It's funny how Chrysler "Americanized" an American icon, the Wrangler.

2wd, power doors and locks, 4 door, etc.

 

It's funny how Chrysler "Americanized" an American icon, the Wrangler.

2wd, power doors and locks, 4 door, etc.

That new 4-door Wrangler is a disgrace. :thumbdown

Gimme one of these instead...

 

not that i think it would happen either, but how does 1 struggling automaker + 1 TANKING automaker = profit?

Mike

 

^^the only way this would be good for ford is if they picked up only jeep. Jeep at least is profitable

 

2 wrongs don't make a right...

 

Ford doesn't have the money or resources to pick up Jeep right now.... even if they would be a good buy.

 

aw man i hate chrysler, the only decent thing they have is that minivan with the cool turning seats.

 

Ford doesn't have the money or resources to pick up Jeep right now.... even if they would be a good buy.

Thats why it would be merger, not a buy out. Two struggling companies combine to make one big struggling company:lol:


I'm still waiting for Cerebrus to slash and burn Chrysler. Thats kinda what investment companies like them do.

Either that or Chrysler will end up the "barely/technically american chinese car company"

I'd be nervous if I were a Chrysler employee.

 

ah... nevermind then

 

I'm still waiting for Cerebrus to slash and burn Chrysler. Thats kinda what investment companies like them do.

The man in charge of Cerberus claims that he bought Chrysler because he's an enthusiast. He was also responsible for them purchasing a significant portion of American firearms makers for the same reason.

The only other explanation is that Cerberus is preparing for a Mad Max-style armageddon.

 

ford dosnt NEED to pick up jeep.

ford MADE jeeps way back and how much has the wrangler changed from WWII?

No, you dont buy the company, you buy the name and make your own. (make your own version better... hmmm... well...)

i mean come on, once ford owns the name, it would take them all of 10 minuets to design and build their own wrangler.

its not a veyron for chrissakes!

its a few I beams, a 4 cylender engine (or maybe an inline 6) , a 4wd system, and a windshield.

come on.


Im pretty sure ford DOES NOT want all chryslers mitsubishi engines and cars.

the inline engines from jeep and AMC combined with twinforce/ecogreenspeedairsuckingplatformsystem though...
that would make me wonder...

 

I just cant see 2 failing companies teaming up to make a winning situation. I like ford and I like chrysler and god knows if I would have been a teenager in the 60's to early 70's I would have been a mopar fan, but I just cant see it being any good now.

 

How can Ford MERGE with Chrysler? Chrysler is owned by another company. Would that company then own both Ford and Chrysler?

 

Didn't Ford just go through a management reshuffling? It looks to me like they are just getting starting in trying to turn the corner. A merger would only mean more shuffling and a huge delay in finding the new direction they are looking for. Definitely a bad move. They need to take care of thier own business first, I say.

 

its a few I beams, a 4 cylender engine (or maybe an inline 6) , a 4wd system, and a windshield.

Wranglers don't come with a I4 or I6 anymore, just the minivan V6.

 

Wranglers don't come with a I4 or I6 anymore, just the minivan V6.

the mitsubishi engine? ACK!

 

will not happen, period.
there's no good reason for it.
Ford, if they wanted, could just chop up the 150 platform and make a wrangler-beating bronco. Trucks is what ford does.
The problems is that it's a niche vehicle, so they don't care right now.

 

now IF this does happen who will be getting the jobs people in the States or people outside of the country?

 

IMO there is NO point in ford selling off a profitable Land rover, and a soon to be profitable Jaguar to pick up a failing American company.

IMO ford should have more clearly positioned Land Rover as fords “SUV” brand to fight Jeep, and Hummer, but with a touch of more class and prestige. (move towards more volume, but don’t go for baron basement pricing like jeep.

They dropped the ball on differentiation brands, and letting them specialize, but all the while building loyalty to the FoMoCo rather than specific brands. How many people even KNEW that land rover and jaguar were FORD products? That would have helped market shares if you could buy a “euro car” form an “American company” for the people in the west that see Euro as better products, but feel more patriotic buying American.

IT would have been the REVERSE of the Chrysler situation. MB took over a American company that dragged them down, Ford should have taken over the euro companies and used them to pull ford up.

 

well, since we are talking about Jeep.....
Heres mine !

I love my "Libby" :lol:

If ford were to merge they would probably borrow some tech from jeep (Mainly suspensions I suspect) Jeeps suspension is quite unique. Can you immagine a liberty suspension on an Escape ? well.... then you would have a ford liberty.. but oh well

Troy.

 

IMO there is NO point in ford selling off a profitable Land rover, and a soon to be profitable Jaguar to pick up a failing American company.

IMO ford should have more clearly positioned Land Rover as fords “SUV” brand to fight Jeep, and Hummer, but with a touch of more class and prestige. (move towards more volume, but don’t go for baron basement pricing like jeep.

They dropped the ball on differentiation brands, and letting them specialize, but all the while building loyalty to the FoMoCo rather than specific brands. How many people even KNEW that land rover and jaguar were FORD products? That would have helped market shares if you could buy a “euro car” form an “American company” for the people in the west that see Euro as better products, but feel more patriotic buying American.

IT would have been the REVERSE of the Chrysler situation. MB took over a American company that dragged them down, Ford should have taken over the euro companies and used them to pull ford up.

Personally, I think they should have gone the other way. Take LR back to it's roots of making affordable, capable SUV's for the masses.

Building $50k+ vehicles always limits your market.

Personally, I think LR has sold out a little bit. Sure, the LR3 is capable, but let's be real. Nobody is going to take a $50k LR3 into deepest darkest Africa and have an electronic whiz-bang sensor fail and now it's not better than any other awd car.

Now if you want to go on an expedition, you have to take a Defender which is pretty bare bones. Before, if you wanted to go on a family adventure, you could do it in a Discovery which is almost as capable as a Defender.

If ford were to merge they would probably borrow some tech from jeep (Mainly suspensions I suspect) Jeeps suspension is quite unique. Can you immagine a liberty suspension on an Escape ? well.... then you would have a ford liberty.. but oh well

Ford doesn't/didn't need anything from Jeep. When they had LR, they had the best. Not like off-road suspension is rocket science in any case...

 

Ford doesn't/didn't need anything from Jeep. When they had LR, they had the best. Not like off-road suspension is rocket science in any case...

If ford doesn't need it, and it's clearly a better suspension, then why doesn't ford offer it to their consumers ? :screwy:

Oh wait.... I forgot.... Its FORD and they would rather let everyone else be at the top of their class and always be second or third. Whatever happened to "Job #1" or striving to be number 1 ???? :dunno:

The point is..... Why can my 2WD Jeep Liberty Go places that an AWD Escape can't even dream about going ?? because of SUSPENSION Limitations, Ford could make it a contender and BTW, it's in the same class as my liberty, I'd like to see ford Do somthing to make the Escape a better off-road capable vehicle. :arr:

Troy.

 

Personally, I think they should have gone the other way. Take LR back to it's roots of making affordable, capable SUV's for the masses.

Building $50k+ vehicles always limits your market.

Well that is what I meant by going after more volume, start selling some SUV’s that can go off road for less than $50,000USD. If they started building the cars in NA, and built in higher volume they would be able to make a profit. Also Land rover or even jaguar was never integrated into FoMoCo, they remain a separate company that was fully owned by ford. That may or may not have allowed them to do they same thing Toyota did and open none union shops even if the parent company if ford (don’t know enough to say for sure.)

The trick is to balance prestige with price. BMW has been doing pretty good with that. They sell few enough cars to keep there prices high, but enough volume to get good economics of scale and a decent “value” at a profit.

The point is..... Why can my 2WD Jeep Liberty Go places that an AWD Escape can't even dream about going ?? because of SUSPENSION Limitations, Ford could make it a contender and BTW, it's in the same class as my liberty, I'd like to see ford Do somthing to make the Escape a better off-road capable vehicle. :arr:

Troy.

Because the escape is sold as a tall station wagon to middle class families that think a “station wagon” is not cool enough to drive. It is not sold as a true SUV.

 

Well My Liberty is Known as the "Cute Ute" and the LEAST capable Jeep Until the Compass So.... Calling it a Station Wagon isn't true. And it's classed as an SUV by The DMV So how is it that it's a "Station Wagon" ?

My point is that Ford needs to WAKE UP ! but It's like leading a Dead horse to water it WON'T Drink. I want to see Ford the #1 Auto Maker !! Why not ?

 

The point is..... Why can my 2WD Jeep Liberty Go places that an AWD Escape can't even dream about going ?? because of SUSPENSION Limitations, Ford could make it a contender and BTW, it's in the same class as my liberty, I'd like to see ford Do somthing to make the Escape a better off-road capable vehicle. :arr:

Troy.

Because the overwhelming majority of people who buy these vehicles hardly ever even see a gravel road, much less a rock climbing course in the wilderness.

It's a cute small utility vehicle which happens to have 4WD available for the masses.