap meet in San Diego.

 

Used to be the big 4, Chrysler bought AMC to get Jeep. Now they're going out? The new Demon is the fastest production (drag) car. They need another Lee Iacocca.

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Going the same path as Ford, stopping production of cars except the Mustang and Focus.
GM wont be too far behind.

 

That thing got a Fiat in it?

 

So did I.

 

Last year I went to the local Chrysler dealer to get parts for a 1966 Dodge. They told me they can't get parts for anything over 10 years old. I knew then Chrysler was through. Expect them to shut down completely in a couple of years.

 

You ARE joking, right? Trying to get parts for 50 year old car from a new car dealership is.....well

And what “they” told you about the 10 year thing is debatable. It usually depends on the category and recent demand for certain parts......’hard parts’, i.e..mechanical are usually in the parts pipeline longer than soft trim and the stuff readily available at the local chain parts store.

In any case, I lament the p***ing of the Chrysler name plate........back when I was a Chrysler dealer (1981 into 1999) Lee Ioccoa flirted with buying Fiat (I guess it was the Italian thing). Having had some prior experience with Fiat, I vowed I would put a ‘For Sale’ sign on my store the day that happened. Fortunately Lee didn’t pursue that during his reign.

Ironic that the reverse happened......to my surprise and great relief, as a MOPAR car and truck owner, Sergio and Fiat actually did a pretty nice job managing the MOPAR legacy vehicles and even the Fiat models are light years ahead of the **** they sold 40 years ago.

My ‘fleet’ of OT Chrysler, Dodge and RAM will be maintained and driven with pride in spite of the coming changes. And, I have a few H.A.M.B. friendly Mopars too (one each Plymouth, Dodge and Chrysler) that are keepers until the inevitable estate sale ......

GM recently announced that my other favored make, Buick, will no longer bear the “Buick” name plate in the US market......only the model name. Meanwhile, the Chinese are loving “Buick” and buying them like hot cakes....oh, wait.....maybe not hot cakes, but ....hmmmm.... maybe fried rice.
And the later is also a favorite of mine!

Ray

 

And here I thought Sergio Marchionne just made spaghetti westerns.

Another is a long line of American car company names p***es into history.

 

The fact is I got parts for the same car (then 40 years old) at the local Chrysler dealer 10 years ago. They were parts that the aftermarket couldn't supply in other words, rare and unusual parts.

The aftermarket still supplies pretty much all common mechanical parts, and some body parts for the same car.

I know some car makers don't support their own cars after 10 years. Those are cars I am not interested in owning.

It is particularly piquant when Lincoln sells you a $75,000 car and as much as says "don't expect this piece of **** to still be running in 10 years, we sure don't".

 

It's a brand that doesn't make sense anymore. Wealthy people buy quality German brands or innovative brands like Tesla. All the Chrysler buyers died years ago.
Now if Chrysler had the quality of a Mercedes or the innovation of a Tesla it'd be a different story. And they used to. In 1955 Chrysler built one of the world's best cars. The brand got trashed in the 80s.


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Sergio Leone