The issue I see is that, with long-time one-brand car dealerships which bring in another brand to sell . . . knowing the dealership only has a total amount of resources . . . that same amount of money must be spread over TWO+ brands rather than the prior ONE brand. Which means less for each brand, as a result. Which also means that profits from both brands will go to help build-up the new brand as the orig brand is sought to be maintained.
To me, the once-proud (and profitable!) Chrysler Group is now part of a larger family in Stellantis. A family of many brands which now has a cash-producer to help fund their other brands, I suspect. Yes, Stellantis allegedly has new EV tech which Chrysler allegedly could not afford on its own, but much of that has yet to be seen.
In this era of the automotive industry, a prevailing orientation is that COMBINATIONS of brands (and their prior companies) is necessary for survival. Which CAN reduce the glow of the individual entity as the glow of the combination increases a bit.
ONE asset which the Chrysler Group brought to the tables was "brands which made money, and lots of it", which made it a target for other, larger entities who were short on cash, at the time. I personally wonder how well Chrysler could have grown in prominence if Daimler had not courted Chrysler in the first place? Even if they had increased their stock dividend a bit to appease Kirk Kerkorian (and his buddy former-Chairman Lee Iacocca) as Chrysler's largest, single stockholder.
Then, my long-time theory is that Bob Eaton did not want Chairman Lee to be back in power, so he courted Daimler to merge with Chrysler in order to shut down that possibility. At a time when Daimler was "cash poor" and had many engineering issues/problems.
In the long run, the "merger of equals" resulted in "The Chrysler-ization of Daimler" rather than what the first appearances of "Daimler takeover" tended to be. It freed-up two Daimler guys to come to Chrysler and be like "Kids in the Candy Store" as they ran Chrysler themselves. Then, when his boss retired, Dr. Z went to Daimler and took a Chrysler SRT8 as his company, chauffer-driven car.
As other former Chrysler super-stars jumped ship to GM when Lutz ended up there. Not to forget Mr. Gilles who now is a very elevated Stallantis product person. With all of that stellar talent, Chrysler could have been great, provided that prior trajectories had been maintained and better-orchestrated/refined.
Being a long-time Chrysler enthusiast, it would have been great to see that happen, as Ford and GM plodded along in their typical fashion, by comparison. Continuing the great product/sales/profit momentum which began when the first round-body Ram fell from the ceiling in Cobo Hall at the new car show in the earlier 1990s. A time when EACH new vehicle introduction resulted in the Chrysler's stock price doubling each time! Those were GREAT times when Chrysler was on an acknowledged roll!! LOTS of smiles on my face, back then, too!!
Chrysler knew that their economic times would not last forever, so they had money socked-away to fund a few generations of new models. Money which Kerkorian wanted a piece of and wanted his good friend Chairman Lee back in power so stock dividends could be increased, even if that might compromise Chrysler's future a bit. From what I read in a few books on the subject, back then.
The interesting part of Iacocca's first book, circa early 1990s, was that he felt that in order to grow, Chrysler needed a global presence (larger than what it was back then) and a European partner. The interesting part of this is that he mentioned FIAT as that best-choice partner. Not for their lackluster products, but for their international distribution network.
When that happened, post-bankruptcy filing, the intelligent Fiat organization let Chrysler re-become the Chrysler it had been during the LH car era. With then-rising star Ralph Gilles leading the way in the area of products and such. Which resulted in the de-Daimlerized Chrysler 300/Dodge Charger getting a suspension retuning which brought back the energetic "Chrysler Feel" that had been numbed-down by Daimler operatives (as it appeared to me). Losing that "appliance feel" that had crept into the chassis, by observation. As the chassis dynamics were very good, just that they did not feel athletic to drive, as in the past, to me.
Yet, under Stallantis and Fiat, the Chrysler Group has and is producing some of their best-ever vehicles, which is fantastic. I just wish they were their own PentaStar, again. As we continue to cherish and glorify the products from A Prior Version of Chrysler Corporation.
Sorry for the length. Happy Holidays!
CBODY67
