Tank Guy
Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2023
- Posts
- 106
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- 121
- Location
- Western Pennsyvania
- Ram Year
- 1998
- Engine
- Cummins 5.9
It only exists in archive form at the wayback machine now, but I read it with interest back when Daimler was planning its takeover. I knew then that nothing good would come from the so called merger of equals. It was never a merger. It was a takeover plain and simple. Jurgen Schrempp even admitted to it in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine a couple of years later, but they knew the stock holders would never go for it if they told the truth. So how did it happen?
Bob Lutz was the head of design at Chrysler and oversaw the development of the 2nd generation Dodge truck, the redesigned Intrepid, the redesigned mini vans that absolutely dominated the market, the introduction of the Neon, the PT Cruiser, the Prowler, the Viper, the Stratus, Chrysler 300m and Concorde, and the Plymouth Pronto Spyder. That last one was slated for production, but Daimler killed it. Based on what Bod Lutz had achieved everyone expected him to take the helm when Lee Iaccoca retired, but Bob had argued successfully against laccoca in support of his design vision too many times and Ioccoca decided to sabotage him by bringing in an outsider from GM, another Bob, Bob Eaton. Ioccoca would later say that was the worst business decision he made in his entire career. Eaton had no prior connection to the company and once in control had no problem selling out the company whose recent staggering success he had no share in creating. He is the one primarily responsible for setting up the sell out to Daimler. That sell out would be the first blow in a long slow decline of what had only recently been a rising star of the domestic auto industry. Being a Mopar guy through and through I was disgusted by what I saw happen. Due to their incredible success, at the time of the "merger" Chrysler had over ten billion dollars in cash reserves. Once the takeover was complete Daimler immediately began dumbing down existing products, killing off future ones and stripping Chrysler of assets. It's fair to say I never liked Mercedes products, but now I despise them. If you have'nt seen the write up at Chryslertakeover.com, make a visit to the wayback machine and look it up. It's a much more detailed expalnation of what happened than I've provided here and is well worth the read.
Bob Lutz was the head of design at Chrysler and oversaw the development of the 2nd generation Dodge truck, the redesigned Intrepid, the redesigned mini vans that absolutely dominated the market, the introduction of the Neon, the PT Cruiser, the Prowler, the Viper, the Stratus, Chrysler 300m and Concorde, and the Plymouth Pronto Spyder. That last one was slated for production, but Daimler killed it. Based on what Bod Lutz had achieved everyone expected him to take the helm when Lee Iaccoca retired, but Bob had argued successfully against laccoca in support of his design vision too many times and Ioccoca decided to sabotage him by bringing in an outsider from GM, another Bob, Bob Eaton. Ioccoca would later say that was the worst business decision he made in his entire career. Eaton had no prior connection to the company and once in control had no problem selling out the company whose recent staggering success he had no share in creating. He is the one primarily responsible for setting up the sell out to Daimler. That sell out would be the first blow in a long slow decline of what had only recently been a rising star of the domestic auto industry. Being a Mopar guy through and through I was disgusted by what I saw happen. Due to their incredible success, at the time of the "merger" Chrysler had over ten billion dollars in cash reserves. Once the takeover was complete Daimler immediately began dumbing down existing products, killing off future ones and stripping Chrysler of assets. It's fair to say I never liked Mercedes products, but now I despise them. If you have'nt seen the write up at Chryslertakeover.com, make a visit to the wayback machine and look it up. It's a much more detailed expalnation of what happened than I've provided here and is well worth the read.
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