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Dodge News
DaimlerChrysler Launches Push to Make Its Units
Work Together
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For the first few years after the 1998 merger that
created the German-American car maker, Mercedes executives closely guarded
their parts and designs for fear of eroding the Mercedes mystique. For their
part, Chrysler engineers tried to preserve some independence, even if it
meant reinventing the wheel. The two sides failed to meld in many areas and
by 2001, Chrysler was bleeding cash. Now DaimlerChrysler is on a high-stakes
mission to get its troubled merger on track by finally forcing its far-flung
parts to work together. This month Chrysler is hitting the market with two
new vehicles that reflect a two-year effort to get more Mercedes engineering
into the American side and boost such sharing efforts around the world
Beyond that, Chrysler and DaimlerChrysler’s Japanese partner, Mitsubishi
Motors Corp., are now working on a set of components, including engines,
that can be used as the base for perhaps a dozen different vehicles. In all,
this one basic design could spawn more than a million vehicles a year, with
potentially big cost savings. It’s an ambitious program at a time when the
global auto industry is skidding into trouble. Investors, shaken by war
worries, high fuel prices and economic uncertainty, are fleeing auto stocks
on both sides of the Atlantic
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
www.wsj.com
Original Post June 26, 2015: By MrTruck
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