By MICHELINE MAYNARD
DETROIT, Oct. 25 - DaimlerChrysler without Chrysler might not be that farfetched an idea.
Executives at Chrysler's German parent on Wednesday refused to rule out the possibility that the Chrysler Group could be spun off or sold, after Chrysler announced that it lost $1.5 billion in the last three months.
Though there are no indications that such a spinoff is imminent, the possibility of such a sale is the latest sign of upheaval in the American auto industry, as the three Detroit companies struggle to return to profitability.
Such a move would potentially end the eight-year merger that shook the automobile industry when it was announced in 1998. That merger triggered other transnational arrangements, like the alliance between Renault and Nissan, and the now-defunct deal between General Motors and Fiat.
But DaimlerChrysler, meant to be a merger of equals between Germany's Daimler-Benz and Chrysler of the United States, has instead proved to be an automotive seesaw.
Rarely in the last eight years have both Chrysler and Mercedes, Daimler's German luxury brand, been on the upswing at the same time.
"The goal is to create a strategy that assures the sustained profitability at Chrysler and DaimlerChrysler," Bodo =DCbber, DaimlerChrysler's chief financial officer, said during a conference call with industry analysts and journalists. He added: "We don't exclude anything here."
Mr. =DCbber continued, "We at first are doing the analysis, then we are talking about it, and we draw our conclusions."
His careful language prompted immediate questions about whether Chrysler was up for sale. To one, Mr. =DCbber replied, "I can only repeat myself - first analysis, second measures, third is conclusion. That is what my statement is."
He added: "Any speculation is what you are doing. I don't do any speculation."
Officials at Chrysler maintained later Wednesday that the company was not in danger of being abandoned by the German parent that had wooed it so forcefully almost a decade ago. Indeed, DaimlerChrysler's chief executive, Dieter Zetsche, who ran Chrysler until a year ago, has emphasized his intent to fix Chrysler, not dump it.
But a potential suitor exists: Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Renault and Nissan who tried unsuccessfully this summer to explore a possible alliance with G.M., has made no secret of his desire to add a North American partner to his union.
Beyond Mr. Ghosn, the most likely candidate might be a company from China, whose automakers are eager to expand into North America, said Ron Pinelli, an industry analyst with Autodata of Woodcliff Lake, N.J.
But "all the Chinese would want would be the dealers and the brand names - they don't want the factories or the employees," he said.
Chrysler's situation now is in sharp contrast to 1998, when it was an auto industry darling, known for taking risks with styling and earning some of the biggest profits in the industry on vehicles like the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Dodge Ram pickup.
The merger was the brainchild of a former Daimler-Benz chief executive, J=FCrgen Schrempp, who envisioned a global company that could share purchasing, manufacturing and development while keeping separate identities for both Chrysler and Mercedes.
The deal, however, has never paid off on the scale that Mr. Zetsche imagined, and indeed, Chrysler has bounced back and forth between its traditional identity as the third-biggest American player and its goal of joining Mercedes among a small group of foreign brands with clear identities and buyer loyalty.
The company, which had insisted its fortunes would improve during the second half of the year, instead surprised analysts a few weeks ago by disclosing it expected to lose $1.5 billion.
Earlier this week, Chrysler acknowledged that it has kept as many as
100,000 vehicles in its order bank, a separate supply of cars that have not been assigned to dealers and are not included in its inventory figures, which are already high by industry standards.The company's problems led it to create what it is calling "Project Refocus," an effort to re-examine every aspect of the way Chrysler does business, from manufacturing to purchasing and its overhead costs.
The company is striving to cut the equivalent of $1,000 out of the cost of every vehicle, a difficult task given that Chrysler is introducing eight models this fall. It is much easier for companies to cut costs before new models are introduced.
Another difficult task would be setting a value on Chrysler as a separate company, as well as determining the mechanics of a possible breakup.