Chrysler to start cutting jobs & production

As some of us may know Chrysler will start cutting jobs and production
starting later this month.
that means that over 10,000 people will soon be unemployed and IMO i
blame the company for not keeping up with the Jones's,like Toyota,
Honda and some of the other companies that have produced cars and
trucks that have been proven to be more durable and dependable than
Chrysler.
i may take some of the blame myself,having own Chrysler vehicles for
over 20 yrs, now i am the proud owner of a Toyota and Honda and Lexus.
and now owning these 3 other vehicles i must say that each one of them
have not had any problems with them at all within the first 2 1/2
years of owning them.
i would have stayed owning Chrysler vehicles if i could be honest by
saying the same thing about them.
i have NEVER own a Chrysler vehicle where within the very first year
of ownership that i have not taken it back to the dealer for multiple
problems or recalls and TSB's.
they got constant Transmission problems and steering rack problems.

 

My 300M was flawless until year 2 when the power windows started acting up.
It is 9 years old and my in-laws love it. We gave it to them a while back.

I bought a 2006 Odyssey 2 years ago. There are 2 TSB's I need done for wind
noise thru the windshield and the power steering pumps only last 12k miles.
Mine has 12k miles on it and is going now too.

 

Sorry to hear you had problems.
I've had 2001 3.9 dakota 80,000 miles only thing I had to do is put new set
of u-joints in the drive shaft $30. And a electronic pickup for the ignition
of the flywheel for $50.00. Thats all.
My jeep 2001 cherokee has 45,000 miles and havent done anything but change
the oil and antifreeze.

 

Would be nice if the US car companies had a level playing field in
Japan and could freely set up dealerships and sell them there.

The Japs use their protected domestic market to subsidize sales in
USA/Canada. Now they're taking advantage of the high Canadian dollar
- they are making thousands more in profit for each car they sell in
Canada vs the USA.

On a related topic, I've never seen a coherent reason why Daimler
didn't do more to sell Chrysler cars in Europe.

I think with cars there's a "novelty" effect. It's always more cool
to own a foreign car. In North America, that means you desire to own
a Swedish or German or Jap car. In Japan (where they idolize some
aspects of US culture) they just might go nuts and buy some marqee US
models - if they were allowed to.

 

Not so. There're be GATT complaints if that were happening.

OK, but I don't see what this has to do with the topic at hand.

Most of Chrysler's decent products are too big for Europe. And the
smaller ones -- Caliber, Compass, Patriot, Sebring -- are simply not
competitive. Most Chrysler products ARE sold in Europe -- pick up a
"Car" magazine sometime.

Anyway, China is tomorrow's market.

 

Lets see.
My '95 LH had the well known air conditioner problems, which after 3
fixes over 7 years Chrysler got it right at their cost.
Otherwise all has been well, practically no maintenance so I can easily
drive it several more years or until Chrysler comes to their senses and
builds a car I want to own.
The engine will obviously last forever as it still performs as new. The
transmission is also very well, the body doesn't rust and the lovely
interior is still lovely and comfortable.

What do I want? A smaller SW that looks and is finished like a car.
The Compass is the form factor I want, but there are a number of design
aspects I can't stand.

Call me Chrysler if you are interested in selling me a car, else I'll
have look "imports" after 25 years away from them.
Of course most imports aren't imported anymore.
By the way since I NEED a full sized spare most recent Chrysler cars and
even others have no place in my garage.

 

I did have serious transmission problems with Chryslers first modern
4 spd shift in a 1981 Horizon, but all my other Chrysler cars have been
very good, improving with each one.
Too bad they gave you all the lemons.

 

Chrysler has been selling a limited number of PT Cruisers in the UK for
years. they sell out before they are available. The price is competitive.
Chryslers vans and Jeeps are big sellers in the UK.

There LH and 300 cars are too big for the UK, but a few struggle around
the small streets with them. They probably like something different!

 

The 300m was designed for a 5m length with Europe in mind.

No. I've seen 300m's being used as taxi's in the Netherlands.

The 300m wasn't a large car compared to some BMW's and Merc's.

Chrysler even put a 2.7l engine in them for European export. Daimler
did nothing to sell Chrysler in Europe.

And it's long known that Japan puts barriers in place for US car
makers, barriers that GATT can't touch.

How well are sales of, say, German cars in Japan? Anyone know the
answer to that?

I don't know if it's still true, but 20 years ago in Japan they had
crazy rules about cars where they were put through increasingly tough
road-worthyness tests designed to make most people buy new cars every
few years, forcing a high turn-over of otherwise good cars. I've seen
engines from those cars shipped to the US in crates to be used for
replacements because they were still good.

 

Why?

Since Toyota is seiing more cars, they are making more cars. Why don't
the people who are losing jobs at Chrysler simply go to the Toyota carmaking
plants and get jobs there? Toyota builds a lot of cars in the US and will
be
building more, according to your logic.

Ted

 

Sad to hear how people still dwell on the lousy record the american cars had
in the past. They have advanced milestones of improvements but people still
are narrow on the opinions and just follow the quote. It's a import it must
be better..even tho they have their problems quite a few times the past few
years people just over look them.

 

Well, since most front-drive Mopars have always used the same Saginaw
(GM) racks as GM, and since my '93 has its original rack at 247,000
miles, call me skeptical.

There was a steering rack BUSHING issue (creaking noise in cold weather)
on the LH, but not a problem with the rack.

 

I don't know about that one Steve: I have seen many a post on this ng as
well as on the 300M Club forums of the rack actually locking up (in some
cases causing accidents).

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

No, but it was large compared to "family" cars in its price class.

Why would anyone buy a Caliber when Europeans get much better small
cars? And big cars just don't sell there unless they're names like
BMW and Mercedes.

No it's not. Used to be, but not anymore.

Apparently that has changed now.

 

They are allowed to. In fact they do, just not many. The dealers ****
the Japanese on price, plus mods need to be made. US makers are not
serious about export.

 

The Toyota plants are in hick towns and won't hire experienced auto
workers and the pay is less.

 

It comes as something of a shock to me to find that San Antonio (2005
estimated population 1,256,509) is a "hick town."