Originally Posted By: doitmyself
itguy08, I appreciated your intelligent explanation earlier explaining your Chrysler hate (matters of principle regarding 2 government bailouts).
It takes backbone to stand up for one's principles, but where is the line drawn? Do I not buy Fords because of Henry's antisemitism and ties with Hitler? No Mitsubishi because they built enemy war planes? No Japanese at all because of their WWII atrocities?
I admit to being weak spined regarding these matters. For example, I shop at Walmart, even knowing their business practices. I still buy John Deere, even though our current brush hog has a communist Chinese gear box.
What distinguishes a good reason for mfg. hate vs. another? Again, where does one draw the line, and why?
I'd say if you were Jewish it would make sense to avoid Ford as well as other German makes, especially VW who Hitler commissioned to design the Beetle. Similar thing to the Japanese makes. I think it all depends on your perspective and how much you care about things.
I do like to buy local and buy things made here when possible. Why? Cause going to Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Home Depot vs Amazon, Newegg, etc means my neighbors have jobs. Each of those local employers employs a couple hundred people each. Amazon's warehouse may employ 100 total. I'd rather support the little jobs in my community than shipping them somewhere else.
The fact is that Chrysler has not made good cars for probably the majority of their existence. You only have to look no further than their abysmal dependability ratings from those that track those sort of things. When they all say the same things you tend to believe it. That led to the first bailout in the 80s when Iacocca begged for $$. Then they changed hands a bunch of times and we got to do it again in 2008. We should have let them fail in the 80's and be done with it. Jeep would have got bought and the other automakers would have picked up the slack in the volume. What made them so special that the other marques that passed before didn't get help?
Riddle yourself this - if Chrysler made such great cars why is their incentive spending among the highest in the industry? From the NADA
NADA Link :
Quote:
As has been the case in recent months, Fiat Chrysler continued its upward sales push by opening up its wallet, as the rest of the industry has scaled back incentives. While total spending for domestics was down 5.8%―with both Fiat and General Motors cutting back―Fiat Chrysler’s incentives were up 8.4%. Excluding Alfa Romeo, Dodge was the only brand to trim its promotions, while leading brand Jeep surprisingly spent 36% more per unit year-over-year.
Another NADA Link discussing incentives
Quote:
Chrysler has always made decent powertrains (except the 2.7).
Which ones are being referred to? The V6's they bought from Mitsubishi in the 80/90's that liked to smoke? The GEMA 4 cyl that was a Hyundai/Mitsubishi design? The glass lined Ultradrive transmission? Or those super durable transmissions that graced Ram pickups until they went to ZF/Aisin?
The 2.2 and Hemi are about the only good Chrysler designs in the past 30 years. And the transmissions that are loved by Mopar fans in the Challenger/Charger are not Chrysler designs at all. As are the drivetrains in the rest of their stuff except the Pentastar which is an average engine at best.
