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"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" the Monty Python boys wryly observed. As a corollary, nobody expects a presidential candidate to get a public caning from a Fortune 500 company—but that's exactly what happened to Mitt Romney this week after he stood in Ohio and suggested that Chrysler would be moving Jeep work from its nearby Toledo factory to China. Soon after, he began running an ad with the same message. Chrysler is fighting back. Just to be clear, Car and Driver has no horse in this race. The author is not registered with any political party. Although this article speaks negatively of Governor Romney in this instance, it's not an endorsement of that other guy. Or any other candidate. (Unfortunately, the Rent is Too Damn High party did not advance a candidate for the presidency.) If Obama makes a daft comment about the auto industry and/or gets a profane tweet from an auto exec, we'll be on that, too. What Romney Said "Jeep, now owned by the Italians, is thinking of moving all production to China," Romney told supporters at the Ohio rally. His subsequent ad is far more crafty, only implying the outsourcing by lining up several individually accurate statements. (As a lawyer, this author has a certain degree of respect for this kind of guile.) The ad says that "Obama took GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy, and sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China." That the statements were either untrue or intentionally misleading normally wouldn't matter: A Romney spokesman said a few weeks ago that the campaign would ignore the corrections of fact-checkers. (At the end of this article you can find a quick rundown of what about the ad is wrong.) Obama's camp, although less cavalier about it, has its own mile-long list of half-truths and outright lies. It's politics. Typically, these Harvard Law–trained candidates can get away with it. It's not hard for a campaign to brush off a tweed-clad geek nitpicking employment stats from a Beltway think tank. Chrysler Gets Raw Chrysler and its execs are probably the last group Romney should have antagonized. Where some automakers position their brands as fuel-efficient, or high-quality, or stylish, or high-tech, Chrysler's intended image is testosterone. This is a company that runs ads showing pride in post-apocalyptic Detroit and held trademarks on "Guts. Glory. Ram" and "Red-Blooded American." On form, Chrysler's Canadian-Italian CEO Sergio Marchionne was direct: "I feel obliged to unambiguously restate our position: Jeep production will not be moved from the United States to China," he said in a statement. Marchionne has since added that Wranglers will never be fully produced outside the U.S. (What he means is that Jeep may send abroad what are called "complete knockdown kits"—essentially an Ikea-ized vehicle—to be screwed together for local markets.)
Professional rodeo clown Donald Trump then inserted himself into the discussion, tweeting "Obama is a terrible negotiator. He bails out Chrysler and now Chrysler wants to send all Jeep manufacturing to China–and will!" (A quick aside on the "terrible negotiator" point: Trump gets sued all the time by people alleging unfair or fraudulent business practices.) This time, instead of Marchionne, Chrysler exec Ralph Gilles took the gloves off. On his personal Twitter account, Gilles responded tersely to Trump: "You are full of shit!" Why the Romney TV Ad Is Wrong Even Though It's Right Back to the ad. Each clause in the statement is correct on its own, and that's why it's so clever. Yes, Obama was president and his appointees did guide GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy. Fiat did indeed buy much of Chrysler; it now owns about 62 percent. And yes, it's probable that Jeep will begin building cars in China. The implication is where things fall apart: that Obama forced Chrysler to go broke, then made sure foreigners could buy it, and now the foreigners are stripping away American jobs. In reality, Romney has said he too would have pushed for Chrysler to enter the bankruptcy process. Fiat bought much of Chrysler but the money went to pay Chrysler's debts to the U.S. government. And although Chrysler is looking to build Jeeps in China, that's just for sales to Chinese consumers; every American and European company builds and sells cars in China and does so at great profit. Any auto firm that isn't trying to expand in China is making a mistake.  Why This Is Dumb Even ignoring politics, Chrysler needed to respond to these statements because its affects public perception of the company and, ultimately, people's willingness to buy Chryslers, Dodges, Jeeps, and Rams. Federal bailouts of GM and Chrysler were politically incendiary when they began in 2008—some of you will no doubt respond to this post entirely on that topic, and that's cool—and rightly are a prime topic for discussion during this presidential campaign. It's a shame that Romney's comments here weren't about the actual underlying issues that need debate, like American manufacturing, the role of unions, and government participation in the economy. That Romney's remarks are easily disproven rumors aimed at a multinational corporation with an immense capacity for public relations, marketing, and communications was profoundly unwise. Read full story »from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com | |||
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Friday, November 2, 2012
Chrysler Execs Respond to Mitt Romney, Donald Trump Claims with Every Available Barrel
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