[magellan]

Originally Posted by The_gateway

Loved the commercial, but I absolutely hate Chrysler. I refuse to buy one of their garbage vehicles. A good commercial does not erase the fact they took a massive bailout, and simply failed at "Running A Business 101".

It was actually a loan, that they have been repaying:

Chrysler to refinance government loans | Detroit Free Press | freep.com (http://www.freep.com/article/20110204/BUSINESS01/110204043/Chrysler-refinance-government-loans - broken link)

In case you didn't hear, "running a business 101" usually doesn't include a section about dealing with an economic "depression."

[MIW14]

Most viewed video on youtube today!

[danielj72]

Originally Posted by The_gateway

Loved the commercial, but I absolutely hate Chrysler. I refuse to buy one of their garbage vehicles. A good commercial does not erase the fact they took a massive bailout, and simply failed at "Running A Business 101".

Ive never been partial to chrysler either. They did a good job on that comerical however, and they successfully painted Detroit in a more positive light than anyone has in a long time. That does not however erase the fact that thier cars and trucks have a reliablitiy problem that is legendary. Many people I know who have owned chryslers complain about breakdowns, and often they end up meeting the folks who work at the local transmission shop. I hope chrysler has dealt with these reliablity issues, because if they havent then every penny spent to bail them out was a waste. The chrysler 200 is a slick looking car, on looks alone its a hit. The question is how well is it built??? Time will tell. Good comericial though, best one of super sunday.

[michsnowlvr]

I said it in the Detroit forum, and Ill say it here. AWESOME commercial giving props to Detroit!

[JimmyInGreatLakes]

Originally Posted by magellan

It was actually a loan, that they have been repaying:

Chrysler to refinance government loans | Detroit Free Press | freep.com (http://www.freep.com/article/20110204/BUSINESS01/110204043/Chrysler-refinance-government-loans - broken link)

In case you didn't hear, "running a business 101" usually doesn't include a section about dealing with an economic "depression."

I think the "depression" simply revealed who had the best business model or the best lineup of cars. Chrysler was pretty much on the bottom of the heap and should have closed their doors save for the fed gov't stepping in. I'll say I have a '98 Plymouth minivan that is still running at 160K and it's been a trooper but these days you have to sell more than just minivans.

[tuebor]

The guy on NPR's Marketplace said today that this ad was his favorite. I don't know where he's from, but that show is based in LA.

The way the ad embraced Detroit's troubles was interesting. They seem to be going for a kind of badass chic.

The ad made me think of Detroit 187, especially when they said Detroit is not New York. It irks me that the central character of that show is a New Yorker, and that he is portrayed as being somehow on a higher plane than everyone else. But that's for another thread.

[The_gateway]

Originally Posted by scolls

He's actually from Kansas City. Chrysler is also indebted to other financial institutions. What is your point? If you want the government to get a return on their investment than Chrysler needs to advertise and sell product.

I guess in the same vein since Ford took a couple billion in government loans and is indebted to the US Government, the taxpayer paid for their advertising as well. Then again, Ford, GM and Chrysler are tax payers. They've paid billions of dollars in taxes in their 100 years of existence. More than any other one of these people who get on their soapbox and say "My tax dollar" so why did Chrysler get your tax dollars and not the billions of taxes dollars Chrysler has paid throughout the years? Did GM ever complain about the way Warren spent the 1.5 million in annual property taxes they pay for the Tech Center alone?

Ford was the only one of the big three that never took a bailout....

[tribecavsbrowns]

Originally Posted by redfish1

Two things I can't stand..............hip hop and and Detroit.

that commercial makes me want to never buy a Chrysler now that every little bass car wannabe thug will be lining up to buy a one because Eminem says it's cool.

I think they just shot themselves in the foot by associating there product to the very reason people don't want to buy there cars in the first place.
Have you ever been to Detroit? I wouldn't buy a t-shirt made in that hole much less something as sophisticated as a motor vehicle.


now that bmw comercial that showed the clean diesel and the other one that showed there American built cars.................I would be lying if I said that it didn't make me feel justified in buying a new BMW.

Yuppie.

[scolls]

Originally Posted by The_gateway

Ford was the only one of the big three that never took a bailout....

Actually Ford borrowed 5.9 billion from the federal government so they are indebted to the "taxpayer" ....

Ford Gets $5.9 Billion Government Loan

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

DEARBORN, Mich. — The Energy Department said Tuesday it would lend $5.9 billion to Ford Motor Co. and provide about $2.1 billion in loans to Nissan Motor Co. and Tesla Motors Inc., making the three automakers the first beneficiaries of a $25 billion fund to develop fuel-efficient vehicles.

Read more: Ford Gets $5.9 Billion Government Loan - Auto - FOXNews.com

[Coldjensens]

Chysler has some major hurdles to overcome. In the late 1990s, they realized that there were manufacturing a defective transmission. They pretty much all went bad at 70k to 150k miles. However instead of designing a new transmission and re-tooling a factory or two, they just kept making the defective transmissions and putting them in many of their cars for years and years, thus they develoiped a terrible reputation for bad transmisssions. They saved some money short term and destroyed their reputation long term. Just not thinking ahead.

Then they came up with some great ideas for much improved designs for their cars, however they insisted in putting cheap parts in them to try to reduce costs. Instead they produced cars that had constant problems with little things breaking all the time. Now they have a horrid reputation overall.

We had a 2000 Chrysler van that literally had things fall off of it as we drove around. Door handles just fell off, the transmission bolts were lose and worked their way out. When we discovered the problem, they had all fallen out. Other parts fell off and many more just broke. This was all within the first two years after we bought it. It was covered by the warranty, but who wants to buy a car that sits at the dealership for warranty repairs all the time. They woudl nto give us a loaner if they thought it woudl take less than a full day to fix. Usually it did take less than a day to fix, but it was back the next day to fix something else. After that van, I swore off Chrysler forever, at least until I bought a used minivan for my daughters to drive. Then I bought another used minivan for them when the transmission went out on the first one. When the transmission went out on the second one, we had it repaired because the second minivan was worth enough to justify $1600 for a transmission. However, we should not have done that. SInce that time, we have had some item break every month. Sometimes every week. Many are small but annoying items electric seat motor stopped working, windshield wipers would not shut off, back door will not open, back seat will not latch and hold, headlights are too dim. It is always something and it is endless. THe design of the minivan is fantastic. I think it is the best design of any by far. However the execution of that design is terrible. Everything is cheaply made, and often stupidly made. PLastic parts where it obviously shluld be metal. It is like they designed it to break.

They are now doing a great job advertising. The Jeep Cherokee ads are really well done. They talk about how they take pride in the jeep name and really focus on quality. However you cannto help but say that is what they said when they were making crappy cars. They never even admitted "Yes we were making crummy cars, but not anymore" So what are they doing differently? Its it just better advertising? It is the same workers, the same designers and the same bean counters ordering cheapo parts, so what has changed? Why should we believe that the new Jeep Cherokees are nto going to fall apart constantly like the old ones? Have they stopped making minivans that lose the serpintine belt every time you hit a puddle? If so, they should say so.

Why don't they just say "Ok we were putting crummy transmissions in out minivans and smaller cars for 7 or 8 years, but we stopped" ?

My wife really wants to go look at a Jeep Cherokee, but I keep saying to myself "It looks neat and the ads are great, but when all is said an done, it is still a Chrysler, and what are we going to do if they go out of business and little things starts breacking all the time just like every other CHrysler?

I sure wish that we could be certain that they have actually changed. The new Cherokee appears to be a pretty near vehicle, but what a huge risk.