Chrysler Shutting Down All Plants

[runningman]

Re: Chrysler Shutting Down All Plants

Sovs can you blame them?? If I knew the government was giving away free Trillions to banks wouldn't you want your piece of the pie? Sure this is all hype right now but a few months down the road it will be more serious.

[timchalj]

Re: Chrysler Shutting Down All Plants

unblievable! Of the top 3 auto makers, they are the only Privately held company. The hedge fund that holds the majority stake is loaded with cash. Why should we bail them out when they have pleanty of cash in their coffers?!?

[Miroslav]

Re: Chrysler Shutting Down All Plants

unblievable! Of the top 3 auto makers, they are the only Privately held company. The hedge fund that holds the majority stake is loaded with cash. Why should we bail them out when they have pleanty of cash in their coffers?!?

A very good question to ask. And it has been asked by lawmakers. Here is what Cerberus Capital has to say:

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2008/12/17/why-cerberus-wont-put-more-money-into-chrysler/

I guess like many other hedge funds and private equity firms, Cerberus has had a very bad 2008 and lost a ton of money. They also own half of GMAC, which is trying to get in on the $700B bank bailout in order to avoid bankruptcy. I personally agree that they should be scrutinized to make sure they are bearing as much of the burden as they can and not just pass the buck on to taxpayers who didn't sign up for the risk or reward...but it's a complicated financial and political negotiation, I guess. And perhaps Cerberus will lose so much money that they won't be able to keep the company afloat themselves. In which case, I think they should be looking to merge Chrysler with another auto manufacturer...which I hear they are again (with GM). That will again result in layoffs, but there is no way around those. The only question is the speed at which those layoffs occur - we can't handle too much at once right now.

[toasty]

Re: Chrysler Shutting Down All Plants

Well, Chrysler may be getting a bailout, but my local Chrysler dealership -- the one I just bought my Jeep from a few weeks back -- was unceremoniously closed on Monday. Guess I can kiss those free oil changes (from the dealership, not Chrysler) goodbye.

In all seriousness, that really blows. I've bought a couple of Jeeps from them and have always had everything done there, and I've gotten to know some of the folks there over the years. What a kick in the nuts for them the week before Xmas. I know that it sucks for them no matter when it happens, but it does take on a special significance when you're supposed to be in celebration mode.

[runningman]

Re: Chrysler Shutting Down All Plants

They just got approved for $17 Billion. Michiganders can breath a little sigh of relief.

[Erik Mitchell]

Re: Chrysler Shutting Down All Plants

Can I have some bailout moneys too?

[ddr]

Re: Chrysler Shutting Down All Plants

Lets put this propaganda into perspective...

I worked for Chrysler LLC for 3 years and finished with them in April of this year.

Chrysler comes out and says all of there plants are shutting down for 1 month... every single December every plant shuts down for 2 weeks for Christmas break.

Last year (2007) at this same time they shut down almost every plant for at least 3-6 weeks in Nov / Dec / Jan besides the 2 week Christmas holidays, some plants were shut down for almost 2 months of this 3 month period. All because they dont have the demand for the amount of vehicles these plants are producing, they have to cut back.

When these plants are going at full throttle vehicles are forced down dealership's throats. It is insane the amount of day supply that sits on dealership lots due to over production at certain times.

I think this is just a way for Chrysler to cry for some of the bail out money. The fact is they have these very technologically advanced plants that can produce at a very efficient rate when at full production. Too efficiently when basing it against the actual need for there vehicles.

People not having the ability to qualify for financing is the core of the problem today.

Cheers

thats pretty much what a quoted above but noone seemed to take notice.

adding on a week or two is just to get news headlines and put more pressure on government to come and save the day... fuckin lame imo.

bankruptsy is not the end of the world people, alot of people are failing to realize this.

i drive by dealerships every day and see cars that never move from the lot in years. if they were smart they would quit overproducing. i just dont understand why big business does not understand the whole supply-demand thing... and i thought it was common knowledge =\