We *almost* bought a Challenger, but the view from the windshield was funky. Plus the interior just felt cheap. It was very cool to look at on the outside, but it seems like they cut a lot of costs on the interior.
I am glad that we didn't. Bailout seeking leeches that they are....
Well, that cheap interior is what enables them to make the Mercedes E-class mechanicals affordable--those and the pushrods in the pickup truck engines. I suppose it all comes down to whether you want your sophistication inside or underneath. I'm leadfoot enough to prefer the latter.
As for the leech part, well, I wish it was so simple. The government trashed Chrysler. They got loan guarantees before and paid those loans back, but by then they had forcibly been required to compete with two larger and richer corporations during a time of unprecedented regulation which cost them all millions in engineering investments, they were forced to cease all efforts to be a multinational at that time as part of their bankruptcy, they had to give up such profitable divisions as Chrysler Defense (General Dynamics got the M1 Abrams for a song), they had to get out of the heavy truck business because they couldn't afford to keep up with the unprecedented truck regulations and still keep their cars legal, and they got saddled with Iacocca trying to turn them into a second-rate imitation of Ford...
And all of this benefitted GM and Ford, but they didn't reinvest properly. Though Ford woke up and smelled the coffee after almost collapsing themselves.
I'd have a lot less patience with these two for taking bailouts if they had been able to operate in a free market. But they weren't. I have a lot less patience with GM than Chrysler because the former bribed a bunch of politicians to pass those automobile-ruining regulations in an obvious effort to kill Chrysler, and now they're hoisted on their own petard. Poetic justice, there. That said, I can tell you this. I'm not going to let these bailouts drive me to just any import brand, because the vast majority of them are much more heavily subsidized than any of ours.
Meanwhile, I want to start a car company. Only thing is, I want to build automobiles, and that's pretty much illegal. So, what I really want to do is to start a motorcycle company that builds enclosed motorcycles. Anyone want to invest?
