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- <text id=91TT0912>
- <title>
- Apr. 29, 1991: Business Notes:Autos
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Apr. 29, 1991 Nuclear Power
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 65
- Business Notes
- AUTOS
- Let Bygones Be Bygones
- </hdr><body>
- <p> A decade after turning to the U.S. government for a rescue,
- Chrysler may again be looking for help in weathering a
- financial crisis--this time in Japan. Mitsubishi, Chrysler's
- longtime Japanese partner, is reportedly prepared to put $200
- million to $300 million into the U.S. automaker. In return,
- Mitsubishi would get more control over the Diamond-Star Motors
- joint venture that builds cars for both companies at a new plant
- in Normal, Ill. For Chrysler the deal would mean a respite from
- a recession that has cut sales more than 20% and left the
- company facing a first-quarter loss estimated at $250 million
- to $300 million.
- </p>
- <p> Analysts in the U.S. have suggested for some time that
- Chrysler was a prime candidate for a restructuring that would
- include taking in a foreign partner. Last year chairman Lee
- Iacocca tried hard but failed to arrange a deal with the Italian
- automaker Fiat. It's certainly easier to picture him with an
- Italian partner than with a Japanese one. Iacocca has stridently
- attacked Japan's "unfair" trade practices for years, ventilating
- his views most recently in a letter to President Bush and during
- an Oval Office meeting. Chrysler ad campaigns have repeatedly
- challenged the reputation for quality that Japanese products
- have gained with American consumers. So what about the reports
- of a Mitsubishi bailout? Chairman Lee has been
- uncharacteristically silent.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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