The un.ions are part of the problem as the Japanese have lower labor costs even from their factories in the U.S. The executives being overpaid for being the failures that they are is also part of the problem, but ultimately the issue is having a long period of making junk and the wrong models has eroded their reputation and not making efforts to correct their mistakes to the customers who were burnt by these mistakes. GM and Ford pretty much have resolved their issues but the issue is regaining the lost trust. The sad thing is Chrysler didn't deserve what happened to them. Before the merger, they were making the right models and although their quality wasn't perfect, it was certainly better in many aspects compared to GM and Ford and many of their foreign competition.

Billionare, why do you think that having Chrysler taken over by a foreign company is going to fix anything? It was exactly that which has put Chrysler in this state. How many examples do we need to finally prove that badge engineering doesn't work? On top of this, Chrysler has already accepted a Japanese company's technology and platform for several of these models and with the exception of one model they are not selling and the quality ratings are doing worse than the previous models.

I'm not sure what the best solution is but I have doubts about any of the listed options. I think the best would be to give Chrysler time to correct itself from years of mismanagement.

Dr. Z deserves a lot of credit for Chrysler's current state. He killed off the Neon, he killed the 3.2 and kept the 2.7L alive and expanded its use to remind buyers of Chryslers largest engine blunder ever, he froze Chrysler's fuel economy numbers and made little to no effort to help improve it, he let the once best in the market SOHC V6 line grow old and uncompetitive due to lack of updating it at the proper time, he let interior quality slide significantly, he set the ground work for Chrysler to become more reliant on Mercedes and Mitsubishi, he made fast profit decisions by not investing in things that were needed to remain competitive (engines, transmissions, platforms, interior, etc.).

Tom LaSarda deserves some of the blame as well. Although he did manage to improve on some of Chrysler's weaknesses by getting a 6-speed automatic in production and offered in some models, he didn't go far enough in its use. His taste in what looks good is very, very, very tacky and out of touch. His solution is badge engineering models between Dodge and Jeep.

A lot of blame goes to Bob Eaton for thinking only of himself in the whole situation. Also he deserves blame for allowing that 2.7L to ever be produced in the first place. He didn't test the Neon engine enough and let the engine also damage Chrysler's reputation. He made the finishing blows to Plymouth by allowing the Breeze to be so uncompetitive compared to its competition by not even offering a V6, that it failed to catch on especially lacking the larger 2.4L for a while. He allowed it to grow weaker by allowing Plymouth to be without a sporty model when he dropped the Laser in 1994 and didn't have another model until 1997 & 1999 to fill in the gap (the Prowler) and it didn't fit Plymouth's mission.

But I believe Lee Iacocca deserves the most blame. He did a horrible job in resolving the transmission problems that began in his tenure and never adequately educated the public on the underlying problem and lacked the guts to admit defeat and try again with a design that was bulletproof. He let person feelings get in the way of choosing the right person to run the company and demonstrated that he has poor skills in picking a leader which to me proves his book should be ignored as he lacks the instincts on how to choose a leader. He did not make sure that the models replacing his K cars were perfected before releasing them. He lacked the vision to make proper use of Plymouth constantly attempting to get rid of them by making cheapening Chrysler instead of giving the cheaper Chrysler models to Plymouth (look up the E-Class that became the Caravelle, then the Concorde). He let Plymouth's identity die. He criticizes the Taurus for its styling after it was obvious it was an outstanding success and proudly displayed the ugly Dynasty that was styled after the long in tooth Diplomat that at least looked correct for its time. He lost the large RWD market by not getting it that he needed to improve the fuel economy and get it transfered over to EFI. He depended way to much on Mitsubishi after they reached a stage when they could be self reliant (kept using the V6 engines even though they had a their own that were more powerful and not as many oil leaks). He let the K engine go way to long without an update. He waited too long to release the Grand Cherokee and didn't at least use the time to make sure it had all the bugs worked out of it to justify the late entry. He put no effort into making the Grand Wagoneer competitive in a segment that would have been successful for the following years.