Chrysler – Another Forgotten Success Story of the Obama Administration

One that “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” Mitt Doesn’t Want Publicized – And So It Won’t Be

It is unusual that a President does everything right with respect to policy, but when the objective history of the Obama years can be written it will point to the auto rescue of General Motors and Chrysler.  And while GM has gotten most of the publicity, Chrysler has quietly been building market share and doing quite nicely.

While General Motors (GM ) has become the predominant symbol of Detroit’s resurgence, the most impressive comeback may actually be Chrysler’s. Since early 2010, Chrysler has registered consecutive year-on-year U.S. sales gains, a streak unmatched by any major competitor. The turnaround hasn’t been driven by dramatic redesigns, which are mostly still to come. 

 

The source of this success, the Socialist/Communist Barack Obama injected government money into Chrysler but turned ownership and operation over to the private sector.  Fiat has apparently installed competent management and sales are rising.

 A bodybuilding enthusiast born in British Columbia, Bigland, 45, took over Chrysler’s top sales job in June 2011, continuing as president of the company’s Canadian arm, which he has run since 2006. Bigland has rigorously tracked sales and inventory data and pushed dealers to use low-cost sales incentives to hit their numbers.

 “We don’t have a lot of airy-fairy goals at Chrysler,” says Bigland. The company maintains a list of preferred vendors that it encourages dealers to use for colorful promotions on their lots, such as the traditional flag-draped tents that signify a sale. “They have guys that had never run a tent sale in their 40-year career as a Chrysler dealer that are running tent sales,” says David Kelleher, a Pennsylvania Chrysler salesman and head of the company’s dealer council. “Reid went out to the unengaged and taught them how to be engaged.”

See, working without the hidebound, semi-competent Detroit management of the earlier version of Chrysler the company has quietly become a presence in the U. S. auto market. 

Of course all of this is lost on the “government never created a single job” and “I built this all by myself without any help” delusional crowd of Conservatives.  But it’s still real.