Ben, very interesting and I thank you.
You picked some really intriguing cars here; I know several folks here on the Left Coast who own PT Cruisers, they are still driving them with very little difficulties. All say they wish Chrysler had continued with the product.
The Espace is stunning, should have an automatic for those not wanting to row through traffic, and of course air conditioning for the hot summer months here and elsewhere. The design would have sold like cookies. My experience with Renault is really poor dealerships, lack of parts, and so on, but the cars themselves were very French and terrific.
Chryslers sedans (L Models) were beautiful and very sophisticated designs for their time.
I always thought this was another Management mistake: The people that owned them here complained about poor quality assembly, reliability issues, and just plain lousy body integrity. If more attention had been paid to the product at origin and marketing would have taken it seriously the cars may have sold well.
I always thought Hummer was extreme. One of the Governors of our State had four. I think a Hummer buyer is a distinct customer so absorbing it into an existing brand may not be a good idea.
I think the only reason General Motors was rescued in downturn of 2006-8 was because
it had at that time 250,000 workers who were VOTERS and the rescue had nothing to do with the Company. Management was lousy then and I don't see any improvement now.
I was a third Generation GM buyer and I won't go near the cars.
When Lee Iaccoca was running Chrysler it was a monster and now it is Stellantis, merged with others which I hope will improve its cars. I've had several Chryslers in my collections,
mostly mid sixties when Chrysler was in its Monster Period, big inches, bullet proof transmissions, flat cornering in very large cars, a blast.
Ben sorry for the long e mail. You and all Hagerties stay well.
