Mike the Usurper wrote:

Chrysler LLC announced late Wednesday that it is stopping all vehicle production in the United States for at least a month.

All 30 of the carmaker's plants will close after the last shift on Friday, and employees will not be asked to return to work before Jan. 19.

wow...

Note that this only adds 2 weeks to their normal shutdown for the holidays.

Unsurprisingly, Chrysler blames the credit crunch for the slowdown, not the waning demand for crummy American cars. Given the amount of debt spending in the recent years, is it appropriate to assume that most of the people who can't get credit shouldn't get it anyway? Maybe "20-25%" of lost business is the new business-as-usual.

-janelane

janelane wrote:

Mike the Usurper wrote:

Chrysler LLC announced late Wednesday that it is stopping all vehicle production in the United States for at least a month.

All 30 of the carmaker's plants will close after the last shift on Friday, and employees will not be asked to return to work before Jan. 19.

wow...

Note that this only adds 2 weeks to their normal shutdown for the holidays.

Unsurprisingly, Chrysler blames the credit crunch for the slowdown, not the waning demand for crummy American cars. Given the amount of debt spending in the recent years, is it appropriate to assume that most of the people who can't get credit shouldn't get it anyway? Maybe "20-25%" of lost business is the new business-as-usual.

-janelane

Jesus Fucking Christ. How many times do we have to go through this? They don't make crummy cars! For 2008, JD Power ranked Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge 2 out of 5 stars for OVERALL INITIAL QUALITY (that's quality off of the line, not durability or resale value). You know who else ranked the same? Saab (GM), Mini (BMW), and Scion (Toyota). Hardly "crummy" brands. You know who ranked higher by one? BMW, Mercury (dead), Hummer (dead), Jaguar (dead), and Volkswagon, the marque that every "kill Detroit!" mofo likes to cite as the type of cars we should build in the US. The only brand to get 5/5 was Porsche. The next closest were all luxury brands like MB, Lexus, and even Acura didn't make 4/5.

If they built "crummy" cars, then no one would buy them. Jeep is the absolute strongest brand of automobile EVER. And it's not just Chrysler and the Detroit brands that are being affected. Toyota and Honda and Nissan are gasping for air too. Their sales are down 28% for the quarter! They just happen to have more cash on their balance sheets and a government who has already demonstrated over 30 years that they will gladly print up more money to give to them when times get tough.

Chrysler is dead. They cannot recover. Period. End of story. Even if the "bailout" happens. Why? Because they are not a global player any more. All their global capability left when Daimler divorced them. That was the whole point of the marriage to begin with. Export Chrysler styling and marketing poise with MB's engineering and global presence. Didn't work. And Chrysler got left holding the bag, along with Cerberus.

It is NOT because Detroit makes "crummy" cars.

flynn23 wrote:
Jesus Fucking Christ. How many times do we have to go through this? They don't make crummy cars! For 2008, JD Power ranked Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge 2 out of 5 stars for OVERALL INITIAL QUALITY (that's quality off of the line, not durability or resale value). You know who else ranked the same? Saab (GM), Mini (BMW), and Scion (Toyota). Hardly "crummy" brands. You know who ranked higher by one? BMW, Mercury (dead), Hummer (dead), Jaguar (dead), and Volkswagon, the marque that every "kill Detroit!" mofo likes to cite as the type of cars we should build in the US. The only brand to get 5/5 was Porsche. The next closest were all luxury brands like MB, Lexus, and even Acura didn't make 4/5.

I hate to break it to you, but JD Power means absolutely jack. Getting paid by the companies you review is bullshit, and even Consumer Reports won't allow reference to them. Which means Detroit couldn't even buy their way into JD Power they're so bad. So, let's veer around bogus rating standards and get some objective information.

Speaking of CR, they do a lovely review of the ACTUAL quality of American cars.

"a quarter of GM models are still well below average in reliability"

"Chrysler trails the pack. Almost two-thirds of its products rate below average for reliability. The redesigned 2008 Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans earned low scores, as did the Chrysler Sebring V6 and Dodge Avenger sedans and the Jeep Liberty SUV. The Sebring Convertible has the worst score: 283 percent worse than average. The only above-average models are the Dodge Caliber hatchback and Jeep Patriot SUV.

But, suppose you said to hell with getting your money's worth, and saunter over to The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety to check out the safest cars. You'd find that your Sebring from just last year is a veritable death trap.

One thing those unreliable, unsafe American cars have going for them is their mileage. Almost all of their tiny cars get decent ratings, which is too bad since long before the wheels fall off at 50,000 miles you've probably died in a fiery wreck.

Finally, brand loyalty is strong with American cars, but instead of capitalizing on that to innovate and be market leaders, they resist any improvements in fuel economy for large cars and safety and emissions standards for all cars. Despite evidence to the contrary in Japan, Europe, and even the ... [ Read More (0.1k in body) ]

Sorry, but two out of five is the lowest score J.D. Power gives. They don't give anyone a one out of five because this might upset a client.

I conduct vehicle reliability research via TrueDelta.com. Chrysler has had spotty results in our surveys. The new minivans have been doing especially poorly. To check out the latest results:

http://www.truedelta.com/latest_results.php