My understanding was that Chrysler bought Rootes to get a footing in
the European market, where Ford and GM already had a strong market
presence. It may not seem like a clear cut winner now, but it certainly
should have been easier than starting from scratch, and back then
Chrysler was big into aquisitions and diversification (my first home
had a Chrysler Airtemp furnace). Remember that is wasn't very many
years later that Chrysler themselves were in pretty rocky shape, so
it's no wonder the Sunbeam purchase was left to rot on the vine while
they reversed the earlier trend and started to divest in non-core
assets, which appear to have included the auto interests in Europe.
just my speculation...
Stephen Waybright
>
> --- DrMayf <drmayf@teknett.com> wrote:
>
> > Was just sitting here after looking at the SHelby Display, and
> > wondering,
> > Just what the heck did Chrysler buy Rootes for, anyway? They
> dropped
> > the
> > Tiger, Alpine went away and whats left? The name? Certainly Rootes
> > had no
> > real outstanding automotive processes to be owned...so Why? They
> > didn't gain
> > a lot of dealership floor space, nor marketing, nor sales. so Why?
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