From: Clive on
In message <glh9469qqsob1ipfa58ln1cf72rv5s1hts(a)4ax.com>, edward ohare
<edward_ohare(a)nospam.yahoo.com.invalid> writes
>Mercedes make decisions the old Chrysler crew wouldn't have made if
>you held a gun to their heads. The only thing worse than having
>Schrempp and Zetske running Chrysler was having the ex Home Depot CEO
>running it. And I'm beginning to think even the people from Fiat
>might be an improvement.
You obviously think you know best. Good luck to you,
--
Clive

From: edward ohare on
On Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:36:11 +0100, Clive <clive(a)yewbank.demon.co.uk>
wrote:

>In message <glh9469qqsob1ipfa58ln1cf72rv5s1hts(a)4ax.com>, edward ohare
><edward_ohare(a)nospam.yahoo.com.invalid> writes
>>Mercedes make decisions the old Chrysler crew wouldn't have made if
>>you held a gun to their heads. The only thing worse than having
>>Schrempp and Zetske running Chrysler was having the ex Home Depot CEO
>>running it. And I'm beginning to think even the people from Fiat
>>might be an improvement.
>You obviously think you know best. Good luck to you,


You mean when I buy a Hyundai? <G>
From: Matthew Russotto on
In article <9OudnbCba8ZZQaHRnZ2dnUVZ8i2dnZ2d(a)pipex.net>,
DAS <nobody(a)spam.co.uk> wrote:
>
>I suspect a number of people in North America do not understand the size of
>the Daimler AG (probably true of Europeans as well, but they will be well
>aware of lorries and buses, which are visible everywhere):
>
>http://www.daimler.com/

We have the trucks and buses here too.

--
The problem with socialism is there's always
someone with less ability and more need.
From: Clive on
In message <zDr1o.36255$3%3.26584(a)newsfe23.iad>, Matthew Russotto
<russotto(a)grace.speakeasy.net> writes
>We have the trucks and buses here too.
They also happen to make rather good locomotive engines too.
--
Clive

From: DAS on
As a general comment, I think the Daimler/Chrysler situation is not black or
white, and various aspects have already been discussed by others. To me it
always looked like a takeover of Chrysler and did not buy/understand the
"merger of equals" talk.

Clearly DB bit off more that it could chew and, I believe, was run by
megalomanic top management. I recall reading a respectable and founded
opinion piece about the rush to get the new joint company registered on the
NY stock exchange. A driving force for the German directors was to have
justification to raise their salary levels to the then stratospheric
American ones. No director of a German-listed company could ever have found
support for this.

Regardless of the technical/mechanical arguments about technology transfer,
quality of Chrysler car (selling maybe 2m p.a. against 1m Mercedes cars at
the time of the fusion) and as a fan and long-term driver of Mercedes cars,
I always thought the idea stupid, a diversion of management attention from
the production of Merc-branded cars. Yes, maybe US sales growth was slow
but it was manageable, and the quality issues in the US plant were
eventually sorted out.

The corporation had already made ill-advised excursions into unrelated areas
such as white goods (AEG kitchen equipment and the like, when AEG was losing
money hand over fist, later divested), and into aerospace, also a hugely
loss-making (and govt-subsidised) venture. The hypocrisy that the then
management managed was breathtaking. After previously complaining about
(German) govt subsidies going into other enterprises and how that should
end, they went cap in hand to the (German govt) bleating about the need for
subsidy.

This was quite a few years before the Chrysler fiasco and I thought that
management had learned some lessons, but evidently not.

I have already expressed these opinions here before some time ago, but I
thought them worth repeating as they are apposite to this discussion.

Furthermore, I could not see how Daimler Benz (as it was then called) could
handle running a mid-market brand and an upmarket one (despite Merc having
become 'mass market') under one roof. It is a trick that Volkswagen have
pulled off but only after years (decades?) of careful nurturing of the Audi
marque, which had and has been part of the corporation for decades.
Downmarket/decrepit Skoda was acquired and integrated with great success but
under special circumstances.

The Mercedes dealerships in Germany had real problems coming to terms with
having Chrysler in the group.

DAS

To reply directly replace 'nospam' with 'schmetterling'
--
"Clive" <clive(a)yewbank.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:bobMK+X9ekRMFwDf(a)yewbank.demon.co.uk...
> In message <zDr1o.36255$3%3.26584(a)newsfe23.iad>, Matthew Russotto
> <russotto(a)grace.speakeasy.net> writes
>>We have the trucks and buses here too.
> They also happen to make rather good locomotive engines too.
> --
> Clive
>