Dr. Z's Emergency

The Süddeutsche Zeitung in Munich was furious about the apparent mistakes of DaimlerChrysler managers: "Despite the company's size and its history, the drama surrounding DaimlerChryler would remain one of many, if it weren't so typical for the megalomania and the play instinct of many managers, who are out of touch with reality," it wrote. "It's a giant Monopoly game that makes one angry. Change for change's sake is senseless, as experience should have shown. Two thirds or even three quarters of all mergers have been failures in the end."

The Financial Times Deutschland meanwhile applauded DaimlerChrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche for his role. "Celebrated as "Dr. Z" following his apparent rescue of the US carmaker, he is indirectly admitting his own failure: The magic powers only worked for a short time," the daily wrote. "Chrysler is in a crisis that's almost as deep as the one a few years ago. Only an emergency operation will help now. Zetsche deserves a lot of credit for drawing the consequences in a moment of failure without any false vanity: He's not leaving, but he's trying to fix his mistakes. That's not the worst way to take on responsibility...Dr. Z's task is as clear as it is difficult: The sick part of DaimlerChrysler has to be surgically removed to prevent the entire company from facing a life-threatening situation."

The Stuttgarter Zeitung, DaimlerChrysler's hometown paper, commented that managers have finally woken up to reality. "Nearly a decade after the merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler, the founding father's euphoria has long evaporated and made way for the sober realization that it did not lead to a joining of forces," it wrote. "Following its takeover of British carmaker Rover, BMW had to pay a lot of money to find out that quantity and quality just don't fit together. BMW finally gave up. The (Mercedes) star would shine even brighter if it concentrated on the luxury market. But for the eternal problem child Chrysler, a separation could be the beginning of the end."

Berlin's Der Tagesspiegel suggested that the company should look for partners rather than buyers: "World, Inc. (DaimlerChrysler) is broken -- no matter whether Chrysler is sold or not. Zetsche doesn't need a buyer, he needs a cooperation partner -- maybe Chery, the Chinese maker of small cars, or VW, or both, to get fuel-efficient cars on the market quickly."

Basel's Tages-Anzeiger felt that US carmakers were suffering from an intrinsic problem: "The US car industry's completely outdated business model is to blame for the failure. It banks on SUVs, pick-ups and a wide range of brands that the foreign competition has long replaced with fuel-efficient, lighter cars that are built better...Chrysler might be restructured to spin it off to private investors. It wouldn't be the worst solution. Detroit probably needs a new generation of managers that have a 21st century vision."

And the Paris-based financial paper La Tribune wrote that nobody understood the merger to begin with. "The German managers didn't grasp the challenge of a trans-Atlantic merger of this scale," it said. "They wanted to save a US giant from downfall in order to get in on the world's largest car market. Unfortunately, the American dream has turned into a nightmare for Daimler-Chrysler."