DaimlerChrysler good to go with Chery

It looks like teeny tiny (and tinny) Pentastars could be coming. They could even be good. Tme will tell, as the DaimlerChrysler supervisory board has given its blessing to teaming up with China's Chery Motor Company. The Chinese government still needs to sign off, but that appears to be a formality at this point. What Chrysler gets out of the deal are Chery products to sell here and in Europe with Chrysler branding. This sort of harks back to the 1970s and '80s, when Chrysler was rebadging Mitsubishi products for domestic consumption. The upside is that Chrysler gets small cars in their livery immediately, though we're sure that federalization is the next hurdle to overcome before the models go on sale.

It could be a good thing for Chrysler, as they get a point of entry into segments and markets abroad that they currently have no offerings for. Domestically, they can crash the small-car party without having to engineer an entirely new platform and its associated production labyrinth. While this may help keep DCX afloat, it doesn't help the domestic workers much. Not only that, execution of the products that do make it to the US market will absolutely kill or king the Chery-sourced cars. DCX badly needs to follow up the waning success of the LX cars, and we hope they do so with more attention to dynamics, materials and fit-and-finish then they did with cars like the Sebring and Compass.

[Source: DCX via AutoNews (Sub Req'd)]