It's 1978 all over again for Chrysler

Lee Iacocca was alarmed by the massive amount of unsold cars sitting
and decaying on the Michigan State Fairgrounds near Detroit back in
late '78 when he took over as chair of Chrysler Corporation. This was
the notorious "sales bank," the repository of overproduced,undersold
product that would be given away under wholesale to dealers at the end
of fiscal quarters to just get rid of the inventory and make the books
look a little better.

Guess what...it's BAAAAAAACK!

CNBC moments ago showed the same, exact place where Iacocca was
alarmed by the "sales bank"...chock full of pickups and SUVs. Turns
out all the Big 3 have been lying about their inventory overstock, as
well, by cutting the amount of inventory by "future fleet sales." As
IF they know exactly when and who's going to buy these things for
fleets! After cleaning up that little slight of hand, it's apparant
now that Chrysler has a 120 day inventory of Jeeps and pickups sitting
at the fairgrounds...and those cars are just sitting there, decaying,
and the harsh Michigan winter is coming.

Meanwhile, Ford announced the end of the Taurus, the car that saved
Ford from the mismanagement of King Henry II in the '80s. Now, after
years of mismanagement by Billy Boy, they're in worse trouble than
before.

The Taurus was another place where Iacocca was wrong. When it was
introduced in '86, he called it "the potato car." Wrong...that was
one hot selling potato for many years...until Ford, by then headlong
into systemic mismanagement by the Ford family (again), refused to
spend any money keeping it modern and fresh. Seems that Billy Boy was
more interested in 2 seater T-Birds and hulking "Eddie Bauer"
Expeditions and Explorers. Then the Firestone disaster hit, and it's
been downhill with no brakes for Ford ever since, despite a period of
robust sales for the gas guzzlers...for awhile....until gas hit
$3/gallon.

 

Well, how else will anyone be able to ask questions again next spring
about why their "brand new" minivan, Pacifica, whatever, has rust all
over the springs and other underbody parts?

 

To say nothing of pulsating brakes.......

 

DC will issue a can of black gloss spray paint with every "sales bank"
pickup or SUV at their "fire sales." LOL!

What a mess...especially for a company that went through this once
already less than 30 years ago.

 

In the glove box? You don't suggest that dealers are going to do it at
PDI do you? Double LOL!

Actually, there've been a few of these................

 

Chrysler's not a corporation any more, Bob. It's Mercedes. I don't know
what their financial condition is, but I'm sure it's a lot better than
Chrysler's in the bad old days.

 

I guess a little WD40 might work wonders if it was used at the right time.

 

It's "sleight" if hand.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

"if" course it is

 

Thet mai bee th shortst exmple if th "Usnet Speling Flam Lw" I'v evr scene.

 

Since when does a dealer actualy DO PDI? Triple LOL! Imagine the
look of the hapless Cherokee owner who gets home, pops open the glove
box, and sees the can of spray paint in there. "Hmmmm...what's THIS
for?"

 

Nope. In another thread: "It's 'its'."

 

LMAO! Better luck next time, Putney! "If" course, he's correct here.

 

My pernt, zackly

 

What do you mean by "better luck next time"? The self appointed grammar
cop said "slight of hand", and Putney pointed it out. It was a nice
case of poetic justice. I was going to point it out myself but got
distracted by something else.

Bob, you have such an amazing talent for completely obscuring real
points and burying them in seemingly endless bullshit anecdotes that
relate to absolutely nothing, and then pretending that none of your crap
applies to you. You should run for office.

 

Well crap!! I guess I deserved that one!

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Grammar/spelling and usenet go together like Don Quixote and windmills.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

 

Like ignorance and sarcasm. That's my favorite USENET combination.