Understand that the "Merger of Equals" was entirely a scam by Daimler Benz to avoid paying a premium to stock holders, while Juergen Schremp admitted about a year later, on a TV interview. Our "esteemed" SEC never even charged him with fraud, let alone prosecute him! But they got that evil Marha Stewart! It was ALWAYS a takeover using the $15B cash Chrysler had, to finance it. All made possible by bribing the top 5 executives, to not invoke the Iacocca-Kerkorian poison pill. It is a complete fallacy that Chrysler pulled Mercedes down. People were sent to Germany to help them fix their quality problems so they wouldn't have thousands of cars needing repairs at the end of the assembly line. Add in German mismanagement of Chrysler and rather than helping Chrysler, they helped themselves to Chrysler innovations, and most of all, the cash cow that Chryler had, with the exciting LH cars and Dodge trucks, and the best selling minivans ever. AND the $15B cash in the bank. Chrysler should have, could have, bought Mercedes, at that point in time. But the German government would never have let that happen, unlike the US government bureaucrats and politicians. Sadly, this will be the official demise of the Chrysler brand. NO actual Chrysler or Dodge cars are forthcoming, even if already designed, so they can milk 15 yer old designs a while longer. They have no regard for Chrysler history or innovation. Just milk it dry and use/abuse the remaining dealer body from the Fed decimation in 2008.
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