Rumors of a Chrysler sale

TEXT OF STORY

SCOTT JAGOW: The rumors are flying that Daimler Chrysler might get rid of the Chrysler part of the company. This all started with the company. Stephen Beard reports from London.

STEPHEN BEARD: Daimler-Chrysler’s finance chief set the rumor-mill in motion.

During an analysts’ conference call last night he was asked three times whether the company would put Chrysler up for auction.

Under pressure he refused — three times — to rule out a sale.

Chrysler is certainly a burden. It lost $1.5 billion in the third quarter, dragging the group’s net profits down by a third.

In a statement the group insisted it is not planning to sell Chrysler and that’s probably true says David Shirref of the Economist Magazine in Frankfurt.

DAVID SHIRREF: They want to be in the core car business in the major parts of the world and that includes the United States. They’ve got to solve the United States problem, they can’t just walk away from it.

Chrysler’s problems, like those of Ford and General Motors, stem from a their heavy dependence on gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs .

In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.