I saw the Chrysler commercial that played during the Superbowl, "Imported from Detroit". I was very impressed with its message. Strong and simple - American car manufacturers, in particular, Chrysler, are back and going strong. Buy American ...
A cornerstone of Chrysler's resurgence is the Challenger, the modern reincarnation of the manufacturer's last entry in the Pony Car wars of the '60s. Along with the Mustang and Camaro, this is the rebirth of American Muscle. The Challenger is a great looking car, fast, relatively nimble, and by God it comes with a Hemi!
Have you seen the Chrysler commercial where George Washington leads a flock of Challengers out of the woods to attack the poor English Red Coats? US flag proudly waving - a powerful buy American message.
Makes you proud of American Muscle, almost makes me want to go out and buy one. (Almost ... I'm a Ford guy through and through.)
Last night I saw one of Nat Geo's Ultimate Factories episodes. It detailed the construction of the Challenger, from raw sheets of metal to rollout as a completed vehicle. Incredible technology, very impressive to see it come together. Unbelievable that it takes just 20 hours from start to end for a car to roll off the line.
The most surprising thing I saw on this was where the factories were. The huge, modern plant where the Hemi engines are built is in Mexico. The monsterous facility where the car itself is constructed, from start to finish, is in Brampton, Ontario, Canada.
What the hell? One of the saviors of the American auto industry, one of the key members of the resurgence of the American Muscle Car, isn't even made in America?
Chrysler, at the direction of its new owner Obama/Geithner, has informed 789 dealerships across America that they will be shut down as part of the Chapter 11 reorganization. When this was first announced, I think everyone assumed that the dealers on the chopping block would be the lower performing ones, ones that cost the company money. Well, apparently not.....
Here is an interview Neil Cavuto (Fox News) did with a long time Long Island Chrysler dealer, one who is in the top 2% of dealers ranked across the country. He got the dreaded 'shut down' letter, while other lower performing Chrysler dealers in the area did not. It's a long interview, but interesting in how it points out how poorly the federal government is handling the automaker it now owns.
It is amazing to me that Chrylser will not tell the dealers, nor the press, what criteria it used to determine which dealers to close down. I don't know what criteria were used, but the cynic in me wants to know if the shutdown dealers had some connection to Republicans, or maybe they didn't donate enough to Democrat election funds ....
It also amazes me that the dealers being shut down are being stuck with the unsold inventory - Chrysler will not take the cars back. In addition to throwing tens of thousands of employees out of work, it is financially ruining the dealership owners. Some of those dealers had been approached by Chrysler last fall to take additional inventory so that the assembly lines would not be shut down. Much of that additional inventory is still sitting on their lots.
Chrysler needed to be cut back to survive, but this is being handled very poorly. We should expect that from anything run by the Obama regime. When they push GM into Chapter 11, I am sure it will be just as messy, painful, and disorganized as Chrysler has been.
Update - A lot of the dealers closing down are already having fire sales to get rid of as much as they can, as fast as they can. I heard a large dealer chain (14 dealerships of different makes) in my local area this morning advertising on the radio their big Memorial Day sale. Their ad started by saying that their varied dealerships were staying open, but they were 'getting the hell out of Dodge' ... I'd say they aren't too happy about being blindsided like this. Again, this is a top 2% Chrysler dealer - no one in their right mind would close them, yet Obama has done so. Lunacy ....
P.S. - I would have loved to get a fire sale price on a new Hemi Challenger RT, but those apparently are not being discounted ......
