Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
Originally Posted By: Kawiguy454
I didn't read all 4 pages of this thread so maybe its been said. ...It makes massive sense for China to be buying anything that's not nailed down. The "Money" they're using are the digital IOU's we have been giving them every time we borrow to support our lavish social and corporate welfare systems. Point being The IOU's are worthless paper ...land and intrinsically valuable items are preferable so that's what drives them. Unless the giveaway mentality here changes we will borrow ourselves into servitude.
I read everything here so far and nope that hasn't been said and needed to be said. First thing Chinese probably do with FCA is put a stop to pouring money into the showboat halo vehicle program known as SRT, and make the company start producing a more well rounded, more competitive, product line in general. Buh Bye SRT . . .
Which completely eliminates anything that sets them apart from their product portfolio. That's why Mercedes has AMG, that's why BMW has their M division. The SRT products are a great way to get ridiculous performance at a palatable price. I've owned two SRT vehicles and they were/are both excellent.
Making Chrysler's product line mirror that of the likes of Toyota would summon their death knell. All the bland without any of the history of reliability that enables and encourages that appliance-like draw. Jeep sells precisely because it doesn't have all the character of a cool whip container, not because it is a reliability peer to the likes of the RAV-4.
Eliminating what sets Chrysler apart eliminates Chrysler. That uniqueness has made them soar and it has made them flounder. From the first HEMI to the Hellcat, Chryslers existence revolves around products that polarize. Sometimes that has worked in their favour, other times it has not. What they've never been is an appliance factory, and to turn them into one would completely remove any of the appeal that type of history generates. Nobody talks about that time they took their CR-V mudding. People don't flock to Top Fuel to watch B16's on Nitro. The 426 HEMI and the BOSS 429 were the reason the NASCAR rules were changed, not because Richard Petty was going too fast with a Toyota Stovebolt clone under the hood.
Not that any of this negates Chrysler's blunders. It doesn't mask the multiple bankruptcies, decades of poor management and a corporate culture that bred tupperware interiors and less than stellar reliability. The joint venture products mired in a cornucopia of bizarre issues with seemingly clueless support from corporate didn't help matter either. However, it does point to their somewhat unique history as being the odd man out and it working for them. In that vein, improving their product line whilst maintaining their identity is, IMHO, paramount to their survival.
