Is Chrysler a lost cause?

Yes, the Big3 are a lost cause. They have to be allowed to fail. Pick up the pieces of what works and continue. Take all the unemployed affected workers and get them making the windmills, solar panels, batteries and electric cars that will make up the next economy. USA uses 23% of the world's oil but is less than 3% of the worlds population. This isn't sustainable. It's got to get it's house in order.

This is the opportunity of a generation. Don't waste it on loser companies who will never change, especially when there are new green jobs to take their place for fun and profit.

If they made good cars they would probably not fail. Its ironic that the nation who so often claims to protect people and nations has a Govt that bails out the companies that make vehicles that are so polluting that they can destroy the world with green house gasses. I would have thought its a good opportunity to set the industry in a direction of innovation but rather they decided to pay big $ for tradition.

"Take all the unemployed affected workers and get them making the windmills, solar panels, batteries and electric cars that will make up the next economy."

Undoubtedly all designed by Nancy Pelosi and the congress? Sorry pal, the rest of the taxpayers will have to subsidize those politically correct windmills, solar panels, batteries and electric cars, manufactured by overpaid AAU workers, the same way as they subsidize the big 3 now.

Can´t dream your way out of reality.

Analysts say most of Chrysler’s products, especially its cars, don’t look, feel or drive as well as the competition’s.

This has always been Chrysler's business model: make a mediocre product with great styling and sell it at a price lower than the competition. It worked great in the 1990's and they made a lot of money, but it drove many Americans away from American cars (and into Japanese and Korean cars) for life. They essentially burned down the house.

They got very lucky when the Germans bought them and now Daimler has had the good fortune of unloading this poison toad on the hedge fund, Cerberus -which I find hilarious. Cerberus should eat the total cost of this failure, not the American tax payer.

As for the electric car, no one is going to make a penny off them. They are too expensive to build and there isn't a market or a charging infrastructure in place for them. It takes 8 hours to fill up the tank, guys, to get you 125 miles of range (if you drive with the A/C off and the windows rolled up). The only reason any effort is being put into electric cars again is to meet California emission mandates and placate a Congress that is completely ignorant of the technology. Fuel cell vehicles have failed (not viable or affordable for another 20 years) so the automotive companies are going back to electric vehicles - which failed in the mid-90's, but can at least meet some customer expectations if the government will subsidize the price by about $10,000 a vehicle.

If the product was better this wouldn't be problem. They should fail. Necessity is the mother of invention. Competition is what fuels innovation.

oh I forgot to mention:

american battery manufacturers have nano technology batteries, they take only 10 minutes to recharge. Watch for them in 2010. Google nanoaltair batteries. lose the 90's stats. It's not the 90's. The EV-1 didn't fail, it was corporately bulldozed for the Hummer. If they allowed them to thrive the USA wouldn't be half the basketcase it is today.

Chrysler has been the idiot sibling in the big three for decades. The wonder is that the company is still alive after all these years of building crummy gas guzzlers. In the stylistics department Chrysler is certainly great, but putting style over performance belongs to the 1950s and 60s.

Chrysler is up to date in one thing and one thing only: It is saddled with overpaid and stupid CEOs who know as much about cars as Paris Hilton knows about nuclear physics.

Even in stylistics Chrysler isn't up to the old masters whose designs were made for all time and not just until next year. The last of the great stylists was Raymond Lowey, who gave us the Studebaker Avanti.

Alas, it is time to finally put Chrysler out of its misery.

as every here recognises...chrysler are in worse a shape than the other 2 because they build terrible cars....no amount of government bail out will change that FACT. They should sell off the jeep and dodge brands and allow them to make better use of their brands, instead of being lumbered by poor chrsyler mgt and restrictive unions. The rest of the steaming pile of chrysler should be absorb by GM and the name should die forever...it won't be missed by any car fan out there with any sense.

and yes, there will be huge job losses and I do feel bad for the people involved...but they all had a part in the decline of their auto industry. They were arrogant over productivity and not continuously improving and fooled themselves that the Unions they chose to represent them would be able to deal with the ever changing industrial trends of the industry. These union leaders held so much power that they became blinded to their true task and forgot the symbiotic nature of any company and their employees. Now its all too late and everyone suffers..there will be no winners. Fools

Daimler tried to make a go of doing the right thing by Chrysler and improve their products, share chassis systems and so on, but the internal arrogance and selfishness of Chrysler(namely the unions) had them shoot themselves in the foot. The looks of their cars are nice, but the internals are terrible. A good comparison is that a few years ago I rented a Hyundai on a B'trip and when you open the boot or trunk all the wiring was covered. On a top line Chrysler all the wiring is exposed. These are small things, but makes the larger picture of the whole product look bad. People don't buy the car only on the styling. You don't only get customers on the price. Take Audi for example they are increasing their prices yet they remain until even now one of the only companies that have been immune to the downturn. Thier sales have increased. I don't think I need to explain why.

Evolve or perish. Obviously, Chrysler didn't evolve.

If the product was better this wouldn't be problem. They should fail. Necessity is the mother of invention. Competition is what fuels innovation.

I think the lession in the failure of the big three is that competition does not work when you only have three companies to compete and they can get the government to protect themselves from change. Clearly, another example of a market failure. Who knew SUVs would eventually die? Anyone who can read the paper.