1982vett":15owgnl3 said:
A pig is a pig is a pig, no matter how you paint it up.
Ah spoken by someone who drives an inferior off-brand truck. Perhaps we should mention that the other Big Three have all had assistance at one time or another in their histories?
:lol2:
Anyway, before this turns into another brand war thread, I can probably explain whats going on.
Dodge trucks have consistently been a jewel in Chrysler's crown, very rarely losing money, and most often at the head of the "most profitable vehicles list" both in the Chrysler lineup and the overall automotive segment. Dodge trucks, until recently, have had very little R&D expenditure to recover, due to their bare bones approach, and often show lower warranty costs than other lineups, again due to their bare bones approach to design.
So what you ask? When Chrysler was having trouble, and looking at selling bits and pieces of the company, Dodge trucks would have been difficult to spin off. Concepts, designs and badging could have been sold, but that was about all. Their alliance with Cummins would have been gone, as would any of the tooling in the factories. Their design staff was shared with other areas of Chrysler, so even splitting employees would have been difficult.
As a separate entity, like Jeep, Dodge Trucks could be marketable as an entire entity, including entire factories, their tooling, R&D and staff. I'm sure Fiat has recognized this, and being primarily a car company, should Chrysler continue to have financial difficulties, the Dodge Truck lineup would be among the first to sold off for cash injection.
And sell it would. In a heartbeat.
Just to add to a brand warfare thread, quite likely before Ford or Chevy trucks would sell.
On a side note: 1982Vette, you should really do some reading about the Daimler/Chrysler merger and the subsequent sale to Cerberus, beyond what you can read on the Chevy or Ford forums. Heading into the merger, Chrysler had massive cash reserves, well beyond what any other manufacturer (including Toy) had. Daimler wanted those reserves to help their own struggling cash situation. They got them, allowed the company (that was currently on a high note with the release of several best selling models) to stagnate, and then sold them off (sans the massive reserves) during the middle of a economic crisis to a company who had no experience running an automotive company, but rather a company who specialized in breaking up entities. There was no "spitting back up" or "getting beaned". Daimler made out like bandits. Had Cerberus not misjudged the economic climate at the time, they would have made out like bandits (I GUARANTEE you they would have sold Jeep and spun off Dodge trucks, just like they spun off Viper).
Rod
