Whole bunch of news from Chrysler

Bankruptcy. Fiat in. Nardelli out. Discuss http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/business/01auto.html?ref=automobiles

the world is slowly coming to an end...

Meanwhile, Mulally is still in charge and Ford has a chance to emerge as number 1 again.

DETROIT — Chrysler, the third-largest American auto company,filed for bankruptcy protection Friday and entered into an alliance with the Italian automaker Fiat.

News comes out a day early now, or did I have a stroke and lose a day?

well, I guess we just came a step closer to seeing new alfas and the 500 here in the states.

mad_machine wrote: well, I guess we just came a step closer to seeing new alfas and the 500 here in the states.

all i want is a Fiat 500..... please!!!!

Now the UAW owns a car company. Is that funny or is it tragic?

Will they now finally get it that you can't just keep pushing costs up without an increase in features and quality or is this just the prelude to round 2 of Chrysler's demise only next time it takes down billions of dollars in taxpayers money?

From Newstados Unidos

If the UAW is a primary shareholder it is in direct violation with the agreement with it's union members. How can you keep the interests of your members in check when you need to keep the interests of your company in check as well?

John Brown wrote: If the UAW is a primary shareholder it is in direct violation with the agreement with it's union members. How can you keep the interests of your members in check when you need to keep the interests of your company in check as well?

Isn't that interesting.

The UAW owns/will own Chrysler and GM through a trust, not directly, so no violation there.

So I guess they did get their money's worth in this last election.

Nardelli will leave smelling like a rose, of course. He left Home Depot with what, $210 million? Bet he's shaken Chrysler down for a bunch as well.

John Brown wrote: From Newstados Unidos

obama drives a escape hybrid.

ignorant wrote: obama drives a escape hybrid.

Presidents don't drive anything. They ride in helicopters, jets, and limousines that we buy them.

He used to have a 300. It got sold after he criticized the automakers for making vehicles with poor fuel economy (even though they produced what sold well), then he took some heat from environmentalists about what he drove. The Escape Hybrid was a "green" shield--a distraction.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/obamas-chrysler-300c.php

Regarding the original post: Can we at least have a 3 strikes government bailout policy? That's two, Chrysler.......

Also, we owned a late '70s FIAT 128 Rally for a few years in the early '80s. I hope for everyone's sake that FIAT quality has improved a bunch.

All the best wishes for the employees. Let this madness be over soon!

Chrysler did pretty well the last ime they went through bankruptcy. Hair brained ideas have worked well for them consistently, so I guess the Fiat idea is as good as any.

I guess if the UAW owns Chrysler, the chances of a future strike drop significantly.

I, for one, expect to see Chrysler put out the same miserable crap that few are buying now, and only because of the massive price reductions that are being offered on them. Even at $10k+ off MSRP, I still wouldn't touch a Caliber (even the SRT-4), or any of the abominations that claim to be Jeeps, and this has nothign to do with brand loyalty - when the Employee Pricing++ came out, I actually took a good look at the available Chrysler products as it seemed a good time to make a deal. The only thing they make that I'd remotely consider purchasing was teh Grand Cherokee, but quite frankly my '96 Bronco is more what I need and want, and at 1/7th the price even after the discount.

Scrap all of the FWD cars and all of the non-trail rated Jeeps, and they MIGHT have a chance.

I would expect any union controlled auto company to self terminate within 2 years.

Other sources say GM is headed down this exact 55% ownership path.

All I can say is its very hard to be a Mopar guy these days.

I just went to the Dodge website and could not find anything about warranty.

If the gov't plans to back the warranty, I expect that Chrysler will drop the "lifetime" warranty offer.

Actually, my Jeep Liberty 6-speed has turned out to be a pretty good vehicle for the first 50,000 miles - at least after I lifted it 2.5 inches so it will actually go on the 4WD trails around here, and got rid of the laughable OEM tires. Averaging 20 mph overall so far, with a highway high of 24.

Does anyone remember Bill Harrah's "Jerrari"? Last I knew it was still at the National Auto Museum in Reno. Way back, Harrah was the West Coast Ferrari distributer and had a Ferrari V-12 powered Jeep Cherokee (one of the full-sized ones) built for his personal use - a really clean conversion, right down to the "Jeep Rampante" hood emblem. I've seen it - awesome. Let's see - FIAT own Ferrari, FIAT will now have a major interest in Chrysler, who own Jeep, hmmmm. Maybe some new product development?

Rob_Mopar wrote: All I can say is its very hard to be a Mopar guy these days.

tell me about it. i wanted to cry and vomit when I sat in both a calibur and avenger, and I'm in an 11 Y.O. neon

I duuno, looking at the current fiats, theres some pretty innovative stuff there..and most seem to have available clean burn diesels...

im liking the looks of the 3 door punto, but the thing that surprised me most, was the onboard data logging set up they have: http://www.fiat.co.uk/ecodrive/#ecodrive/intro

brilliant... you just use a thumb drive and can log data and export it to your pc, to be analyzed with their downloadable program. id bet someone has already created a performance (rather than economy) version..quite promising out of the box tech. could make for some really interesting and innovative Chrysler cars down the road...