Originally Posted by shakran

Apology accepted.

Now, if Chrysler wants to survive it needs to 1) stop replicating cars across brands. The Town and Country is the exact same car as the Caravan, for instance. That's silly.

The second thing it needs to do is separate from Daimler. GM and Ford are making shitty cars right now. If Chrysler weren't a foreign car company they'd have a real leg up since the "I'll only buy american" crowd would flock to them.

And they need to take a long hard look at Honda and Toyota and start doing business like the japanese companies do. Make cars that will run forever, and that don't have to be repaired all the time. It would help if they'd own up to safety defects and fix them. Chrysler took a big image blow when it refused to replace faulty disc brakes on the PT Cruiser that rusted up and could fail when exposed to winter driving conditions. They only issued a recall in the states that made them - neighboring states with just as much road salt got shafted.

The whole problem with the american auto industry is that 1) they choose short term profits over long term income every time and 2) they see a trend, and then put all their eggs in that trend's basket. Big cars were cool in the 60's and early 70's, so rather than make a few small cars as well the Americans went crazy with the land barges. Then the oil crisis hit and the Americans were left out in the cold. But they didn't learn their lesson because in the 90's they all concentrated on making the biggest gas guzzlin' SUV they could, and they're paying for it now. Meanwhile the diversified Japanese cars are still selling fine because you can get tiny (Honda fit) all the way up to huge (toyota tacoma), and get better gas mileage while you're doing it.

And the American auto makers need to stop relying on the "support America!" crap, because today's savvy consumer is perfectly willing to support America by buying American as long as America isn't making junk. . .which they are.