Is Chrysler a dying company on its last breath?

Chrysler has been in various degrees of trouble for several years.

Lee Iacocca became CEO of Chrysler in 1978 and brought the company back from the brink - for a while.



Ironically, in giving Chrysler new life, Iacocca gave us one of the worst cars of the 1980s’ - the K-Car. The Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries (shown above) sold well enough to give Chrysler some much needed financial stability at the expense of car buyers.

Chrysler was once again in serious trouble when Daimler bought the company in 1998. The Germans were supposed to strengthen the struggling carmaker. Instead, they spent billions making Chrysler worse.

Will the current government bailouts save Chrysler?

Some experts have said that the Jeep brand is strong enough to keep Chrysler going if the automaker dumps everything but Jeep and Dodge trucks. However,it appears that not all Jeeps are winners.

The Patriot and two other Jeep products - the Liberty and Wrangler are listed in the Top 11 worst cars by Consumer Reports as reported here.

More of the Chrysler story here.