It's amazing out fast bad news can travel... .. One year Chrysler was the shining star that every US car Salesman wanted to work for (if they could not get a job with Toyota)... today.. a virtual car park....
Feb 25, 2005 Auburn Hills. MI.
DAIMLERCHRYSLER ..... always seems to outdo itself at the Detroit auto show, and this year was no exception. The company showcased celebrities like the pop singer Seal and the chef Bobby Flay, and then generated a fresh round of buzz via an artificial ice rink (its surface carefully scuffed to keep visitors from slipping) that it built to show off its legendary Mercedes-Benz line.
For DaimlerChrysler itself, however, the corporate mood was just as cold as the ice. Although the German auto giant’s chief executive, Dieter Zetsche, shook hands warmly with each of about two dozen journalists who came to a press briefing at last month’s car fest, he grew unusually frosty when asked about the future of Chrysler, its struggling American brand. “We are in recovery mode again,” he acknowledged.
Less than six weeks later, on Valentine’s Day, Mr. Zetsche announced that DaimlerChrysler was keeping all options open as it tries to tackle its Chrysler problems. At least one of those options involves a possible sale: the company recently retained JPMorgan Chase to scout for a buyer willing to take Chrysler off its hands, most likely at a bargain-basement price. Suddenly, it seems like 1979 all over again: Chrysler is in crisis, with sales falling, costs rising and cars piling up on dealer lots.
But this time, there is one big difference: No one is talking about a government-financed bailout to give Chrysler another chance — in part because it is no longer an American icon.
Chrysler is not “too big to fail,” as it was described then, its tens of thousands of well-paying union jobs too vital to lose. It is now a vestigial part of a sector of the economy — manufacturing — that does not loom as large in the nation’s consciousness. “It is a new world,” said Ron Pinelli, the president of Autodata in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., which tracks industry statistics. “If Chrysler disappeared, would anyone’s life change, except for the people that work for the company?”
Chrysler’s rebound from its near-death experience of the late ’70s is the stuff of legend. It survived back then by closing plants and persuading its remaining workers to accept pay cuts, among other things; then it repaid the government aid, with interest, well ahead of schedule. As recently as two years ago, the company was the money-spinning master of hot cars like the 300C and the PT Cruiser.
But now, Chrysler is fighting for its survival again, a situation that lays bare the failure of previous generations of managers to resolve, or even fully address, its many fundamental problems. Rather than using crises as opportunities to remake Chrysler in the model of its Japanese competitors, say analysts conversant with the company’s trajectory, a revolving cast of corporate stewards repeatedly relied on silver bullets to revive the automaker.
Over and over, they introduced a single hot-selling models like PT Cruiser, 300 series, Prowler, Crossfire etc... here or tightened the screws on suppliers there, instead of doing the tougher work that real transformation required.
Phone 02 9829 5072
Phone 0438 658 458
Phone 0432 136 333
