Chrysler and the Chys of death

[C M Smith <cmsmith@domain.elided>]

Ah yes, Chrysler, a company that seems incapable of putting adequate brakes 
on any vehicle they have manufactured. All go and no stop as they say.

So, partnership with Chrysler killed off Renault, Peugeot and Alfa Romeo in 
America eh? Even I detect a pattern. Except that Renault's last fling was 
with American Motors before Chrysler bought that fiercely independent, 
skilled, and impoverished manufacturer. Remember the Renault Alliance? The 
Medallion was it?? that had the wacky 90 degree V6 that found its way into 
such memorable performance machines as the DeLorean and Volvo 760.

Chrysler did flirt with Peugeot. I remember being paid CAN$50 to test drive 
a Peugeot 505 Turbo for a day as part of their marketing campaign. After I 
related my experience to a very uninterested salesman I concluded they had 
wasted $50. Turbo lag, soft springs, low power output, funny ergonomics, 
heavy, odd looking, did I mention the turbo lag? Also, European automatic 
transmissions were  a joke in those days. Thank goodness someone got their 
act together since then. The Aisin Warner is brilliant. The ZF still has a 
ways to go. The one in the 164 and the SAAB turbo is really awful compared 
to the run of the mill excellent North American autobox. (Yup, slushboxes 
and HVAC are American specialities).

In closing, I have to disagree with Gerry in Houston (as per usual), the US 
regulations made it economically unfeasible for many Euro manufacturers to 
justify modifying their cars for sale in North America. To give you some 
idea of the low margin levels that make a difference, some manufacturers 
continued in Canada when sale in the US was not feasible due to our regs 
being  a lot less restrictive than in the US to begin with. Canada has a 
TINY automobile market. No, the US clearly indulged in serious 
protectionism under the guise of protecting the US consumer. The SUV 
"phenomenon is proof positive of this. Also, even though European 
regulations are now at least equal to and probably superior to US 
regulation, the US still won't accept Euro regs as acceptable. That is 
protectionism, pure and simple.

My only beef is our Government isn't ballsy enough to just say to heck with 
US regs and accept anybody's regs. Canada doesn't actually have any regs, 
we just photocopy Uncle Sam's and three hole punch them for our Statute books!

Cheers
Michael

BTW, I am NOT bitter, I really like being deprived of flash European 
machinery so I can visit the US without a passport.


Michael Smith
Calgary, Alberta,Canada
91 Alfa 164L
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