Friday, December 19, 2008

The Carpocalypse - 2008/2009 (with thanks and apologies to Jalopnik)

The Carpocalypse is upon us! First of all, thanks to the crazies at Jalopnik for coining the term. Basically, it is a term used to discuss the horrific conditions that the US auto industry currently finds itself in. Sales are off, credit is difficult to come by, and the formerly Big 3 are begging and pleading from the Federal Government for a handout to prevent what could be the most brutally impactful bankruptcy filings this country has ever seen. Granted, Ford Motor Credit was stupid enough to not only take my 2006 Grand Cherokee in on trade (well, they agreed to pay off the remainder of my lease, pay the mileage charges, and give the vehicle back to Chrysler, which was a lesser hit than buying out my lease outright and trying to sell the vehicle), but they also loaned me the money to buy a 2008 Lincoln MKZ! Which is actually a very nice car, btw. So deals can be had, and you don't really need stellar credit...my credit is far from Tier One (try Tier Seventeen, perhaps), but I still got a 6 year loan at 4.9%, so I'm happy. But enough about me.

Originally, this blog described how I envisioned the ideal lineups for the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury divisions of the Ford Motor Company. I started putting the lineup together in late 2007, and finally completed it in Spring 2008. Obviously, a lot of changes have occurred since then, and I'm going to need to revisit those lineups to help them relate to the current set of realities. But in addition to that, I'm also going to create lineups and organizational structures for each of the formerly Big 3 domestics. This series of posts won't go nearly to the detail level of the prior posts, but with the changes that I'm proposing, those details are going to take a bit more time to flesh out. So get ready. Chrysler LLC is going to be first up to bat.