Funny from the Onion

http://www.theonion.com/content/infograph/auto_industry_crisis

 

"Having meticulously crafted the 1998 Dodge Dakota to boast
best-in-class payload and towing capacity, Chrysler decides to rest on
its laurels for the next decade"

Actually, what Chrysler spent the next decade doing was trying to get
Daimler's dic^H^H^H^ hand out of its ass^H^H^H pockets.

 

From BusinessWeek:

"Far from being the perfect hedge, Chrysler proved to be a massive
rescue job that sucked up billions and absorbed German management for
years."

"Soon the Germans discovered that Chrysler, which has a long history
of boom-and-bust cycles, was in much worse shape than they
anticipated. It spun deeply into crisis in 2000, racking up $4.7
billion in operating losses the following year alone. Mercedes had to
make the ultimate sacrifice, squeezing its own costs to pump out
better profits for the group."

 

Paired with this trend, the restructuring ought to work just fine:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/44679

 

Hah! German management completely ignored North American operations.
Except for putting out silly commercials with Dieter Zietsche as "Dr.
Z." Useless.

EVERY carmaker that has operated primarily in the North American market
follows a "boom and bust" cycle. Its been that way since at least the
end of WWII. Daimler management refused to deal with that cycle by
timing new products correctly to generate interest as the previous
product lines waned, and paid for it.