I would rather see GM and Ford merge. As an outsider looking in, those 2 companies seem better poised to emerge from these horrific conditions than the Chrysler group.

 

You could be on the money there!

 

1. GM is in worse financial condition than Chrysler at the moment.

2. It seems Cerberus never really intended to rebuild Chrysler. It seems they intended to hold Chrysler and resell it later at a profit.

3. They seem to succeeded somewhat by essentially cutting costs, but they don't seem to have spent very much in product development to keep Chrysler on par with the competition.

Chrysler develops new vehicles much quicker than GM does. Chrysler is also a much lower cost vehicle manufacturer than GM, not to mention a more efficient manufacturer (though not as efficient as Ford is currently let alone will be shortly).

Chrysler also has both the Dodge and Jeep brands which carry a massive amount of equity. Jeep is still highly valuable. Companies bought out the owners of Jeep a few times over just to get ahold of Jeep. The Dodge brand has the highest percentage of male buyers of any brand on sale in the United States, foreign or domestic based. Chrysler also has far more experience in RWD (not to mention producing more RWD cars) than GM. Chrysler also has the forementioned Cummings. Chrysler also had world dominance in minivans... something both Ford and GM has never topped.

But most of all, Chrysler has (by scale based on the size of the company) signifacantly more money than GM. Take scale out of the question, Chrysler still has significant cash that GM absolutely needs for it's survival.

There's heaps of benefit for GM by merging with Chrysler.

Personally, though, I think Chrysler would benefit more by merging with Nissan-Renault. More global resources at their disposal, more vehicles to draw on, and most important and vital to their survival.... a decision making process that isn't as seemingly spastic, overly conservative, and destructively sluggish as GM's seems to be.

In any merger between Chrysler and GM, I would have to say it would be Chrysler that would get the short end and would reap the least benefit, not General Motors.

 

2012 Silverado, Sierra, Titan, and Ram would all be the same truck

100% agree, Chrysler needs good small cars and Nissan needs trucks. That would make sense.

 

It's Cummins....

Sorry, my mom has worked there for like 20 years, it's a pet peeve...

 

Too many brands, Too many models, Too many dealerships.

The only way this makes sense is if the deal comes with billions of dollars in cash to keep the merged company afloat for a couple years.

And I guess it provides a rationale to axe the Pontiac/Buick/GMC channel without eating too much marketshare.

 

Cerberus should sell Chrysler to Renault and buy GM.

 

Cerberus just wants to dump Chrysler
They are smart and don't want no part of GM.
Yeaaaa let GM have Chrysler and you will have dealers selling the same product everywhere

 

Gm needs to walk away (no, make that run away) from any bargaining table with Chrysler/Cerebus. It's like sipping Hemlock juice thinking it won't hurt you if you just taste it.

If GM is going to do anything good in the short term, they need to hit a few new models on the head, and finish negotiating a JV with Ford - like was discussed a month ago. I think that a good demonstration that they can make a decision and execute it would calm the market for them a bit.

Which brings me to my last - and my ugliest comment. I know where I am, and I know that some folks here think Wagner and Lutz hang the moon and sun. I felt the same... I was glad to see Lutz come on board and was loving the sparring contests betwenn He and Colletti as much as anyone. But very honestly and very truly from my heart - it's time for them to go. They have had ample time to do something great, but have failed overall. There's been some great cars and trucks done - especially the niche-market pieces like the Z06 and ZR1, the CTS and CTS-V, etc. They have also done a nice job with Caddy overall. They have developed China better than any other car company in the world - they own the biggest share of sales in China by far.

But after having said all the nice praises, I have to put the baggage on the table too. They have allowed flip-flop decisions to take place that have the company in a state of confusion. Models coming and going in the concept stages is one thing, but some of the platform realignments and reskin jobs have been downright terrible. There have been many miscues and poor executions too, like the Aztek, GTO, and SSR for example. All great and unique vehicles with wonderful uniqueness, but so poorly executed by demigraphics, process, and marketing... they were all doomed, have gone away, and left the company with a black eye. At this very moment, I personally feel that they are still in some basic denial of their condition, and are grasping at straws... talking merger with Chrysler... JV with Ford... etc. The one thing I CAN SEE is that they appear to incapable of finding a diorection, making a good plan, and sticking to it.

It is my opinion that the top rungs of the ladder need to take leave and bring in someone from outside of GM to run the turnaround. This needs to be someone with a track record of doing such things, and not afraid to question current decisions and procedures, and even overturn a few if necessary. I think if we saw such an action from the top of GM's glass tower in Detroit, the rest of the world would take heed and start to respond with positive numbers on the ticker board.

Remember, I also loved (and still do) Bill Ford's passion for wanting to do things right. He never took a penny in salary or bonuses while leading Ford, and would not do so until it was profitable again. He LOVED the Mustang and promised it would be given priority at Ford. He did spend big money on redoing the essential Ford vehicles like the Mustang and F150. BUT... he was not the right guy to orchestrate a turnaround like they needed, and after trying for a while, he had the ***** to admit it and go get someone who could do it before it was too late. While I hated to se him slide out of a position that had so much impact on the vehicles, I admired him that much more for seeing it was the right thing to do. And I certainly think it has helped Ford fortify their position in the market today, as Wall Street knows Mulally and his record at Boeing. It seemed to give the market confidence in the activity, the plan, and the leadership... a confidence that GM needs to demonstrate today... at least to me anyways.

 

GM came to Ford looking for a merger.

Ford actually REFUSED to merge with GM because GM was worse off than they were, and Ford felt merging with GM would hinder and harm their own recovery.

Once again, Chrysler is in notably BETTER cash condition than General Motors. GM has roughly $20 Billion in cash, Chrysler still has $11 billion. Chrysler is roughly 1/4 the size of GM (likely less), yet has over half the money that GM has (Ford is significantly smaller than GM, yet has more money).

Chrysler's big problem is product, not money. Supposedly a large chunk of this is to be repaired over the next 18 months.... we'll see.

 

Looks like these "rumors" are still going today - and it appears that billions of dollars in cash would be included. Likely around 11 Billion.

Like has bee noted previously Cerberus are looking to possibly give, almost literally give, Chrysler to GM in exchange for more of GMAC.

GM could keep what they want and shutter everything else. Keep Jeep, turn the 300 into the next Impala and call it a day. Take 1.5 million non-GM units off the market.

 

You would need to keep the Ram, or put the Cummins in a Silverado or Sierra, otherwise you're going to have a lot of pissed off truck drivers.

 

I think that's a valid point, and I think you'd have some people go crazy about losing the Challenger, too, but any fights you had over brand loyalty would likely be somewhat minor compared to the 10s (100s?) of thousands of people they'd likely put out of work overnight. Would any of those people ever consider buying GM again?

It's a sticky situation and how it would be handled is probably completely dependent on how desperate GM gets for that cash.

 

Personally, I don't think I'd be buying another GM vehicle again if the merging/buying of Chrysler happened. The impact on jobs would be devastating! As much as I am excited and anxious for the Camaro to come to dealerships next year, living in the Detroit area and seeing the results of that devastation in my backyard would put a lasting bitter taste in my mouth.

 

Mine too.

If this comes to pass, and tens of thousands (and maybe in the hundred thousand range) lose their jobs, I'm not sure I could stay a dedicated American car buyer.
ESPECIALLY if I lose MY job.