Nearly 40 per cent of the Crossfire’s parts were sourced from Mercedes, but DaimlerChrysler chief executive Juergen Hubbert says the company will never again build a Chrysler that is based so closely on a Benz product.
Nearly 40 per cent of the Crossfire’s parts were sourced from Mercedes, but DaimlerChrysler chief executive Juergen Hubbert says the company will never again build a Chrysler that is based so closely on a Benz product.
“There is a decision of the board that the initial investment of the Crossfire will remain a singular exception,” quoted Hubbert as saying.
In August, Hubbert will chair a newly-formed DaimlerChrysler committee charged, among other things, with protecting brand identities. The German is set to retire in April 2005.
The Crossfire’s 3,2-litre V6 engine, the steering column and steering wheel, air conditioning and heating systems, electrical architecture, and suspension designs were sourced from Mercedes and many of the parts came from the previous-generation SLK.
However, Hubbert said parts sharing between Mercedes and Chrysler has peaked, although the two divisions of DaimlerChrysler would remain committed to sharing technology and components that do not undermine brand identity.
“We’ve said it a thousand times,” Chrysler group COO Wolfgang Bernhard said in January. “We can share parts that are underneath the surface of the vehicle, stuff that the customer never touches, never feels, never sees. We are working on those things.
“But stuff that the customer sees, touches and is in immediate contact with is stuff we do not intend to share,” said Bernhard.
“I am not going to have a Mitsubishi steering wheel in my Chrysler,” he added. “I am not going to have a shifter knob. I can share engine controllers. I can share body controllers. I can share the back end of a radio and a CD changer. I can share air conditioner systems. I can do that. But when it comes to instrument panels and door trims, I cannot do that.”
