It's 1978 all over again for Chrysler

Lee Iacocca was alarmed by the massive amount of unsold cars sitting
and decaying on the Michigan State Fairgrounds near Detroit back in
late '78 when he took over as chair of Chrysler Corporation. This was
the notorious "sales bank," the repository of overproduced,undersold
product that would be given away under wholesale to dealers at the end
of fiscal quarters to just get rid of the inventory and make the books
look a little better.

Guess what...it's BAAAAAAACK!

CNBC moments ago showed the same, exact place where Iacocca was
alarmed by the "sales bank"...chock full of pickups and SUVs. Turns
out all the Big 3 have been lying about their inventory overstock, as
well, by cutting the amount of inventory by "future fleet sales." As
IF they know exactly when and who's going to buy these things for
fleets! After cleaning up that little slight of hand, it's apparant
now that Chrysler has a 120 day inventory of Jeeps and pickups sitting
at the fairgrounds...and those cars are just sitting there, decaying,
and the harsh Michigan winter is coming.

Meanwhile, Ford announced the end of the Taurus, the car that saved
Ford from the mismanagement of King Henry II in the '80s. Now, after
years of mismanagement by Billy Boy, they're in worse trouble than
before.

The Taurus was another place where Iacocca was wrong. When it was
introduced in '86, he called it "the potato car." Wrong...that was
one hot selling potato for many years...until Ford, by then headlong
into systemic mismanagement by the Ford family (again), refused to
spend any money keeping it modern and fresh. Seems that Billy Boy was
more interested in 2 seater T-Birds and hulking "Eddie Bauer"
Expeditions and Explorers. Then the Firestone disaster hit, and it's
been downhill with no brakes for Ford ever since, despite a period of
robust sales for the gas guzzlers...for awhile....until gas hit
$3/gallon.

DeserTBoB wrote:
> Lee Iacocca was alarmed by the massive amount of unsold cars sitting
> and decaying on the Michigan State Fairgrounds near Detroit back in
> late '78 when he took over as chair of Chrysler Corporation. This was
> the notorious "sales bank," the repository of overproduced,undersold
> product that would be given away under wholesale to dealers at the end
> of fiscal quarters to just get rid of the inventory and make the books
> look a little better.
>
> Guess what...it's BAAAAAAACK!
>
> CNBC moments ago showed the same, exact place where Iacocca was
> alarmed by the "sales bank"...chock full of pickups and SUVs. Turns
> out all the Big 3 have been lying about their inventory overstock, as
> well, by cutting the amount of inventory by "future fleet sales." As
> IF they know exactly when and who's going to buy these things for
> fleets! After cleaning up that little slight of hand, it's apparant
> now that Chrysler has a 120 day inventory of Jeeps and pickups sitting
> at the fairgrounds...and those cars are just sitting there, decaying,
> and the harsh Michigan winter is coming.
>
Well, how else will anyone be able to ask questions again next spring
about why their "brand new" minivan, Pacifica, whatever, has rust all
over the springs and other underbody parts?