D (C) pays $650m to dump Chrysler

Looks like there are actually doing it. I hope us Chrysler owner's don't get orphaned by not being able to get parts.

Seems like Daimler's biggest problem was the health care costs for current and retired workers. Does Germany have a national healthcare plan, so employers don't have to provide it? I wonder how German autoworker wages compare with those of the U.S.

Kirk Matheson

Free at last, free at last! Halleluja, Chrysler's free at last!

. I hope us Chrysler owner's

That's a completely mythical problem. Oldsmobile, AMC, Studebaker, Hudson, MG, etc. parts are still available. Chrysler would be no different.

Besides, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see Chrysler come out ahead. Remember, it was only 18 months ago that Chrysler was the best-selling DC brand and the Mercedes division was the "money losing" divison. Frankly, DC showed a lot of naivete by bailing so fast, and I think a lot of it may have been the fact that Daimler was never really welcome at Chrysler after it became a hostile takeover instead of a "merger of equals." The whole point of a big multi-national corporation is so that anytime that any one divison is unprofitable due to product cycles, consumer preference, or whatever; the OTHER divisions remain profitable.

I feel you've hit the nail on the head.

Many reports indicate the D and C cultures didn't get along together.

At the time of the merger/takeover, some commentators were wondering how it would work out: (a) D was run by engineers (fancy that!), whereas C was run by "managers," who didn't necessarily know anything about engineering, cars, or any other product; (b) the salary differential between the lowest-paid and the highest-paid was way lower at D than at C (and that's probably typical of any German company -- if not European companies in general -- compared to any US company).

Perce

That's what I think. It just blows my mind that they even thought Chrysler was a problem, let alone sold it. Chrysler is doing much better than GM and Ford in the current sales downdraft. They lost 1 (one) Billion last year, so that convinced Daimler to take 30 (thirty) Billion loss? They've gone crazy. Chrysler will be fine.

I guess the cash cow didn't give milk for a few months so they sold it. They forgot cows work on a cycle.

So anyway, go Chrysler! Goodbye Daimler!

I hear you.... Diamler can bite the big one. I've worked with Dodge for 13 years and seen the end of the 12 year cycle come and go. Times with pick up again. I still love my truck with high gas prices here not everyone wants to drive a crayon box. I do my commuting with my motorcycle to work when it permits.

All I've seen are to many chiefs (most are idiots) and too few indians. Chrysler just needs good managment and weed out the bone heads up stairs.

Yes. Dream on USA workers.

High, due to the exchange rate which makes German workers wages even higher as the US$ drops.

Well, I think BOTH "D" and "C" had a problem with balancing good management and sound engineering. Throughout most of its history, Chrysler engineers actually did have a lot of say. Periodically they'd get overrulled by management and disaster followed (ie, introducing the A-604 before it was working right- Iacocca saying "I'm gonna go take a piss and when I get back tell me this thing is in production" legend- maybe its true- circa 1988). On the other hand, Benz engineers often were allowed to play around far too long and without realistic bounds, hence the reputation for needlessly complicated and utterly UNreliable cars that persists to this day. In short, Chrysler's engineers were highly underrated and Benz's were highly overrated. A seamless blending of the cultures would have been good for both companies, but both were (in many ways justifiably) proud of their own histories and didn't really like each other.

And it only got worse when it became clear that "D" was going to bleed "C" dry to get through its own horrendous sales slump and unprofitability shortly after the merger.

True until the top Merc executives started paying themselves US salaries...

DAS

For direct replies replace nospam with schmetterling

Not really. Unless the wager earners are spending their income on a lot of products priced in USD, the currency exchange rate doesn't have a lot of direct effect on their buying power at home.