Nardelli "laments all the time" that Cerberus lost Chrysler

The Detroit News reports that former Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli believes that the Obama Administration didn't need to hand the automaker to Fiat in order for the company to continue on. Instead, Nardelli says that a private equity firm could have easily taken the reins and steered the company back toward success. As you may recall, Nardelli left Chrysler in 2009 after the private equity firm Cerberus was forced to loosen its grip on the company. We don't need to elaborate on how well that whole experience went for Chrysler. Cerberus purchased the automaker from Daimler in 2007 for $7.4 billion and later lost its stake in the company during the Chrysler bankruptcy proceedings.

Nardelli says that Chrysler would be doing just fine right now if Cerberus had been given the same deal that the U.S. government gave Fiat. The former executive then went on to say that there was no reason for Chrysler to be given to Fiat, and that the deal was all "all theater and no substance." To our ears, considering where Nardelli and Co. left Chrysler, this all sounds quite a bit like a wounded ego at work. To be fair, though, the former Home Depot exec did bring a fairly salient point to the discussion by reminding that Fiat has largely been credited with Chrysler's more recent successes – despite the fact that much of the progress was already set in motion by Cerberus before the implosion.