Monday, May 4, 2009

Documents reveal Chrysler tried to sell parts to Chinese, tie-up with almost every automaker

An interesting bit of information....
According to an affidavit filed in the New York U.S. Bankruptcy Court where Chrysler filed for Chapter 11, the automaker's Co-President and Vice Chairman Tom LaSorda is quoted as saying "Chrysler has attempted in recent weeks to sell product lines and other units to a number of Chinese companies, but these efforts ... have been unsuccessful." The now bankrupt automaker offered the Chinese firms – including the Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. and Chery – engines, transmissions, vehicle lines, intellectual property rights, distribution channels and its brands during a five-day summit in February. But nothing came to fruition.

Even more interesting/disturbing is the revelation that for the last two years, Chrysler has attempted to forge an alliance with nearly every automaker on the planet, including GAZ, Honda, Hyundai, Magna, Nissan and Tata, along with General Motors and even Toyota.

The document reveals:

Chrysler and GM were in discussions in June and August of 2008, then later in November, with a last-ditch attempt in January which died shortly thereafter.

A plan was proposed to Toyota, in which Chrysler would provide the Japanese automaker with its excess capacity or work with Toyota to develop new products, including (laughably) hybrids.

Talks with Nissan failed in July, started again in September, then again in January and were eventually shot down.

And finally, Honda received a proposal from Chrysler – then promptly rejected it the next day.

According to LaSorda, potential mergers, "have been determined and undertaken in good faith, but have met uniformly without success." And with that, Chrysler determined the best alliance would be with Fiat – not that it had many options remaining.

Source;
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/05/01/documents-reveal-chrysler-tried-to-sell-parts-to-chinese-tie-up/

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