Jeep for sale?

Jeep is kind of like a cursed car company. It has long been a money maker, but it has only ever been a part of real shit-for-brains car conglomerates. Throughout its history, Jeep has bounced around from one sorry company to another, usually propping the whole operation up before getting sold in desperation. Willys to Kaiser, Kaiser to AMC, AMC to tumultuous Chrysler. One analyst at Morgan Stanley asked current Fiat-Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne yesterday if Jeep could get spun off again. His answer, as the Detroit Free Press reports, was terse:

Marchionne was asked whether the automaker’s Jeep and Ram brands, either together or separately, could be spun off into a separate, standalone company.

“Yes,” Marchionne said.

The Wall Street Journal clarified a bit:

Mr. Marchionne stirred speculation his company might contemplate spinning off the Jeep and Ram brands to help meet its financial goals, much like an initial public offering for Ferrari NV in 2015. When asked if the two Chrysler family nameplates could survive separately or combined as an independent business, the CEO replied “yes,” without elaborating.

This is sad, man. It’s like Sergio is doing a fire sale here. Nobody would buy FCA as a whole, so now he’s publicly opening up to the idea of selling things off piecemeal. How about Jeep? You guys like Jeep? SOMEBODY PLEASE BUY SOMETHING.

It’s possible that this would mean Jeep could become its own company held in the FCA empire, like what happened with Ferrari a few years back. But it’s also possible that if Jeep and Ram become their own thing, Chrysler and Dodge will be stuck out alone together, and Chrysler and Dodge together is about the most undesirable, least hopeful car company imaginable. If Jeep and Ram split into their own thing, I don’t think it’s a stretch to imagine Chrysler and Dodge getting killed.

Still, it’s sorry to hear that Jeep has retained its profitable mercenary-like status, always a jewel in a rusty crown.

I dunno that I agree with the dissing of Chrysler and Dodge.  The Demon has stirred a lot of interest (now from wackos who want it outlawed) and the Hellcat, and nearly every police car is now a Dodge something-or-other.