Nissan to Tennesee, Volvo to New Jersey and now Chrysler back to Auburn Hills.  They must be getting too much sun out in Cali.  Somehow the most inspirational place for auto design just isn’t cutting it.  In the forever race to save money one house is cheaper than two.

Chrysler has had a lot of success with designs from the Pacifica studio.   Unfortunately most never made it to production and probably never will.  Cars like the Nassau, Hornet, Treo, Razor, Akino, and the good Compass came from that studio.

Chrysler had a good routine of sending their designers to Cali for a six month breath of fresh air.  Every designer loved going out there and said it was crucial to their inspiration.  It gets tough being couped up in a dark room during a Michigan winter where your manager tells you to be creative.

Will the Pacifica designers buy some snow boots and move to Michigan?  I doubt it.  Which means Chrysler will lose some hugely talented designers.  Auburn Hills is already losing great designers due to the eighty hour work weeks.  What do you get for eighty hours?  Upper management squashing anything good because of a couple pennies.  An employee can only take that for so long.

Designers are very passionate about their work and will stay long hours to achieve their goal.  Companies should not take advantage of this, but instead embrace and praise their hard work and dedication.

So what is next for Chrysler?  They are hacking away their dead weight in products, consolidating studios and currently have some of the worst rated vehicles out there.  There is talk of co-developing with companies in India and China, or will Cerberus just sell of the brands and try to make something off the sinking ship they bought?

Let us know what you think.  What will they do or what do you want them to do?