Here is a headline you thought you'd never see!

[Brucelee]

Originally Posted by Lordblood

Chrysler's December sales fell 59%, much more than the Japanese competitors.
Not surprised, part of a failing economy is less sales of luxuries (more people turn to public transportation). The good thing is, however, that the economy always corrects itself, so a failing economy should lead to a healthy one is a few years.

Stay tuned and hold tight people.

PS. Speaking of Chrysler, my dad had to rent one because we are doing a clutch change and 90k service on my Boxster, so we are now driving around in a Chrysler Sebring from 2007. I must say, I can see why Toyota and Honda have been making more sales, because this brand new Chrysler felt plasticity, cheap, and worst of all it had vague throttle and steering and we took a trip with it to the mountains (not fun with vague controls).

Chrysler was essentially still born when it was jettisoned from Mercedes, who in my opinion, stripped it of everything that gave it a chance to survive in its niche.

I have studied the Mercedes acquisition and dumping of Chrysler and it is IMHO one of the worst done mergers in the history of GLOBAL business. Am I overstating?

There are some very fine US built cars out there. I have driven the new Malibu and greatly prefer it to the Accord and Camry. Ditto the Aura.

These generalizations about the US car industry are being changed all the time. It is a very dynamic marketplace for cars right now and the world over-capacity of autos is staggering (likely 50% more than reasonable demand if all the numbers are tallied.

[70Sixter]

[QUOTE=Brucelee]Chrysler was essentially still born when it was jettisoned from Mercedes, who in my opinion, stripped it of everything that gave it a chance to survive in its niche.

I have studied the Mercedes acquisition and dumping of Chrysler and it is IMHO one of the worst done mergers in the history of GLOBAL business. Am I overstating? /QUOTE]

Merger? More like corporate rape!

I remember the joke at the time:

Q. How do you pronounce Daimler-Chrysler?

A. Daimler. Chrysler is silent.

[Lordblood]

Originally Posted by Brucelee

Chrysler was essentially still born when it was jettisoned from Mercedes, who in my opinion, stripped it of everything that gave it a chance to survive in its niche.

I have studied the Mercedes acquisition and dumping of Chrysler and it is IMHO one of the worst done mergers in the history of GLOBAL business. Am I overstating?

There are some very fine US built cars out there. I have driven the new Malibu and greatly prefer it to the Accord and Camry. Ditto the Aura.

These generalizations about the US car industry are being changed all the time. It is a very dynamic marketplace for cars right now and the world over-capacity of autos is staggering (likely 50% more than reasonable demand if all the numbers are tallied.

I agree, Mercedes pretty much destroyed Chrysler's business. Now Chrysler is probably the worst off within the big three in America (GM has several European brands to keep their business up).

I heard the new Malibu is quite good, and a lot quieter than the Camry. I told my dad to get the Toyota though because personally I don't trust Chevy in terms of reliability, and personally I think the new Malibu is pretty ugly, whereas I really like the new design direction Toyota/Lexus has taken.

There are a few stars in the American car market, the new ZR1 Corvette, the Saturn Sky/Pontiac Solstice and the upcoming Camaro to name a few.