Things not so peachy for Chery at DCX
Apparently not everyone in Stuttgart is thrilled about the deal that Chrysler has struck with Chery to assemble small cars for sale outside of China. Erich Kelmm is chairman of the DaimlerChrysler works council and thinks having DCX branded cars built by other companies is a bad strategy. The works council represents company employees and has representatives from all the company unions. Reps from the works council also sit on the corporate supervisory board.
Klemm is also skeptical about DaimlerChrysler cooperating with other larger Chinese manufacturers like FAW or SAIC and thinks they pose a threat to European manufacturers and autoworkers' jobs. He also thinks that the wide open shareholder structure of companies like DCX without a dominant shareholder is unsustainable. Klemm prefers a system like Porsche and BMW that are controlled by large family holdings and are more stable over the long term. This last idea is particularly dubious, since not all such enterprises work out that well. Take a look at Ford where forty percent of the voting shares are controlled by the Ford family, and even Porsche had it's problems in the late eighties and early nineties.
[Source: Just-Auto - sub. req'd]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Aaron 6:38PM (3/05/2007)
The nazi shitstains should get in or get out when it comes to management. Pretty simple, they have already stole the 5 billion rainy day fund chrysler had, and made no effort to exploit potential synergies.
Ethnocentric bastards are great at bitching like fat old women and not much else..
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Erich G 7:14PM (3/05/2007)
Its so easy for all of us to sit on the sidelines and second guess the decisions that were made. If this guy thinks Chrysler made a mistake cooperating with the Chinese, then fine. But lets see him and the rest of the supervisory board step up to the plate and show all of us how it should have been done. As far as a threat to European automakers the biggest threat would be for Daimler to separate themselves from Chrysler. That would make Daimler a much greater takeover target.
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Barney 7:27PM (3/05/2007)
What? Get off the drugs Aaron. Your babble is incoherent. Where did Cyrslyer get 5 Billion unless it was the cash left over from the deal with Daimler. I wouldn't doubt in the future FAW will be building Chryslers as the owner. Chery will sell the share as well. Daimler-Chrysler knows that Chery is to small to buy the company outright and would be a liability if Chrysler is infact being sold.
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Big Rocket 8:08PM (3/05/2007)
Autoblog: "Erich Kelmm is chairman of the DaimlerChrysler works council... The works council... has representatives from all the company unions... Klemm is... skeptical about DaimlerChrysler cooperating with... Chinese manufacturers... and thinks they pose a threat to European... autoworkers' jobs."
Bottom line: Just like the UAW in the United States, the European autoworkers' union is afraid of losing jobs to non-union workers. I don't for a moment believe this Erich Kelmm is genuinely concerned with DaimlerChrysler's best interests.
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Aaron 8:22PM (3/05/2007)
barney, get off your aids medication.. I understand being a battered husband is tough, but don't take it out on me.
Pre merger chrysler was profitable, and had 5 billion squirreled away in cash reserves.
The ship has sailed on any good coming from the merger. The germans should let them go and get off the Muchausen syndrome kick.
As big Rocket says, these are alligaotr tears.
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jgp 8:31PM (3/05/2007)
I strongly disagree with his reasoning, but if it results in DaimlerChrysler no longer supporting communism, I'm all for it.
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Michael B. 9:10PM (3/05/2007)
Someone please remove #5. That first sentence is offensive and unnecessary.
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Michael Karesh 9:13PM (3/05/2007)
Chery is just a plot to make consumers long for the quality of American-made Chryslers. Can't wait to measure the reliability of the first Chinese sold in the U.S.
http://www.truedelta.com/reliability.php
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Barney 9:28PM (3/05/2007)
"get off the Muchausen syndrome kick."
What? Aaron if your talking about "Munchausen" the context still has no meaning. (He wrote fables) If Chrysler was doing so well, then why the sell out and why a helping hand from Canadian & American governments? I realize Daimler needed a NA platform but why Chrysler? It cost Daimler a lot more then what Chrysler had in cash reserves. It's stupid to think they were bought inorder to get the cash. Buy a bank to get the money! Yeh right.
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david 10:02PM (3/05/2007)
barney, you really do nee to do your research on this one. chrysler did have billions in reserve. that's what made the deal so lucrative to stock holders here and accross the pond. unfortunately, the reserves were'nt used wisely.
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Chris 10:33PM (3/05/2007)
Wow, the AIDS joke is low...
On another note, I find it funny everyone bitches about the UAW being greedy, when the European unions have far more power and obtain far larger pay and benefits, resulting in the inflated prices of European cars, and no one says a damn thing.
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iQuack 1:17AM (3/06/2007)
Now that Chrysler is apparently "in play" it's likely to adversely affect sales of Chrysler vehicles.
For anyone aware that the company's ownership and therefore its affiliations might change, buying products that might soon be orphaned would seem to be a bad idea. And except for the Chrysler 300C, the newest Chrysler/Dodge cars aren't impressive compared with any of their Japanese competitors nor with GM's newest cars.
I expected Mercedes to turn Chrysler into a superior car manufacturer, but that hasn't happened at all. In fact, Chrysler has been little more than a distraction that's lowered the reliability and reputation of Mercedes.
If I were car shopping now, I'd ignore both Chrysler cars and its overpriced parent's cars, too.
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Greg A. 1:54AM (3/06/2007)
#8: "Can't wait to measure the reliability of the first Chinese sold in the U.S."
The reliability of the first Hyundais in the U.S. turned out to pitiful, but no one's laughing at them now.
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Greg A. 1:59AM (3/06/2007)
It looks like Chery ripped off the com badges on TNG for its logo.
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Frank 8:09AM (3/06/2007)
4. Autoblog: "Erich Kelmm is chairman of the DaimlerChrysler works council... The works council... has representatives from all the company unions... Klemm is... skeptical about DaimlerChrysler cooperating with... Chinese manufacturers... and thinks they pose a threat to European... autoworkers' jobs."
I think this is telling. Unless Autoblog got it wrong (no way!), Klemm is supposed to represent all the company unions but he is only concerned about Europeans jobs. This explains a lot about how Daimler treats Chrysler, like a Cindarella step sister who will be thrown to the curb once they are done with her. And the cash reserves that Chysler had were more like 8 billion (somw say as high as 10 billion). A clear accounting of them has never been made. Part of the problem is that German accounting regulations make hard to know exactly where the money went. If Chrysler had remained independant this reserve would have paid for all the losses to date with some left over.
But wait there's more. If Daimler had not merged Chrylser financial into Daimler and away from Chrysler they would have lost even less money since an automakers finance company is always a big money maker. And then you have to think that if the origional people running Chrysler before the takeover had stayed you would not have had vehicles like the Sebring.
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