90s CDJR was viable, extremely desirable, bought and then gutted by Daimler malfeasance. Things were kicking around in Chapter 11 - things never got to Chapter 7. Let me repeat that; if you walked to GM or Ford and asked them if they wanted JNAP, Sterling Heights, or Toledo for five cents on the dollar - hell yes they would have bought it. Don't give me this - "oh, GM was offered this" - the hell they were, not at auction prices. Chapter 7 would have invalidated the UAW contracts and you would have potentially lost a portion of the workforce, but rewind back to 2009 - what the hell else would those be people doing anyways/what jobs were open? Those plants were, and will always be, VIABLE because of the US PRODUCT that is produced there. Let's list the models -
Ram Commercial, Ram 1500/2500/3500, Wrangler, Grand Cherokee, and Durango. You absolutely have a nucleus of a viable new company with those models and the potential for expanded offerings in the future. Hell, that's what bootstrapped the investment for the Giulia platform. Do you think Fiat just had money from free cash flow laying around to invest from Giulia? Oh, they had pre-IPO Ferrari FCF money they funded Giulia with? If Ferrari can IPO and operate as a separate business, then why shouldn't CDJR? Don't give me this platform stuff - we're 12 years into and the savings are minimal, if non-existent. And going BEV is going to somehow change that? Yeah, and I've got a bridge to sell you.
CDJR is more than just US brands - behaviors are linked to the underlying culture, and CDJR is now suffering because of the current European viceroys and their sycophant stooge US executives.
If you don't believe what I'm saying - just watch. We've had one shift cut at a plant - more are coming due to European ineptitude.
That’s bunch of crap ,to put it very nicely.
Chrysler under Cerberus came few different times of being “chopped up” and/or liquidated.
By the end of 2008, Chrysler was out of money to continue operations. To keep the company in business through the transition of the U.S. Government between President 43 and President 44, President 43 lend $4 billion bailout via Executive Order to Chrysler. Included was requirement of U.S. Treasury approving Chrysler’s business plan, and prove viability to the Office of U.S. President (either President himself or a designated assignee).
Within the first 3 weeks of the 44th Presidency (of the United States) it was determined Chrysler was not viable, and there would be no more Bailout money for Chrysler Corp/LCC in that version.
As Sergio was playing hardball, GM was offered (by the U.S Government ) to take “skinny Chrysler” which at one point was Jeep + all Chrysler Corp trademarks+ Chrysler Warranties (the rest would shut down and liquidate) .
Government was wiling to split Chrysler Blue collar pensions between the PBOC and “New GM”, while the Salaried Pensions becomes PBOC obligations massive reductions for beneficiaries .
GM rejected that offer leaving Fiat/Sergio/John as the only player at the table.
In of the arguments that GM made against an FCA deal was “Jeep was Niche brand” with “long-term 500,000 Ceiling” “ and too much unique work”.
That’s also why GM knew Dearborn was working on the Bronco ,and yet Mary passed on working on a competing product because GM was skeptical of those types of CUV/SUV’s . So you overrate the value of Jeep to GM.
Finally, labor contracts don’t work like that, in fact the problem was too few workers left over from Daimler & Cerberus.
That’s together with Fiat’s management of the brands is why factory workforce is back to approximately 50,000.
Sterling Heights was original set to close, Fiat change that, and the overhaul to Sterling Heights + Toledo was lead by career Fiat employees who moved to the United States at Sergio’s request.
If any gets split off, it would be Jeep (together with Maserati ) as another “Exor/John Elkann controlled public traded company” (Jeep but independent of Mopar).