Daimler Open to Partial Sale of Chrysler
 

"DaimlerChrysler has opened the door to a total or partial sale of its Detroit-based Chrysler unit, acknowledging the shortcomings of one of the most ambitious transatlantic business mergers.

The German carmaker has hired JPMorgan to explore Chrysler's future." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17149205/

Who didn't see this coming a while ago?

Has anybody seen any benefits from the merger show up in any MB vehicles?

Or Chrysler's, for that matter, except the Crossfire?

the chrysler 300 and dodge magnum are very nice vehicles with many mb engineering touches such as independant rear suspension.

i dont get the little car/suv that is replacing the neon though (caliper?).

tom w

Chrysler was at an advantage. The Crossfire as mentioned. Also the upcoming diesel engines.

Benefits for MB? None that I can see. They need to sell fast.

i dunno.

chrysler has some good products. the economy is pretty much in the toilet overall and not many cars are selling very well, maybe they can hold on til it picks up.

OTOH who will buy chrysler? Oil companies? Halliburton?

tom w

I agree. This deal did nothing but drag down MB brand and drag "up" Chrysler. Basically, if you want a new entry level MB, just buy a nice Chrysler and save a fortune. The technology is there.

In the end, this would be a win-win (for them to split back up.) -- (Daimler might take a socking -- and they'll still need to improve their quality to compete with the Lexus nameplate.

Pete

Well, the Japs are the problem. The Lexus is a MB knockoff.

The Japs have a knack for taking something well built and then building it better.

MB=Lexus
MG=Mazda Miata
HD=any v-twin cruiser (V-star,Shadow,etc)
Triumph= Yamaha XS
Ducati 916/99x=Honda RC51

They refine the hell out of it but in the process take out the charm. The last example being the most obvious. The RC51 is fast and bullet proof but doesn't have near the charm and character as a 99x.

The takeover was ment to benifit MB's parent compay's bottom line. They were tired of losing money on Mercedes cars. From a technoligy side MB wasn't expecting to get anything from Chrysler. You have to understand the mentality of the german engineers at Mercedes. Anything they hand down to the poor backward Chrysler guys is to be viewed as a gift from God!:D Technoligy going up stream? Yeah that will happen when pigs fly.

I think what they were expecting was to take all of MB's old stuff, and re sell it under Chrysler. Hence the 300C which is pretty much a cheaped up W210, or the Crossfire which is an old SLK with a different body. This would allow MB to build a car, sell it for 6-8 years, then give the design to Chrysler to sell for another 3-5 years. Since MB's stuff is so advanced they can get away with this as they have shown.

Since profits of the Chrysler division have been poor as of late this move is expected, Chrysler was bought as a cash cow and it doesn't produce. Expect a sale or a major reorganization.

There are mergers that make sense, and then ones that are done for ego reasons. This one goes in the last category. Anyone on this forum could have told MB that it was a dumb merger with minimal synergies.

Just think of the billions lost that could have been otherwise spent in upgrading the manufacturing processes and quality of the MB brand.

Then they could have attacked Lexus (and others) from a position of strength.

So MB got what it wanted..... Another case of beware of what you wish for.

Considering Mercedes recent reliability woes, I'd rather depend on a Jeep Grand Cherokee than an ML as a daily driver.

I agree. Mercedes has been doing very well over the last couple of years bumping the quality up. But they should dump Chyrsler and concentrate on there core brand.

Don't forget that Chrysler's well-established dealership network was seen by DB as a siginificant inducement to the merger. I always found that interesting, as I never could fathom an S500 in the same showroom as a PT Cruiser. Perhaps the smart move for MB would have been to establish a "bridge" make, upmarket from Chrysler, downmarket from Mercedes, with (heavily-touted) German engineering, and market it in Chrysler showrooms. The salesmen could seduce customers with "It's made by Mercedes", and garner some sales, while the three-pointed star remains unsullied by any direct connection with the Chrysler nameplate.

As I remember one thing that Chrysler did have that interested Chrysler was the short build time for a complete car. At the time it was one of the lowest in the industry.

I thought getting the European rights to the Jeep line would have been one of the benefits to DB. Is that tied in with the splitting off of Chrysler?

They should sell to Phillip Morris and piss off everyone. That would be so cool, "I drive a Marlboro".

"Is that smoke from the diesel or the cigs?"