Will Chrysler survive?

No.


Fiat's purchase of the company was the last move in a steady stream of failures for the once-great manufacturer. Anyone that thinks Fiat regarded Chrysler as anything more than a source of a ready-made dealer network and infrastructure to sell European branded cars over here is not using good judgment.

 The Germans have done well selling "monkey versions" of their high tech cars here for two decades while the French and Italians, nearly the equals of the Germans in engineering and their betters in style and human factors design, have been totally locked out except for the Italian exoticar market. The cars are "monkey versions", as the Russians call sparsely equipped and derated versions of tanks and fighter jets exported to client states,  mostly due to our idiotic safety and emissions laws, but I have posted about that before.

 PSA in France and Fiat/Alfa/Lancia in Italy have good cars, some of which would do well here. True, they have some ridiculous econoboxes, but the larger of their models would sell here well if they could be imported and, more's the rub, if they could be built here. Plus, you can service your core market itself cheaper and that's the attraction above all others.

 The ranting of the blightwing aside, it's cheaper to manufacture in the US than in Europe, if you do it right-right, that is from a corporate standpoint.  You build lean manufacturing plants in antiunion states, and pay for the overhead of the employees on a cash and carry basis-which is what the 401k, as opposed to defined benefit pension, is all about. You can then re-import to Europe with a car made by White, or White supervised and controlled, labor and undercut the Big Sister environment of the EU.

 BMW has a plant in South Carolina and pioneered the model. Look for Fiats, Alfas, Citroens, Peugeots, Lancias and possibly certain British marques owned by outsiders (Land Rover, Jaguar, maybe even RR or Bentley) to show up in plants over the Southeast and Midwest in the next ten years.

 Meanwhile, Chrysler, Dodge/Ram and Jeep will soon be badges on other vehicles. Once everyone knows the Chrysler Whoozpooz is really a Fiat, they will sell them for a while under both names and then just go to Fiat.

 Australia experienced this twenty to thirty years ago. Look for the Japanese to make a big play for GM in the next five years, aided and abetted by one or another of the big whorehouse brands of politicos they are learning how to properly buy off.