I guess they forgot the old adage; "save for a rainy day".

When Lee Iacocca was chairman of Chryco he created a trust fund for just such a rainy day. He turned a nearly-bankrupt company around by selling tons of cheapo K-cars and mini vans. Then he socked money away in case of an economic emergency. The fit and finish of the cars was sacrificed for reliability. American's at the time were also buying american just because it was not Japanese. "A nice Reliant automobile".

When Daimler purchased the company, they took the trust fund and went on a shopping spree. Then when things hit the skids, they blamed Cryco for the poor sales. Chryco has improved the fit and finish of it's vehicles through it's association with Daimler but that makes cars more expensive to build. Now Cryco has been kicked to the curb like the wimp that has had it's lunch money stolen. Chryco went to bed with Daimler in the hopes of boosting their exposure and sales overseas. Daimler hoped to do the same here.

Another interesting thing that happened during "the association" is that Cryco designers and engineers built the ME-412 supercar in just about a year. An amazing piece of machinery with beautiful styling and amazing statistics. Why wasn't it produced? Because if it was, it's performance would have considerably outdone the supercar that Daimler had been developing (and spending countless millions on) for nearly half a decade--a real embarassment.

The two companies were always in competition and even though they outwardly tried to appear as one, there was always friction. I'm glad to see that Chryco is out on it's own again. It's too bad that the current economic situation here in the US has their sales down the most of the big three. As a Mopar fan I hope they can survive.

As we've seen during past economic down turns, expect the quality of all cars manufactured by the big three to suffer. They need to cut costs somewhere. If Saab does survive, it unfortunately may be the next K-car.





posted by 169.226.135...

• NPR Story - No Saab in future?, tim, Wed, 2 Jul 2008 05:07:18
  • This is an interesting video, Finch, Wed, 2 Jul 2008 11:43:39
    • Nice but..., Savary , Wed, 2 Jul 2008 13:33:31
  • market cap of GM is 6 billion dollars, J, Wed, 2 Jul 2008 08:23:16
    • GM is in serious trouble: bankruptcy "not impossible", Bill Homer , Wed, 2 Jul 2008 08:50:41
      • Corporate stewardship, J, Wed, 2 Jul 2008 10:30:07
        • Re: Corporate stewardship, turbocon86, Wed, 2 Jul 2008 13:45:30 <-- Viewing This Message
        • Re: Corporate stewardship, Bill Homer , Wed, 2 Jul 2008 12:04:10
  • Market Niches, OKSaabs, Wed, 2 Jul 2008 07:27:48
  • Saab on Waukegan Rd. in Morton Grove closed ->, michael p, Wed, 2 Jul 2008 06:56:57
    • Re: Saab in Morton Grove closed ..., DivrDon , Wed, 2 Jul 2008 07:49:02
  • Unlike Hummer - Saab has technology..., Scott Paterson , Wed, 2 Jul 2008 06:56:09
    • Yes, I agree..., Savary , Wed, 2 Jul 2008 11:32:23
    • Maybe, maybe not..., Noel, Wed, 2 Jul 2008 07:37:05
    • But both have GM management calling the shots...., Bill H., Wed, 2 Jul 2008 07:19:31
      • Re: But both have GM management calling the shots...., Red93InBrklyn, Thu, 3 Jul 2008 10:00:00
  • Re: NPR Story, Noel, Wed, 2 Jul 2008 06:11:42
  • Re: NPR Story - No Saab in future?, yaofeng, Wed, 2 Jul 2008 05:53:38

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