How would a Chrysler group sell off affect the Viper?

[Viperfreak2]

It's just speculation at this point, but I'd like to hear other opinions about what might happen to the Viper program in different hands.


From Automotive News:
Is the Chrysler group for sale? During a presentation to analysts and journalists today, DaimlerChrysler CFO Bodo Uebber refused to rule out the sale or spinoff of its unprofitable Chrysler group.

"We don't exclude anything here," including structural changes, Uebber said during his third-quarter earnings teleconference today. "We will do our analysis. Second, we will talk about measures. And third, we will draw our conclusions."

 

[PaViper]

Probably get scrapped if Chevrolet buys them

 

[Viperfreak2]

What about a Kerkorian buyout with a Lutz return?

 

[Yellow32]

Depends completely on who would buy them.

There are very few car companies that would take on Chrysler/Dodge. Besides VW who would?

Remember, Chrysler is 'unprofitable' because of the idiotic manner in which it is being run (over-producing all models on the hopes they will later sell and if not dumping the whole lot for cost or less).

Given the current state of affairs I doubt there would be much reason for another car company to pick up Chrysler unless it is a pure accounting play to put it out of business and pick up the dealer network.

What Chrysler needs is a leader who favors long term results.

I think Chrylser's best interests lie in a complete purge of the german raiders and MB spinning it off as a wholeowned and separate entity that does not report to MB (just making MB a major shareholder and as things turn around MB sells off its ownership).

Given that, the new bosses would most responsibly continue the Viper's evolution

-J

 

[Warfang]

Funny... just a short time ago, Chrysler was the only company profitable. A bad quarter or two and MB thinks about booting them. When MB lost money left and right with their poor quality cars, all they did was pump more money into them. Doesn't sound like a "Merger of Equals" to me. MB seems to be the **** that slaps Chrysler around for not making enough money for the night.

Shouldn't Ross Perot or some other American gazillionaire buy back Chrysler for America? The krauts can kiss my @$$!

 

[Viperfreak2]

Isn't it funny that as soon as Dieter Zetsche went back to Germany, Chrysler starts a downward spiral, and Mercedes is looking great?

 

[Lee00blacksilverGTS]

Renault/Nissan. Carlos Ghosen, Le cost cutter. If the Viper was not profitable on it's own it would be gone, especially as it would be competing with the new Nissan or Infiniti Skyline.

 

[03gobluecobra]

It may not be gone right away. Considering all the money put into engineering, it might be wise to try and recover costs by keeping the program going, at least for a few years.

 

[slaughterj]

What Chrysler needs is a leader who favors long term results.

To do that effectively, it would need to be bought and run privately for some time before re-emerging as a public company (something Ford has recently considered doing). Then you don't have to worry about quarterly results.

Those who do such private equity financing typically do it in "standard" businesses such as Chrysler (i.e., not much into biotech, etc.), because they understand the business models, what's wrong, and how to fix them. I could easily see this happening, given the volume of private equity sloshing around, IF Daimler was willing to let Chrysler go. From a business sense, they might at some point in time, but from an ego sense, it seems much less likely.

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Lets buy them and turn them into a performance only car company. Like Porsche was before it built that stupid SUV.

 

[Viperfreak2]

Why buy Chrysler? Why not just Dodge? Hell, why not just the Conner Ave plant, then hire some of the right people away from the 'old' DC and make a real car. I guess the costs would spiral out of control without group purchasing power and the car would end up being a Saleen S7. Is that a bad thing?

 

[FinalEd357]

I'd have to think that if the company were sold or dismantled in any way, the least profitable products would be the first to go... Rising gas prices and steep Viper incentives would have to be bad news... IMHO.

 

[RMBSRT]

One potential buy would be one of the Chinese car companies. It was reported that several were trying to purchase Jaguar from Ford and they even tried to buy the Rover brand name.

Maybe Nissan...

 

[418viper]

If the product has a good return on investment and the tooling is in place for the next model run then it will probably go forward. Re-tooling can cost upwards of 100 million$ Of course hostile stock holders in particular the huge hedge funds could cause a change in strategic direction anytime.

 

[Bobpantax]

Funny... just a short time ago, Chrysler was the only company profitable. A bad quarter or two and MB thinks about booting them. When MB lost money left and right with their poor quality cars, all they did was pump more money into them. Doesn't sound like a "Merger of Equals" to me."

A good investor does not chase losses. The business model for doing what MB did when they were losing money proved to be correct. In the case of Chrysler, the business model is not that clear. Performance vehicles, while exciting and at times profitable, are not the bread and butter of a car company like Chrysler Ford or GM. In the current market for cars and trucks - which Toyota(whose corpoate debt rating is AAA) zeroed in on with incredibly accurate corporate forsight and insight - Chrysler's mix of products is not particularly attractive. Chrysler does not even have a pure luxury car product like GM and Ford. Any buyer of the company inherits the same legacy costs that we recently discussed in another thread concerning Ford. So, I would agree that if a private equity group can figure out a way to quickly bring Chrysler back to profitability, there might be a buyout but I fear that they would use a chapter 11 proceeding as a method of doing so. I think that DC was just testing the waters for interest in a buyout and will hold on to Chrysler for a while. JMHO.

 

[bigerc]

Funny... just a short time ago, Chrysler was the only company profitable. A bad quarter or two and MB thinks about booting them. When MB lost money left and right with their poor quality cars, all they did was pump more money into them. Doesn't sound like a "Merger of Equals" to me. MB seems to be the **** that slaps Chrysler around for not making enough money for the night.

now I know little about marketing and such but this is just kind of my observation on the whole deal...

That time when DC was the only profitable company was, if I'm not mistaken, largely due to the success of the 300m, and the other cars of that platform(charger and magnum). Those are nice cars but I don't think DC has a "complete" line up. One problem that stand out to me would be fixed by replacing the much out-dated sebring platform, which they have hinted at replacing the sebring for what seems like forever now, but 3 years ago was the time to do it. Also, I have never really liked their "budget cars" (IE Neon and now the caliper), and because of this the SRT-4's have always been a little dissapointing. Both the neon and the caliper are good cars and a good price but I would love to see that drive train in something that looked like a sports car. The non-SRT-4 caliper was suppose to boost DC's "world-wide" sales. Well i dont know for certain how its sales have been but I can't help but ask "a hatchback??" hmm but maybe I just don't know what im talking about...

Shouldn't Ross Perot or some other American gazillionaire buy back Chrysler for America? The krauts can kiss my @$$!

Oh but wait im just sure that Dr. Z has some amazing answer for DC's situation... <-- thats suppose to be dripping in sarcasm if you hadn't picked up on that.

 

[Viperfreak2]

He does. He is sending a crack German team to knock $1000 off the cost of building each car. He couldn't do that WHILE he was in charge over here? I smell creative accounting.