I think it's really quite unfortunate that M-B and Chrysler couldn't get along. I really hoped that good things would come out of their arrangement. For chrysler to build the crossfire from their existing parts bin would have been a disaster--it would have been a rwd avenger, which would have been so much worse than what we actually got with outdated M-B parts. If M-B was forward thinking enough to use the old R170 chassis, but the new 3.5L V6, I think the crossfire could have been much more successful. Heck, if M-B wasn't so selfish and sold the crossfire as we know it at a reasonable price, I bet M-B would have made more money on the project than they actually did!

Due to my age, I never really knew much of anything that occurred before 1980. I remember looking at Chrysler products from say ~1985 through present day and while they had some really neat ideas between 1985 and say 1995) (GLH-S, Daytona with the neat VNT turbo, convertible shelby dakota, the viper) most of those cars were built like junk. They just were not quality engineering even if the basic ideas were fantastic. During the 80's this is when my impressionable mind got turned on to european cars, which to me were not only interesting in their own right, but also really well built---and you paid for it!

I really, really, really wanted to hope more than anything that the relationship between chrysler and M-B would yield products with much of that chrysler pizzazz, but more M-B build quality and attention to detail. Cars like the 300 and crossfire were real bright lights to me back at the beginning of the century. It really bothered me that these two companies just couldn't get it together because of the damn German arrogance and stubborness--something that I appreciate, oddly enough, in German cars, but not so much in an actual business relationship (which is probably why I still like M-B cars, but thinking of what they did to Chrysler makes me a bit nauseous). I was in Germany and toured the Mercedes museum and engine assembly factory that they have in Stuttgart right when M-B was deciding how to rename themselves after the mess with Chrysler. It was odd going to their HQ and still seeing Daimler-Chrysler on the front buildings. It shocked me a couple weeks ago when I saw the door jamb of my buddy's last generation M-B E63 AMG that also said Daimler-Chrysler.

I am cautiously optimistic with Fiat however. I have been generally supportive of what little information has been shared with the public since they have started trying to run things. However, unlike the situation with M-B, I'm not really all that keen on driving something with Fiat DNA. That brand even in Europe is still considered to be fairly unreliable. Maybe one could even call them the european chrysler in that they have great designs (I would love to own an Alfa Brera despite how much of a nightmare it might be and how it looks much better to drive than it really is [from what I;ve read anyway]) but the quality just isn't there. I just hope that this doesn't turn into a suicide pact for either company. Part of me is quite excited to see the Fiat 500 running around the US though!