[ph39]

I'd hate to see it happen because the job losses would be huge -

But there would be some advantages -

it costs about $1 - $2 BILLION to design / develop / and tooling the new Trucks. GM spent $1-2 B, Chrysler spent $1-2B. Next version would only cost the combined companies much less than that amount.

1 family of trucks
1 family of 4 cycl engines
1 family of 6 cycl engines
1 family of 8 cycl engines
1 family of deisels
1 family of transmissions
etc.

The combined companies could get buy with about 25% less employees, testing, plants, etc.

BUT - it would take years until the savings kicked in

The one thing that might make this happen - is the worst thing for GM would be for someone with money and products to buy Chrysler. The last thing GM needs is for Chrysler to be a bigger competitor