Comments on: Workers derail Chrysler Imperial production plans

By: DialM4Speed

DialM4Speed — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 00:45:56 +0000

I bet the executives don’t take a pay cut when they F&^K something up yet the working man is always expected too. They (CAW) made the right decison!

By: hockeygod1331

hockeygod1331 — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:07:00 +0000

^ agreed

By: Carnut4ever

Carnut4ever — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 12:00:58 +0000

Yes, they did the right thing saving Chrysler from building the ugly Imperial. Apparently, the union know more on what a good car is supposed to look than clueless Chrysler designers and the honchos who approved them as bargaining chips.

By: europerspective

europerspective — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 07:36:16 +0000

They should have refused to build it for the good of North American aesthetics. Imagine having to admit to your grandkids that you helped litter the streets with this ugly pastiche

By: Manster

Manster — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 06:36:55 +0000

You’re kidding! They are letting the response of the union dictate whter they should produce a car??? Oh please, what the hell is WRONG here???

They leave the vote up to a group of people that at 25 to 30 bucks an hour STILL can’t screw on a door panel or turn a bolt properly to decide on the fate of a vehicle….

I’m speechless…this is so wrong on so many different levels! Can the unions, they WILL be a contributing factor in the death of the US Auto Industry. READ IT RIGHT, a CONTRIBUTING FACTOR!!!!!

By: 0GSharK6

0GSharK6 — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 02:58:42 +0000

Chrysler should wait to push the product up the luxury ladder until they can build better automatic transmissions. It takes no time at all for them to shift into reverse with a nice big jolt, but then going into drive is a whole second, so going from park to drive is two big thuds in a second.

Oh, and some plastics that aren’t hard as bricks, as well.

By: hockeygod1331

hockeygod1331 — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 16:36:33 +0000

Every idiot who is saying this would compete with Cadillac is forgetting that Chrysler still has Mercedes! Not only is this the UGLIEST least innovative concept I have ever seen, there is no market for this car and perhaps the union knows this and does not want to be at fault for such bull****!!!
This car does not make sense any way you look at it..design wise, Chrysler has been blowing it hard these past few months.

By: wiseassoffice

wiseassoffice — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 15:48:08 +0000

One less super ugly humpy and bumpy car to produce. This should be proof to GM that there is no magic product waiting behind Chrysler’s closed doors. They should be backing away from the idea of a purchase. When union people vote no at the expense of their jobs you know its a bad idea.

By: Get Real

Get Real — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 15:36:05 +0000

Hello Mexico or China or Brasil……..the UAW is committing job suicide.

By the way, there IS a market for large RWD cars that get way better than SUV gas mileage. I like them big and comfy and when in a crash with people in their econo-boxes——–THEY DIE.

By: autwrkr

autwrkr — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 15:01:01 +0000

If you think the people at a plant get to decide what to build your nuts.

The company will decide what and where and how to build any product.

Along with the monetary concessions I see nothing is mentioned about the concessions dealing with work standards, elimination of job classifications and out sourcing that was put to us, and by the way the union national had rejected this same proposal last year.
All for a promise of a product that has NOT been green lighted, one that wasn’t very popular with auto journalists who saw it, would take away sales from our current product, (watch how the Avenger will suck sales away from the Charger just as the old Sebring did to the old Concorde) and is yet another big gas guzzler with no hybrid or diesel fuel option.
Besides, opening up the contract to give this away now makes no sense when the company will have another chance to get even more concessions for the same promise when the contract comes due next year. SALES will determine if a plant runs on three shifts, not concessions and promises.

By: buenos

buenos — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 14:38:24 +0000

Considering that the Brampton plant all ready builds the 300, Charger, and will be building the Challenger, I don’t think that not building the Imperial (which for some strange reason reminds of the oh so fabulous Chrysler Cordoba) is going to cause the plant to suddenly be shuttered. Unless of course Chrysler just folds.

By: dodge12

dodge12 — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 14:28:09 +0000

looks great its not a bentley its a chrylser stop with all the bentley crap!!! and plus chrysler doesnt have a big luxury car this can compete with linclon and cadillac.

By: toyota#1forever

toyota#1forever — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 03:50:26 +0000

SigmaHyperion, you worded that so eloquently. Looks like MadCapp didn’t think it through too well. Now what was it that MadCapp wrote about the President?

By: F451

F451 — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 02:30:45 +0000

One of the ugliest luxury-class automobile to ever be designed in this day and era. With Chrysler up for grabs it is not even prudent to built what is at best a “wildcard.” Maybe the unions know more than we do?

By: brucechap

brucechap — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 02:20:29 +0000

I grew up near South Bend, Indiana, and am old enough to remember Studebaker. I remember not only the cars, but what happened to all those local UAW workers who thought being asked to take a pay-cut was just an insulting management tactic.

Better hope your bet on a deep-pockets buyer is more successful, Brampton.

By: SigmaHyperion

SigmaHyperion — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 00:24:10 +0000

MadCapp, you’re not the brightest bulb on the tree are you?

“And if you spread that $150 per week over all the cars a worker puts together in a week, that pay might add a dime ($0.10) to the cost of every car if they made only 1500 cars a week. Its probably closer to 3 cents per car. If you can’t figure how to hide that dime for a living wage in the price of a $50,000 Imperial, or $40,000 Challenger, than you’re dumber than George Bush.”

You’re right, the paycut does add roughly 1 dime to the cost of the car. But you forgot one little thing — that’s one dime PER WORKER.

You do realize that it takes more than ONE worker to build those 1500 cars a week, don’t you?

In fact there is now almost FIVE THOUSAND employees working at Brampton. Suddenly that dime per worker just added up to a lot more money, huh? $500 on each and every car. $500 in COST mind you, which will end up being more like $1000 on the price. And the problem isn’t how as much how that $1000 affects the price of a $50,000 Imperial, but how it affects the price of that $20,000 300 or Magnum that those same workers also produce.

By: LamborghiniZ

LamborghiniZ — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 22:17:43 +0000

Eh, Chrysler is going down the ****ter these days anyways, this is another sign of it, they can’t even build a new car without lowering wages. TYPICAL.

By: Syrax

Syrax — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 21:50:53 +0000

just to remember…all the rest of the world still gets the phaeton, except usa due to poor sales…and i don’t think the maybach steals sales from the S…it’s two different levels

By: Jazz

Jazz — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 21:37:00 +0000

Sounds like a new way for companies to bargain with unions. “Here build this afor cheaper or face a plant closing.”

I would not have voted for it as the intent of the deal is to screw all union employees eventually

By: A4

A4 — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 21:05:48 +0000

the imperial is hideous

By: xmnr

xmnr — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 21:04:03 +0000

The imperial is a relatively clever thing to do to the LX/LY. It WILL steal sales from the 300c, but it will also grab sales from cadillac from so-so sts buyers who are willing to go a little upscale from the 300c, which, when you sit in it, is clearly a cheaper car than an STS (we’ll ignore all the nicely built “furrin” cars out there for sts money). Admittedly, that’s a small niche as STS sales aren’t exactly an accord-sized pool of customers. In terms of project worthiness, this should have been way less important than getting the sebring and avenger right, (which they clearly are not), but given the relative success of chrysler’s big cars, this is a nice way to scale up variety on a winning theme. I would have restyled the charger to look more like the ‘99 concept, but that’s just me.

I am still waiting for chrysler to offer a mustang and accord competitor. The challenger is too complicated to steal sales from anything other than the shelby gt500, and even then, maybe not even as many as roush mustangs, which get sold through the same dealer. Ford has got that segment on lock..

and I’m pretty sure the caliber has the worst interior of any car I’ve seen since 1990. The interior plastics look as hard and cheap as the bodies on those power-wheels electric cars at toys-r-us. the caliber and compass need to go. I hope that the “$15k” price being kicked around for the demon doesn’t relegate it to the same crumminess…. I would be happy to pay $30k for a Demon SRT4…

By: Cobradreamer427

Cobradreamer427 — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 20:30:42 +0000

If they don’t like the f-ing descision, get some f-ing balls and build it anyway! God Damn

By: 1c3d0g

1c3d0g — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 19:51:21 +0000

This car is incredible. I’ll buy one Chrysler, just built it, damn it!

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 19:09:25 +0000

How many times in how many different incarnations has Chrysler tried to revive the Imperial? This Imperial has to be the worst proposal yet. Good riddance to bad trash. The Canadian autoworkers saved GM the job of killing the project when it buys the Chrysler Group.

By: Blakkarr

Blakkarr — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 19:07:45 +0000

The Imperial sounds like a winning, on paper. But unlike say VW, as some have made the comparison, Chrysler does not have a solid base from which to support such a magnificent car. If it fails, and right now I looks like It would unless aimed at the $100+ lot and higher scale limo companies, The Imperial would certainly kill Chrysler.

The company needs to re-develop it’s user base and solidify it before moving into something so incredible and actually quite cool. But the Imperial is not a car for retirees and wanna-bes. It is a triumphant announcement of ones arrival, just like a Bentley or Rolls.

Frankly I would have pushed for a RWD Sebring, that didn’t look like the bastard child of the 300C and an Accord, at a price point in line with more ambitious targets like Mercedes Benz or Lexus. The Avenger looks okay and more like I would have wanted for the Charger.

But that said. The Imperial is the wrong car for Chrysler at the point and time. While I would have liked it more that Chrysler decided on it’s own to hold off on the Imperial, I am al the say glad that this calamity has kept, for now, a struggling maker for making too big of a gamble on it’s future.

By: TOZO

TOZO — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 19:07:21 +0000

Those morons are gonna regret their decision.

By: CTS DRIVER

CTS DRIVER — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 19:01:01 +0000

the paycut sucks but is still higher than an unemployment check. damn that car gets uglier everytime i look at it, no wonder they didnt want to build it.

By: car-a-holic

car-a-holic — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 18:20:01 +0000

Whoa!
Death to unions?
C’mon! The UAW might be a dinosaur and maybe this tail wags the dog. It is possible that the UAW has driven the Big three to become nominal automotive accessory grouping and maybe driven ford or chrysler out of the business. But to say death to unions?
Job exportation? hmm well there are many shareholders whose value is thru the roof and many more unemployed middle class people who probably couldve or should have considered unionization for themselves and attempted to have better standing ground to fight job loss (and indusry dismantlement). The trend is disturbing that our society is ever increasingly reliant on imports for its lifeblood for all indusries and goods.
I am neither anti or pro union….just suggesting that there IS a balance to be struck. Unions shouldnt bust the company and it shouldnt be the other way around either.
But the unions are not the only issue for these companies. 30 years of a largly garbage product crop has yielded some dark writing on the wall. I dont know if I’d take the pay cut either.

By: anyclearer

anyclearer — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 18:18:43 +0000

why should workers have to give up their money just to build a car? how did they ever think people would have agreed to that?

By: CTS DRIVER

CTS DRIVER — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 17:58:49 +0000

homeboy234, chrysler isnt GM . chrysler should sell out to bentley/rolls royce, cant tell the difference anyways, i used to think the 300 took a bite of the bentley sandwich but the imperial is just embarassing, its like the rolls royce kits for the old beetles.

By: TimG

TimG — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 17:36:25 +0000

I’m still not convinced this is the right move. The design still needs to be tweaked. It may have an adverse affect on sales of the 300. And with the continuing loss of market share to the Asians, why are they intent on building another big vehicle? They need to devote time and resources to better engineering the engines they are putting in their cars.

By: DunnStreet

DunnStreet — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 17:34:03 +0000

To TKS,

For your information, 115.00 Canadian is 102.00 US
as the actual exchange rate today.
Your comment is arrogant.
I understand the reject of the Chrysler proposal and
i agree.

By: roadmaster96

roadmaster96 — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:58:24 +0000

The imperial would not harm Chrysler, it would devour sales of the current Cadillac DTS, Lincoln town car and a spattering of other $45-55,000 cars as well. The rwd LX cars are the only current Chrysler cars with 5 digit per month sales. the public likes them a lot.

By: Ricardo Head

Ricardo Head — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:56:43 +0000

That’s true, Buenos. I’m sure there’s some reason for it.

By: buenos

buenos — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:36:33 +0000

Jon Luc… as a Canadian, believe me, we get used to it from our American neighbours. By the way, today is shift day for Toronto, when we move the city back on the glacier it’s built on, so that it doesn’t end up in Buffalo NY.