GM Inside News Forum - View Single Post - Merger, Who Is It Good For? A Big Al Rant

t-rex · 10-12-2008, 07:56 PM

Great writeup, als! You brought to light some positive aspects that I hadn't considered before.

Again, aside from Jeep and minivans, I can't see anything at Chrysler worth buying, and nobody is going to pony up the dough to buy the entire company just to get Jeep, unless Cerberus is willing to fob the whole company off for the value of the Jeep name (like AMC did!).

I have to disagree with Buick61 regarding the LY platform. It's a modification of the old W124 Benz platform, now used by SsangYong, and is, believe it or not, even older than the GM W-body platform. It's well beyond its sell-by date, despite being basically a good platform. What's acceptable today won't be in five years' time, making Zeta the obvious choice for a large RWD platform.

Maybe GM could simply keep the two companies operating as separate entities, much like Renault and Nissan do, sharing all the hidden parts, sharing development costs, and utilising global production to both company's advantages (Renault's strength in South America has helped Nissan, and Nissan's strength in Asia is helping Renault). This would make more sense than trying to fold Chrysler as it exists into GM's titanic corporate structure.

10-12-2008, 07:56 PM	#14 (permalink)
t-rex 6.2 Liter LS9 Supercharged V8 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: New Orleans Drives: 2005 BMW 325i. Posts: 7,516	Re: Merger, Who Is It Good For? A Big Al Rant Great writeup, als! You brought to light some positive aspects that I hadn't considered before. Again, aside from Jeep and minivans, I can't see anything at Chrysler worth buying, and nobody is going to pony up the dough to buy the entire company just to get Jeep, unless Cerberus is willing to fob the whole company off for the value of the Jeep name (like AMC did!). I have to disagree with Buick61 regarding the LY platform. It's a modification of the old W124 Benz platform, now used by SsangYong, and is, believe it or not, even older than the GM W-body platform. It's well beyond its sell-by date, despite being basically a good platform. What's acceptable today won't be in five years' time, making Zeta the obvious choice for a large RWD platform. Maybe GM could simply keep the two companies operating as separate entities, much like Renault and Nissan do, sharing all the hidden parts, sharing development costs, and utilising global production to both company's advantages (Renault's strength in South America has helped Nissan, and Nissan's strength in Asia is helping Renault). This would make more sense than trying to fold Chrysler as it exists into GM's titanic corporate structure.