Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Chrysler and Fiat – a match made in repair shop heaven.


Court hearings on Chrysler's bid to escape liquidation through an alliance with Italy's Fiat are scheduled to end today.

Chrysler and Fiat, both companies that have tried and failed to make it in the U.S. automotive market are now joining forces to try and do what neither of them could do individually, make a car that someone would actually drive.

For those too young to remember (I was the rightful age of 5 at the time), Fiat was forced to pull out of the U.S. market in 1983 because of persistent complaints about poor quality. (The joke was Fiat stood for "Fix It Again, Tony.") And does anyone remember General Motors' 2000 plan to integrate with ... yes, Fiat. GM was supposed to learn the secret recipe for making profitable small cars from Fiat, but that venture cost GM $4.4 billion, and in the end they had nothing to show for it.

So if the Chrysler Fiat deal doesn’t go through today maybe it’s not all bad, Chrysler just needs to get this guy to sell their cars—after all it worked for Ferrari.

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