Oh, and for all you anti-Repblicans, pro-Dems... perhaps we can ask Kerry to bailout ... He is worth $50billion net from key marriages through the yrs.

Ironic that he wants to further tax the 5% that pays 90% of taxes... since they pay from their yearly income, not their worth.

That my friends, is how the rich get richer... if he really was a champion of the common man... why is he asking for donations? Why doesn't he donate $25billion to help those in need.

Because at the end of the day, all who are in politics are there primarily for their egos... and to get laid.

I have no party affiliation... just wanted to provide a more peaceful means of U.S. involvement in the crisis... for Mister2zx3 .

g

 

I am glad you finally came around and agreed with me.

Just so you know DCAG was only going to supply $3B the rest was already coming from the japanese investment banks.

I just wanted to be clear. I never said this was a good thing for Mitsu (well except that they were ditching DCAG which I think will probably be a good thing), but it is not the sky falling. Mitsu is not going to shut down and Mitsu is not going to cancel the Evo or MR.

I pretty much totally agree that they need a new strategy, major reform and restructuring and new leadership. Without these, there could be major problems in the future.

The other thing to remember is that DCAG can't just up and leave. They are already invested and have to find a buyer for their 37% interest, until that time they are not going anywhere and still have an interest in seeing Mitsu survive.

 

No party affliation, haha! So you are like Bill O'Reilly? COMPLETELY OBJECTIVE? No-spin! HAHAHAHHAAH!

Yes, because all the tax money that would come from an increase would go straight into the rich democrats pockets! HAHAHHA. Kerry wants a tax increase to make himself richer! HAHAHAHAHA. Now that is some awesome logic.

You do know there are campaign finance laws that prevent you from using your own money if you receive matching funds from the government, right?

Anyway, I forgot, you have no party affliation... oh well.

But as someone said before, lets not get into politics here, I would hate to have to make you agree with me on that one too.

 

I was the one that said lets not get into politics...

Just wanted another objective approach to U.S. involvement in the crisis to counter the war onslaught of Mister 2zx3... and I was feeling especially anti-Kerry this AM.

But, the tax increase doesn't affect Kerry, or anyone that is wealthy independent of employment... since his adn their worth is independent of income. Only when they divest their assests do they pay Uncle Sam.

And I wasn't referring to campaign donations, I was referring to his Massachusetts proposals to give more to the community. Which I agree with, just start with yourself as an example.

Anyway, no party affiliation... just finding it increasingly nauseating that the choices we have to lead are pathetic and that most in government shaping laws and budgets never had a real job in their lives.

Oh, and I didn't agree with everything... there were a few things you ignored that I rebutted against in previous posts... which still no comment. I disagree with why Eckrodt left. As well as the resources available and the that DCX not investing is not a good thing...

But, yes, will be here tomorrow. DCX will try to maintain ties to protect their investment... and ultimately to maintain their interest in the Truck division and share platforms. And I'll have an MR.

Truly a joy discussing with you... honest.

g

Where you form? What do you do?

 

And isn't that all that really matters

I must confess when I said that I was a Toyota fan boi (well I am, if Toyota had anything close to the Sti or Evo, I would likely defer to that), but my interest is in the the coming MR also. It will likely be my next car. I just thought the question of my being a Mitsu fan boi was an idiotic ad hom.

Agreed, thesis and antithesis created a decent synthesis on that one.

I am from Virginia (the northern part by DC, not the southern red-neck part), and I am a librarian, though my education stretches beyond normal librarianship.

 

Your local dealer give you any input/specs on the upcoming MR?

Still waiting on my dealer... feeding off the SPEED article and foreign journals. Think I may drive to Car and Driver's office and see what they know... .

Which library to work at? What did you study?

I'm a resident at the University of Michigan.

g

 

No. I never ask dealerships anything. I have found that they lie more than any other group of people on the face of the planet.

Haha, I am just happily waiting, for the longest time I thought there was zero chance that they would bring the MR. Now I am very delighted to hear that they are. I am generally a cynical skeptic, so I really thought there was no chance it was coming.

I work at Fenwick Library at George Mason University. I studied International Relations but I have dabbled in many other fields. I will be going to grad school for Library Science next year.

Good to hear, I have several friends that went to Michigan, and I also spent the summer there one time. Ann Arbor is a great little town, so many nice shops and places to eat and festivals all the time.

 

Just thought you guys may one to take a look at this:

http://www.forbes.com/business/manuf...tr1350095.html

So Friday we'll get some more info.

And at least electric is doing well...

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news...Dcw&refer=asia

g

Hey ringthree, what's involved in a Library Sciences degree?

 

If he's lucky, it involves shy, subdued female librarians who go wild when they remove their glasses and let their hair down.

 

The sexy librarian in glasses... nice.

Anyway, some good news:

http://www.investors.com/breakingnew...20932449&brk=1

MMC is getting an infusion of $1.8billion U.S. .

Plus, the latest word is that DCX over-estimated MMC's debt, with re-evaluation figures by the Mitsu Group closer to $304billion U.S... who knows whether they're telling the truth since they are trying to sell approx. $2.5billion U.S. in MMC shares, but hopefully they are.

g

Hey Moderators, props on the website... looks great.

 

From the Detroit News...

DaimlerChrysler AG CEO Juergen Schrempp faces the deepest crisis in his spectacular career after his top lieutenants, including the heads of Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz, torpedoed his plan to bail out ailing Mitsubishi Motors Corp.

In a stunning setback, eight of Schrempp’s 10 management board colleagues opposed pouring billions of dollars more into Mitsubishi Motors on April 22, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Schrempp, mastermind of the $36 billion Chrysler Corp. merger, suffered a further blow when the German company’s highest governing body, the supervisory board, declined to overrule the lower board’s majority.

The defeat not only wrecks Schrempp’s Asian strategy and imperils his plan to craft a Germany-based world automaker, it lays bare serious rifts within the senior ranks of Europe’s largest industrial company.

As the management and supervisory boards prepare to meet again today in New York to discuss first-quarter earnings, speculation is rife about possible management changes.

Germany’s respected newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that Schrempp, 59, offered last week to resign.

Just two months ago, the supervisory board proposed an extention of Schrempp’s contract as management board chief to 2008, but its members were subsequently lambasted by some shareholders at a raucous annual meeting in Berlin this month.

For investors, the turmoil signals a welcome shift in the company’s way of doing business, with management board members now summoning the courage to challenge Schrempp’s proposals.

“Some observers have interpreted this as a sea change in financial governance, and now expect further dramatic actions,” said Merrill Lynch analyst Stephen Reitman.

Taking sides

At the April 22 meeting in Stuttgart, Germany, board heavyweights Juergen Hubbert, head of Mercedes-Benz luxury cars, Chrysler Group CEO Dieter Zetsche and DaimlerChrysler CFO Manfred Gentz led the opposition to Mitsubishi bailout plans.

Siding with them were newer board members, including Hubbert’s announced successor and departing Chrysler Chief Operating Officer Wolfgang Bernhard, according to the sources.

The supervisory board and its chairman, Hilmar Kopper, also appear to be increasingly sensitive to criticism that they have rubber-stamped Schrempp’s expansion plans in spite of a steep decline in the stock since 1999. The plunge has wiped out more than $50 billion of the company’s market value.

DaimlerChrysler’s stock has rebounded 7 percent since the company’s unexpected announcement that it would offer no more financial support to Mitsubishi Motors.

As recently as April 18, Schrempp was in Japan negotiating ways to shore up Mitsubishi Motors, 37 percent owned by DaimlerChrysler, with its other big shareholders, the Mitsubishi Group of companies, and Japanese banks. He secured agreements that car-making ventures between Chrysler and Mitsubishi would proceed regardless of the final outcome.

Put before the DaimlerChrysler board were a half-dozen options drafted by Andreas Renschler, head of Mercedes-Benz’s Smart minicar business.

The most ambitious scenario would have cost DaimlerChrysler an estimated $4 billion. The automaker eventually would have taken majority control once Mitsubishi Motors had cut its debt, now estimated at $9 billion.

But during the tense, five-hour board meeting in Stuttgart, Gentz and executives argued that the cost was too high and the likelihood of any return was too low.

Schrempp was backed by loyal lieutenants Eckhard Cordes, the head of the truck division who had negotiated the Asian acquisitions in 2000, and Ruediger Grube, a chief architect of his global expansion strategy.

Years of free rein

All three offered last week to resign, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. But some supervisory board members moved to quash rumors, with one director, Erich Klemm, telling the German business newspaper Handelsblatt that he saw no reason to reconsider Schrempp’s contract extension.

Schrempp also enjoys a close relationship with Kopper, who represents Deutsche Bank, DaimlerChrysler’s biggest investor, and helped secure Schrempp the CEO appointment in 1995. Both are jovial, charismatic, self-made men.

In the past nine years, Schrempp has enjoyed free rein in his efforts to reshape Daimler-Benz AG into a global giant focused purely on the auto business. He sold off nonautomotive assets and concluded the 1998 acquisition of Chrysler Corp.

Schrempp has been overruled once on a major issue — when he proposed in 1999 to acquire control of then-ailing Nissan Motor Co. — a decision some board members may regret now that Nissan has become hugely profitable. But at the time, members of both the management and supervisory boards felt the company had its hands full implementing the DaimlerChrysler merger.

In his quest to establish a presence in Asia’s fast-growing markets, Schrempp concluded a deal in March 2000 to acquire a controlling stake in Mitsubishi Motors.

But since then, DaimlerChrysler has struggled, with investors faulting the company’s choice of partners. Auburn Hills-based Chrysler, the smallest of Detroit’s Big Three, began to lose money in 2000 and only now appears to be turning around.

Investors are hoping that the company will announce a profit target for Chrysler for 2004 with the first-quarter earnings.

DaimlerChrysler also implemented a turnaround plan at Mitsubishi Motors in 2001, but the automaker — Japan’s weakest — plunged into losses last year and is expected to lose money this year after adopting a reckless credit policy in the U.S. market.

DaimlerChrysler’s alliance with Hyundai Motor Co. is also on shaky ground, after the South Korean automaker indicated this week that it wanted to limit the relationship to arm’s-length joint ventures, such as an engine project.

But Schrempp, scrambling to salvage a key piece of his Asian strategy, flew to China over the weekend to push forward a car-manufacturing venture in the rapidly growing market, now the world’s third-largest after the United States and Japan.

http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosins...a01-137406.htm

 

Honestly, I feel for Schrempp... Chrysler may have been a mistake, but his vision is correct.

Unfortunately, DCX didn't buy a majority stake in MMC from the get go, if not the entire company. Their reasoning to invest in it over Nissan was sound (can you imagine $19billion in debt... I wonder how many Frenchmen know Nissan's reincarnation is thanks to their tax dollars at work?), but their attempt to be only a majority shareholder and cont to have the Mitsubishi keiretsu influencing management decisions was unfortunately wrong.

It's interesting to compare Nissan and Mitsubishi following their respective foreign investments. Both Eckrodt and Goshen made substantial changes with respect to spending cuts and decreasing the workforce, as well as investment to development. But with Nissan, Goshen changed the culture immediately. He put his people into the important management positions and effectively dismantled the prevailing Japanese culture of inertia/resistance to change and inability to relay bad news to superiors.

Eckrodt couldn't since the Mitsubish keiretsu was a constant resistance to change. Deficiencies in quality were hidden, plants were not closed, poor selling models weren't phased out.

Unfortunately, Eckrodt couldn't win without placing his people in charge. Let alone DCX financial backing.

DCX is to blame as well for putting the final nail in the coffin with constant insistance on results that likely led to MMC U.S. financing campaign.

So who could blame the investors and others of leadership at DCX? They've lost billions in market worth, lost billions in investment. They still have to contend with a almost-terminal Chrysler. Would they really want to give more money to another almost-terminal car company?

Ironically, because of the board's tunnel vision for profits and market worth, they may have passed up a key opportunity to finally get a controlling stake of MMC and place their management in charge and change the prevailing culture to ultimately realize results from their gestating programs.

Schrempp's vision was correct to make a global leader from Mercedes... it's questionable whether Chrysler was a good choice, but regardless he, in my opinion, had and has great vision... and did quite well leading his blind group till now.

Future DCX investment in MMC is unlikely. However, the DCX board did have a recent vote of confidence for Schrempp... perhaps he can change their minds again. And, this is a golden time to buy up shares.

Regardless, MMC needs foreign investment and control to change the management and culture. Yes MMC will be here tomorrow, but without a changing of the guard, they will continuously oscillate between the black and bust.

And if that's the case, they will likely be only a memory in the future.

g

 

Just when it looks like all the angles are exposed... it gets even more interesting.

It seems that the Mitsubishi keiretsu may have awoken to reality and realized they need fresh managerial talent and a cultural revolution within MMC to boot. The true missing ingredient to really help back on its feet.

And who did they ask for help from, as well as a little yen?

Amazingly, and rightfully done, Toyota .

Check it out:
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content...at=3&id=296991

The only better choice would have been retired President of Honda, Hiroyuki Yoshino.

g

And it seens that DCX, specifically Gentz, is now letting it be known that Daimler hasn't ruled out the possiblity of selling its shares of ... Toyota, could you spare some change for MMC?

 

From today's LA CAR BLOG:

VIII IS NOT ENOUGH

Mitsubishi Needs More Than the EVO VIII to Keep Alive in the USA

Following last week's announcement by controlling shareholder DaimlerChysler that it is withdrawing future financial support to Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, the manufacturer announced that Mitsubishi CEO Rolf Eckrodt has resigned from the company. The development is the latest in a series of set-backs for the ailing automaker, not the least of which is disappointing sales in North America and losing nearly $500 million after approving credit to buyers who didn't repay their loans.

The predicament is reminiscent of the situation that Nissan found itself in a few years back. Nissan tried several moves to counter its financial difficulties, including some very clever advertising. In the end, it boiled down to one factor: Product.

Outside of the Lancer Evolution VIII, and to a lesser extent, the torquey Lancer Ralliart, Mitsubishi doesn't give me a compelling reason to buy their vehicles. Their interiors, which (more often than not) look like they're inspired by alien spaceships or ghetto blasters, leave me cold. Why, for instance, they would use three different grain patterns of vinyl plastic, is beyond me. Even the top-of-the-line Galant GTS has some strikingly cheap accents, such as the lack of a trunk lid liner.

If Mitsubishi is to turn itself around, it needs to go beyond alien spaceships and anime cartoons for inspiration. The EVO VIII is a great car, but it's not enough.

http://www.lacar.com/modules.p...d=221

 

Kinda old news, but again, they need to make some changes. Obviously they can make fast cars, look at the Evo 8. In my opinion, they need to completely re-do the line.

Keep the Evo's, re-do everything and keep a "style" that you can see and think Mitsubishi, like with the Nissans.

Bring over the Pajero. Make entry level sports cars, think a Miata comprable vehicle with some more grunt and cheaper price. Think 2 doors. Think a more muscular Montero, and maybe an "urban" Montero with lots of power and a lower stance, kinda like the Infinity sport ute with the 20 inch rims

And of course, the Galant. I drove one yesterday, and it was one of the least fulfilling vehicles I have ever driven. Ride was mediocre, interior was less than expected and the power was about on par with the rest of it. Nicer interior fittings, more power and and more responsive handling system would be great. Think BMW here, power but manners.

They have a good thing going with the Evo 8. Make the line more aggressive, and I think they could have some more winners here in the states.