Well said. The emerging strategy of buying companies to discard everything and eat the heart is the ultimate face of capitalism...no employees, no real assets, no public purpose and no contribution to the betterment of property.

The reason people can now finance a new car 96 months is because cars (even Chryslers) now last an exceedingly long time. Why would you need a new car every four years when any decent car will last 200,000 miles, or, at 15,000 a year, over 13 years? Yes, I'm completely sick of the '90 Corolla I bought in 1997 but the damn thing keeps running.

If you wish to donate that corolla to my 18 year old son, I promise he'll take care of that "keeps on running" thing.

If by good you mean Benz quality ratings and customer sat crashed through the floor and now their relative ratings in quality and customer sat and service dropped from #1 or #2 to maybe on a good day, somewhere in the top ten then yeah they made things too good. A big driver for Daimler to buy Chrysler originally was the promise of being able to build Benz bodies atop cheap Chrysler cars, use the same floor pan, hopefully swap out Benz power plants for Chrysler power plants at least and the bottom end and make fatter margins.

I think you can expect them to dismember the company and keep the Dodge trucks and that line of Nazi Staff Car inspired Crossfires, Magnums, 300's and such and toss everything else out including the minivans and Jeep. Almost all the Dodges are the same car anyhow. None of those discarded cars & minivans are quality plays. They could be built by anyone anywhere. They're sold on price.

Happily they already shot Mitsu in the head out behind the outhouse. It was possibly the worst lowest quality brand in America.

Daimler paid $36 billion for Chrysler ten years ago. Now, Cerberus buys it back for about a fifth of the price. Sounds like a smart play if they want to rebuild a car company. But I fear that's not what they're chasing. Cerberus, it appears, wants to just pocket the cash. I sense no real vision about actually building and running a car company, or even marketing a brand. No vision about re-inventing the organization. The last interesting car Chrysler made was the Prowler, made by the Dodge division, but since then, there seems no more enthusiasm about design anymore (with the possible exception of the Crossfire), so I would say the Chrysler people, like the other big 2 bet their soul on the SUV and lost. Now there's hell to pay. And the devil's name is Cerberus. Maybe I'm wrong. It would be nice to be. If I'm right, the devil will come knocking at GM and Ford's door anytime now.

For those of us who like cars and in particular any of the cars that came out of Chrysler over the decades this news of a new major owner for the Chrysler Corporation is indeed a big story. Daimler seems to have fully gotten a case of knee shakes and is taking a big financial bath to try and feel more confident about being in the car biz. It is quite likely we will see some sharp knives coming out to carve up Chrysler assets for financial salvage purposes. One can only hope when it is all over that what remains is more than a hollowed out hulk. Daimler did bring some "street cred" to Chrysler these past few years...it was nice seeing those 300's on the road as they have panache. The "HEMI" lines of high powered offerings also gave Chrysler some punch in auto mags and car nut circles.

Walter Chrysler...who's name is still up there in front of Corp.was a genuine American icon from the early 1900's out thru the 1930's. He got his start in railroading and demonstrated some key abilities with things mechanical and financial. His auto career spans from the early GM days--he was known for having turned Buick around--to several forays into early 20th century venture capital exploits in the car building/selling biz. His innate mechanical sensibility and organizational skills served him very well over and over. He hooked up with some skillful men early on and that combined with his luck and pluck served to bring about what is truly a genuine American car biz success story.

The early years of the Chrysler Corporation emerge from the wreck and ruin of several auto makers,financial high-wire acts and W.Chrysler's solid ability to make lemonade out of lemons. The Chrysler Six was for the mid 1920's a standout car and it's success was built on with the purchase of the DodgeBros.auto making/selling empire--which was an equally big success story in American car making from the early 1900's into the 1920's. By the 1930's W.Chrysler's architectural temple and icon was possible...and it is W.Chrysler's Temple.

WW2 came and went and after the war Chrysler Corp. started out on a rollercoaster ride of good years,not so good years and several near fatal product and financial wipe-outs. So what is happening now once again to Chrysler Corporation is not so new in many ways. What is new is how the American auto biz has become very much taken up into the global car biz. It is very likely if Walter were to come back and survey the lay of the current auto making/selling biz he could arrive at some very astute conclusions without too many laps around the track so to speak. The financial types have run Chrysler many times over since the early 1950's. W.T.Keller being the last real car guy to run things. The financial types of course pretty much run the car biz all over the globe these days. Those up and coming Chinese carbiz types can copy lots of car making DNA from just Japan not alone Europe or even American ideas. It is the financial side that powers the quarterly reports and games the system on consumer car buying credit,stock plans and the Wall Street game.

Chrysler is now in play. For those of us who know what a Imperial Southhampton is or what a Chrysler TorqueFlite does this is a big story. The labor,pension and healthcare cost factors of Chrysler are getting lots of wordplay these days. It is certain for many who work at or for Chrysler the next few chapters of the Chrysler story will impact them greatly.

I liked the idea of the "threepointed-star" brand being linked up with the Chrysler pentastar. Sorry to see that undone. I hope this all ends ok. Chrysler has a long history of financial near deaths which were overcome somehow. W.Chrysler experienced and understood that part of the carbiz well. Me... I don't have any D-C stock,no vested financial angle. I am a big fan of the 1960's era Imperials though. They were never seen as being financial winners but as far as great American cars go were icons of that era. Just watch the 1960's hit TV show "The Beverly Hillbillies" and take note of the cars M.Drysdale the banker is to be seen in often. Those are Imperials. And Milburn Drysdale was no slouch when it came to value,the dollar and making money. :-)