Quote
Kaegi
I know the Germans made big mistakes but cerebrus made just as many. some good things cam out of the relationship with Daimler. like the magnum, 300, charger, challenger suspension is all mercedes and the handle like slot cars for as big as they are. those interiors are excellent. but they did screw up the interiors of the smaller cars.

Having the opportunity to meet a lot of Chrysler and Jeep engineers because of my work at the Chrysler Advisory Board, including Cerberus Managers that have survived to this day under Fiat, I see the following:
The turn around you seen today in quality is directly because of Cerberus. Nardelli was a disaster, but Jim Press and Doug Betts came in under Cerberus and changed the quality culture, Doug Betts is still there, in charge of quality and customer satisfaction. You can see his work in the material, fit and finish and reduced NVH. The Magnum program was started before Daimler came,... and while the "platforms" * are Daimler, the chassis components are all Chrysler engineered and designed. The interiors of the LX platform cars was just as bad as the small cars. If you have a chance, go look at the 2011's, you will be amazed at the difference and improvement over past models. They are truly quality vehicles now and sales are reflecting shoppers returning to Chrysler showrooms.


* a "Platform" is often misunderstood. Platform simply means a given set of dimensions of the hard points on an assembly line, that allows a vehicle to move down that line. I will give credit to Daimler for moving Chrysler back to Rear Wheel Drive cars, I also give them credit for robbing 12 billion dollars in Chrysler reserves and sending all profits back to Germany, two actions which caused the failure of Chrysler's balance sheet and led to the bankruptcy.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2011 08:28AM by MoparNorm.