Fiat reached a deal with the Feds to buy out their 6% share of Chrysler for 560 million plus a $75 million option the Feds had to buy the rest of the company from the UAW.

Chrysler borrowed 13.5 billion from the feds. Although taxpayers lost 1.3 billion in the deal, that is a far cry from 10 billion it's expected to lose with GM, and an even more massive difference from the Hundreds of Billions the government would have had to pay out in unemployment and pension benefits.

Contrary to the more vocal and idealogically driven members of this site a few years ago, not only is GM not being forced to make government-owner mandated golf car sized cars with electric or solar powered motors, but there has yet to be any sign of that Fiat logo being hung off the side of the Chrysler building. In fact, they are expanding production in order to be the producer of rebadged Chryslers selling in Europe as Lancias in 4 times the dealerships Chrysler had on their own.

Fiat seems to have done far and away more for Chrysler in just 24 months than Daimler did for Chrysler the entire time they had it.....and don't get me started on Cerberus.

If anything, it seems Chrysler has taken front and center stage while Fiat seems to be the one that's taking a back seat.

Everything save the Dodge Ram has been redone in the past 12 months, and things are turning around so fast and so well even the UAW isn't intrested in selling back their investment in Chrysler.

As a result of paying off Fed loans, Fiat will own 52% of Chrysler.

IPO is being held off till 2012.

 

The only stale, untouched pieces in my showroom are the Liberty and Caliber. Caliber is gone in less than 12 months, and the Liberty still sells very well with $3,000 on the hood.

I knew they could do it, and they did. Bravo.

 

I saw this on the news this morning before work. Way to go, Chrysler and Fiat!

 

The gov was smart enough not to do that to GM knowing it would have put them out of business. I did see a few rumblings from a few who did want GM to go totally green and only build cars like the Volt and concentrate on mass transit vehicles.
Besides the gov will regulate the whole industry with 60 mpg CAFE standards so the whole industry will be effected, not just GM. So everyone will be building golf cart sized cars powered by electric or solar powered motors.

 

Well thas good news, would be even better if life would take a colossal hulking crap on Diamler though.

 

See what happens when a CAR company with great leadership does with a car company with great potential?

Daimler's intentions were to ruin Chrysler, which it nearly did. Cerberus intentions were to attempt to "flip" Chrysler, which it ultimately did, after losing a ton of cash in the process.

Sergio Marchionne is the new Alan Mulally. Count on it. Marchionne not only had a plan, he has a mission and a motive. If you ever get the chance to see him speek about Chrysler, or anything in general...DO IT. He's very genuine, will joke with you, is laid back and overall a very easy going guy who once more...has a plan.

He is what Bob Lutz was in his "day" except Sergio is a CEO where as Lutz was never, ever, at all interested in becoming a CEO of a major automaker.

Here's something interesting.....

When Cerberus purchased Chrysler from Daimler all of the signage on transport trucks, 18-wheelers, etc read: "Daimler Chrysler"

Cerberus never changed that on trucks, plants, etc.

Now those same trucks and haulers are still the same trucks and haulers, however the "Daimler" portion has been painted over and the trucks just read "Chrysler" now.

Thank you, Fiat!

 

There were exactly 2 senators who wanted to push the administration to demand more green cars, and of course Ralph Nader tried to use the fed's investment in GM to make it into something else. That pretty much covers those few rumblings of the over 460 members of the part of US government who were in a position to legislate what should be done.

The other 458 members of government were either A LOT less vocal (ie: barely paying lip service) or completely stayed out of day to day operations of the business...... as they said they would from the very begining.

Last night I went back to some of the posts from back then (I was off, there was nothing on TV, and work was caught up). It's simply baffleling how many people here simply could not comprehend the simple notion that GM and Chrysler were headed for oblivion and that the government NEEDED to step in to save them.

By you little side swipe at the government that's again based more on opinion than fact, I'd say that notion still exists.... amazingly enough.

Just a quick recap.

1. General Motors Corperation lost all ability to borrow money many years before. It relied on selling bonds in order to get money. Sales of trucks provided cash. This didn't happen overnight. GM was doing fancy bookwork, as well as sweeping needed changes under the rug for nearly a decade.

2. Chrysler had their huge reserves from the late 90s plundered by Damlier, which used the money to finance a revcision of all Mercedes Benz vehicles, create the Smart car, and pay executives as well as assembly line workers huge bonuses. Not commonly known, Chrysler was at least twice as big as Daimler Benz at the time of it's merger, and had at least 3 times the money. Cerberus didn't know how to run a car company, and cut Chrysler's ability to bring out new models (and use better materials in their vehicles) even more than the decimation Chrysler experienced at the hands of Daimler.

3. GM was in such bad shap that they attempted to merge with Ford (Ford took one look at GM's finances and ran the other way). Chrysler sought to associate itself with anyone it could. It made minivans for VW, pickups for Mitsubishi (the new Ram was to be the basis of a new large Nissan pickup before large truck sales crashed back in 2006), it entered developed an engine with Hyundai-Kia and Mitsubishi, the Hornet was to be based on the Nissan Versa. Oddly, while GM went to the feds understating how bad shape they were in, Chrysler overstated it (Chrysler was actually in comparatively decent shape for the short term... they needed new smaller cars to stay that way).

4. Congress, led by Rep Shelby of Tenneseee was very active in blocking any and all aid to US car makers (because most imports set up shop in his state). Congress never approved help for US auto makers. It was Bush diverting money from the Treasury Department that kept them afloat, till the new administration (which correctly made good demands and changes) used the same tactic Bush did in diverting money from pre-approved funding (in this case TARP).

5. Bush has said he did it because he didn't want to have an auto industry collaspse as the end result to his administration, and the Obama administration didn't want to be stuck with massive losses of taxpayer money if Detroit failed either through business as usual, the inability to pay back the loans, or the catastrophic losses we'd all be paying for if millions of auto and auto-related workers suddenly started drawing unemployment and pension.

The Feds (meaning the administration since their heads would be on the block since congress voted against any help) knew they had to get someone in to turn things around quickly and get as much money back as possible. They picked Ed Whitacre, who had a strong background of knocking heads and turning things around to run GM, and they got Fiat to turn around Chrysler with the carrot of entry into the American market through a historic brand.

What is amazingly forgotten in all this idealogy debate is that it was GM itself that funneled money into the Volt, and it was the FEDS that in their report on what was wrong with GM that slammed the Volt as "unprofitable"!!!.

Saying the Feds were promoting the Volt shows that one is not stating facts.

Also completely untrue and baseless is the idea that any government figure in the position to determine such things wanted GM to concentrate on mass transit.

Finally, saying the government WILL mandate 60 mpg cars is once again, nothing bit the idealogical hysteria that was common here back when there were people here advocating that the Feds should simply give GM and Chrysler taxpayer dollars and make no demands on them for changes whatsoever.

Lets get real here for once.

a) The Feds like anyone else want their money back, and aren't going to wreck an industry over idealogy. Even Bush, who never gave the auto industry a moment of his time, coughed up government money.

b) The Feds saved the US car industry. Period.

c) The government today is not going to require something the industry can't do. You heard the same shreaks when Clinton got elected. Yet his administration came up with a law that still stands today, requiring all new federal regulations on automobiles to consider the financial impact to both consumers, the auto industry, and the economy (ie: employment).

d) The US auto industry is all for increased CAFE. Their main worry is a patchwork of different fuel and emission standards from state to state. The reason why the US industry is for higher standards is that each time they invest in small cars, the enviroment changes and they are stuck with cars that they can't give away. That is why the car industry executives from Bob Lutz to Alan Mulally support a sizable increase in the gas tax.

That's auto industry executives supporting higher gas taxes..... not the Feds (ie: government officials that have to actually get elected).

 

I don't think they can take the pentastar off the Chrysler Tech Center building because it is part of the roof.

Fiat is the same company that screwed GM ten years ago too. The only motives I would believe from them are profit. Profit for them. If Chrysler benefits, it is just a coincidence.

-Geoff

 

Yes, but Sergio Marchionne wasn't in charge of Fiat back then. However, we also need to remember that he's an accountant.

 

You might want to read this
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...rss=ezra-klein
Looks like the gov will be pushing for 62mpg cafe standards. So no its not ilealogical hysteria. And it looks likes the car manufacturers are going to fight it. So much for them being for higher cafe standards. I hope they win. Let the car companies make cars the peoole want, not what the gov wants.
Maybe reread this
https://www.camaroz28.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=812159

 

What does Fiat putting their sign on Chrysler have to do with anything? Would that be the Chrysler ideoligy? If they own it, as far as Im concerned they have the right to rename it Fiat Chrysler if they so choose.

Youre out of your mind. The Government did not NEED to step in. We dabbled in Socialism. I like GM, and I advocated the loan, but in the future quite frankly I WONT do it again. Id rather a company fail than go down that road again. Even if it is a company I like...

 

Yeah, it's nice that you feel like that. All the employees wont feel that way though. Neither will the suppliers that shutter. Neither will the dealerships. Neither will the stores that they shopped at. Neither will the states who go broke trying to pay the unemployment of all these people. And so on down the line

 

 

 

#1, CAFE isn't going to be 60mpg anytime soon.

#2) Tesla already has a CAFE rating in the 200mpg range. Electric cars are going to cause a spike in every companies CAFE numbers over the next decade. Tesla Model S and Fisker Karma are far from golf cart sized vehicles yet will have CAFE ratings over 100mpg. Let me put it this way, if you are waiting for the sky to fall, you are going to be waiting for a long long time.