I already knew I wasn't ever going to buy a Chrysler again, but...

[YALE]

...this really seals the deal for me:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43843822/ns/business-autos/

Cliff's notes: We sold the rest of what we had in Chrysler to Fiat, and are left holding a $1.3 billion bag. We should've put Fiat on the hook for it, IMO.

[Sgt Beavis]

I wouldn't blame Chrysler or Fiat for that. It was the Obama administration that made the decision to sell that stock.

[YALE]

I wouldn't blame Chrysler or Fiat for that. It was the Obama administration that made the decision to sell that stock.

I think it was a safe bet I wasn't going to vote for him, LOL.

[BP]

What ever happened to free markets? It pisses me off to no end when my tax dollars are spent bailing out private companies. Now the Italians have a leg up in our market and we financed it for them.

[Forever_frost]

Wait, weren't we told that we'd make a profit out of this?

[BP]

Wait, weren't we told that we'd make a profit out of this?

The UAW guys made plenty of profit, you didn't get yours?

[Sgt Beavis]

What ever happened to free markets? It pisses me off to no end when my tax dollars are spent bailing out private companies. Now the Italians have a leg up in our market and we financed it for them.

I'm in agreement with you here but there is a flip side to consider. How much taxpayer money would it have cost if we had allowed Chrysler and GM to die. All those people would be collecting unemployment. You know the government would have bailed out their pension system. There would have been all sorts of costs that the Democratic congress would have put us on the hook for. Even a Republican congress would have likely done something. There is also a decent argument to be made that our economy would have been fucked in a much bigger degree if they hadn't bailed them out.

I wouldn't sweat the Italians. So far it is looking like they are getting the short end of the stick on this. So far Chrysler has brought only one Fiat to the US for sale (the Fiat 500) with only one other on the way (a re-badged Alfa) However, there are several Chrysler vehicles that are being exported to Europe and re-badged as Fiats and Lancias. Also, Chrysler's CEO is slowly reorganizing the company in a manner that basically turns Fiat into a US run company.

Marchionne certainly isn't as good of a CEO as Mulally is, but he isn't doing a terrible job. He sure as hell is light years better than GM's CEO. Man that guy is a clusterfuck.

[no4njnk]

They would not have died, they would have filed for bankruptcy. Plenty of companies file and not go out of business. In my opinion GM would have been ok but their suppliers would have been beaten to death.

They need to change their business plan and the bailout made them maintain the status quo. Thats like telling your kid he cannot have dessert until they eat their vegetables then after he does not eat the veggies you give them dessert. You have to learn somehow.

This should be a capitalist society. If a company fails, no matter how big, let them fail. Someone or something will come in and fill the void. GM and Chrysler and public companies, any vendor could look at their numbers and see they were not doing well. But instead politcs are involved...

[FastFox]

Pay attention to the cop cars, dump trucks, pick ups and school buses in the future. I am convinced that the feds will say to city, county, state and school districts that in order to get grant money they will need to buy GM and Chrysler products. I am convinced that is one of the reasons that Ford dropped the Crown Vic. When was the last time you saw a government car that was not a Chevy or Dodge ? I bet even pressure will be put on school bus builders to use Dodge and GM running gears.

[Broncojohnny]

If the government hadn't bailed out the auto companies there would have been an additional two million people out of work. Ford would have gone under too because they all share suppliers.

All of that wouldn't have been bad if it occured in a regular recession but the times were much worse. A $1.3 billion loss is nothing compared to what the government is spending on useless shit these days. In fact, it is pennies. In the grand scheme of things, I am much more comfortable that these guys got propped up.

[YALE]

If the government hadn't bailed out the auto companies there would have been an additional two million people out of work. Ford would have gone under too because they all share suppliers.

All of that wouldn't have been bad if it occured in a regular recession but the times were much worse. A $1.3 billion loss is nothing compared to what the government is spending on useless shit these days. In fact, it is pennies. In the grand scheme of things, I am much more comfortable that these guys got propped up.

Fair enough.

[Captain Crawfish]

Pay attention to the cop cars, dump trucks, pick ups and school buses in the future. I am convinced that the feds will say to city, county, state and school districts that in order to get grant money they will need to buy GM and Chrysler products. I am convinced that is one of the reasons that Ford dropped the Crown Vic. When was the last time you saw a government car that was not a Chevy or Dodge ? I bet even pressure will be put on school bus builders to use Dodge and GM running gears.

By 2015 most govt vehicles will most likely be NGV's

[Forever_frost]

The UAW guys made plenty of profit, you didn't get yours?

Actually, I had stock in GM and AIG. I did get a nice letter saying my stocks were worthless because Obama took them over though

[Hobie]

What ever happened to free markets? It pisses me off to no end when my tax dollars are spent bailing out private companies. Now the Italians have a leg up in our market and we financed it for them.

Citibank has been bailed out 3 times in my own lifetime. When is enough enough?

I'm supposed to hate socialized programs for individuals, but accept them for global banking institutions???