Re: [AMC-list] New AMC Book

[Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:22:30 -0500
From: "Eddie Stakes"<eddiestakes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

This mentioned on facebook:

"Mr Foster always takes a negative approach on this subject. He never views
anything positive about the aquisition of AMC by Chrysler. Even his title
calls it "Fall" meaning failure. Chrysler taking
over AMC was a good thing for the AMC employees, the factories continued,
the JEEP brand as well. and influencial people with in AMC became more
influencial people at Chrysler."

-------------------------------------------------

That statement in only partially true. Chrysler taking over wasn't good for all employees -- many were laid off when Chrysler closed Kenosha, though from a business standpoint it was good for Chrysler to do so. Kenosha was old and cost a lot to run, and the local union refused to accept the Chrysler union contract, since AMC had been paying a bit more. That made Kenosha even MORE expensive to operate, so they closed it. Chrysler did continue Jeep -- that and the new Bramalea plant (building the Premier at the time) is all they really wanted, Renault just said it was all or nothing. The last statement is 100% true though -- a lot of AMC engineers and other higher end workers were absorbed into Chrysler and were even credited with saving it.

I don't necessarily read "Fall" as failure. AMC did, however, fail in the open market. They made mistakes and just weren't big enough to compete across the board. A mistake that cost GM/Ford/Chrysler a lot could be absorbed (well, in the 70s and early 80s...). AMC couldn't afford any mistakes, they didn't have the capital. Not all of what they did (or failed to do) was "mistakes", some things, such as lack of R&D money, they just couldn't help in the end. Renault helped a lot by pumping in much needed capital, but bailed due to political reasons. It was unfortunate, but when you can't keep up with the pack you eventually get trampled.

--
Frank Swygert
Editor - American Motors Cars Magazine
www.amc-mag.com

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