One Million Moms Vs Chrysler

Just in via email:

Joe, A commercial for the Ram pickup aired multiple times during Sunday's Daytona 500 broadcast on Fox network, when millions of families with children were watching. Everyone knows children repeat what they hear. In the commercial, the announcer says, "A man will ask a lot of his truck. Can it tow that, haul this, make it all the way over the top of that? Well isn't it nice to know that the answer will always be, 'Hel- yes!'" Ram's use of profanity is irresponsible and offensive. It is extremely destructive and damaging to impressionable children viewing the commercial. TAKE ACTION! Send Ram and parent company Chrysler an email letter urging them to no longer produce commercials that cross the line and to pull this profanity-laced ad immediately.

Morning View - Chrysler Building

Bankruptcy For Chrysler

Today the Obama administration will announce that Chrysler will enter into bankruptcy in order to force a debt reduction with their partner Fiat.

With the UAW late Wednesday ratifying cost cuts in its contract and cuts in the money due its retiree health-care trust fund, President Barack Obama will announce a Chrysler-Fiat deal and the government’s “surgical” bankruptcy plan later today. The administration "was willing to give the holdout creditors a final opportunity to do the right thing," an administration official said. But "the agreement of all other key stakeholders ensured that no hedge fund could have a veto over Chrysler's future success."

In 1979 Jimmy Carter famously bailed out Chrysler in a deal that included the government buying thousands of Dodge trucks for military use.

Chrysler To Shut Down For One Month

Whoa.

Struggling U.S. automakers are launching a round of severe cutbacks as they wait for a government rescue, with Chrysler saying yesterday it will idle all 30 of its U.S. factories for one month. Chrysler's plants will furlough 46,000 workers beginning Friday, as a planned two-week holiday shutdown is extended to a month and possibly longer. The company, which has told Congress it needed $7 billion to survive the month, also told dealers that it may suspend financing for new cars in a bid to conserve cash.

Chrysler: In The Bargain Bin

Nine years ago DaimlerBenz bought Chrysler for $37 billion. Today they sold the bulk of the company to a private equity firm for the bargain basement price of $7.4 billion. Ouch! Lee Iaccoca, who famously engineered a government bailout of Chrysler in 1979, is "broken hearted." The new owners of Chrysler are faced with billions of dollars in employee costs thanks to retiree pensions and health plans. For the sake of the employees, I hope Chrysler survives, but I'm not holding my breath. The PT Cruiser was cute and I love to rent Sebring convertibles when I travel, but with the minivan segment nosediving thanks to gas prices, I would be surprised to see Chrysler still around in a few years.