Word: profitable
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...smaller, slimmer Chrysler can make a profit selling only 1 .2 null vehicles instead of the 2.3 million required in 1980, a big advantage in tough economic times. But this transmogrification is not without huge risks. The company can no longer compete across the board with GM and Ford by building car models in every size and price category. It remains burdened by $2 billion in long-term debt. If it should falter ever so slightly, it could again be plunged into a financial abyss. Says GM Chairman Roger Smith: "The jury is still out on Chrysler. It all depends...
...with advanced robotic welders and material handlers slowed initial production so that only 10,000 cars, less than a third the number needed, were in showrooms on the official introduction date, Oct. 2, 1980. Chrysler flubbed in other ways as well. lacocca sent the earliest models out with high-profit options like velour upholstery and electric window lifts that pushed the sticker price from $6,000 up to $9,000. But buyers did not want the extras. Until the production imbalance was corrected, sales did not really take...
...models, lacocca has greatly strengthened another weak link: Chrysler's dealer base. After losing about 1,000 outlets out of 4,800 during 1979 and 1980, he succeeded in signing up roughly 300 new showrooms last year alone. Equally important, more of the dealers are making a profit: 80% in 1982, in contrast to only...
Milton Friedman, Nobel-prizewinning economist: "Obviously, it's a good thing for Chrysler and the country that the company seems to be surviving, but one bad byproduct is that it will lead people to believe bailouts are a good thing. A free-enterprise system is one of profit and loss. If you guarantee against losses by bailing out losing companies, you remove the major monitoring device of a free market...
...imports that served mainly as playthings for the rich and as auto-show mouth waterers. The principal exception was Volkswagen's Rabbit, introduced to replace the Beetle in 1980. Crafted by Karmann, 12,114 of the ragtop Rabbits were sold in 1981 (price: $10,000) at a handsome profit. In addition, small customizing companies in states like Florida, California and Michigan have been cutting the steel tops off cars since the late '70s and turning them into convertibles for 20,000 to 25,000 fanatical owners a year...