They finally go away from the daimler corporate switch gear that never worked well.

Radio controls on back of steering wheel
Cruise Control on front of steering wheel - not the stupid poney pecker at 1

 Reply

Also, what is this pony pecker at 11 of which you speak? (Braces for NSFW responses).

 Reply

/Fixed that for ya.

 Reply

In Daimler's defense, I think their strategy was a valid long-term approach. The major flaw was that it was a terrible short-term strategy for making Chrysler a valid series of brands. Over the course of 20+ years, that strategy would probably have worked extremely well for creating, in Chrysler, a series of affordable, economical luxury cars. In essence, it's exactly what Volkswagen has been doing since, what 1980? And they've ramped it up exponentially as they've acquired more brands. Technology starts in Bugatti, moves to Bentley or Lamborghini, then to Audi, then to Volkswagen, then to Seat, then to Skoda, then to Latin America and/or China, then to Ford. (Obligatory cheap-shot again.)

I think the major issue was exactly that cognitive dissonance. Chrysler, when Daimler took over, needed a real injection of life, and they needed it then and there. Daimler was insisting on a long-term strategy that wasn't helping in the short-term. So, instead of fixing the problem, they asked for trust that all would be better in 20 years. Chrysler just didn't HAVE 20 years to wait.

 Reply

As I said, the problem is that there was no short-term strategy to make Chrysler viable until the full strategy could be implemented.

 Reply