Thursfield: Bernhard shows we're serious

Wolfgang Bernhard: Tough guy

Bradford Wernle | Automotive News / March 19, 2007 - 1:00 amCerberus Capital Management LP sent a message that it is serious about pursuing the Chrysler group when it retained former Chrysler COO and Volkswagen executive Wolfgang Bernhard last week as an automotive adviser.

He joins another tough guy, David Thursfield, Cerberus automotive boss. Thursfield, the former Ford Motor Co. global operations chief, is a cigar-chomping Englishman known for a take-no-prisoners style of doing business.

Thursfield said hiring Bernhard shows that "we're serious players and we're not in it for the short haul."

Speaking by telephone Friday, March 16, from New York, Thursfield said he would not be involved in any Cerberus bid to buy Chrysler because of his loyalty to Ford, where he spent 25 years. He said Bernhard gives Cerberus the gravitas it needs to wade into the Chrysler bid.

But the prospect of Bernhard, 46, returning to Chrysler will arouse strong feelings - both from suppliers still smarting from his cost-cutting and dealers who profited from the successful vehicles he produced, especially the Chrysler 300C sedan.

Love him or hate him

Bernhard roared into the industry's consciousness at the 2003 Detroit auto show astride the radical Dodge Tomahawk concept motorcycle. The headstrong German generates strong feelings, both positive and negative.

To suppliers, the former Chrysler COO is responsible for dismantling the Supplier Cost Reduction Effort, or SCORE, in which suppliers shared in the cost savings they generated.

Suppliers complained about the way Chrysler treated them after dumping SCORE - which was created by Tom Stallkamp, one of Chrysler's best-liked executives. Suppliers complained that business they already had won was put up for grabs again. Some complained that Chrysler asked for cost cuts on parts for which they already had won presourcing agreements.

When they refused to provide those cuts, Chrysler said it would seek a lower price elsewhere.

Bernhard also alienated DaimlerChrysler's unions in Germany because they feared he would slash jobs. In a Cerberus role, he would likely be tough with unions in North America.

But to dealers, he was a straight-talking product guy who championed vehicles such as the 300C, which propelled Chrysler to profit in the first half of the decade.

"If they're going to find a German to head DaimlerChrysler here in the U.S. and not an American, he is probably the one guy I've seen in the auto industry who talks the dealers' language and the dealers feel comfortable with," said a dealer who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of Bernhard possibly replacing current Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda.

'He had pizazz'

A Detroit dealer who also declined to be identified said: "I think the dealers liked him because he had some pizazz and flair to him." Cerberus "can say, 'We got the guy who was the heir apparent' " at Chrysler.

"He knows how the company runs, knows what makes people tick, knows the products. He's not a toothpaste salesman but somebody who knows what's going on."

Carl Galeana, owner of Van Dyke Dodge in Warren, Mich., said Bernhard "was a good face for Chrysler while he was here."

Alan Helfman, owner of River Oaks Chrysler-Jeep in Houston, recalls Bernhard as "very smart and very sharp, very pugnacious."

After leaving as Chrysler group COO, Bernhard was poised to take over the top job at the Mercedes-Benz car group. But the appointment was revoked at the last minute in 2004.

"Too quickly he acted like he was boss," said a German DaimlerChrysler executive who declined to be identified. "He is not somebody who has respect for some pecking orders. This was his difficulty in taking over Mercedes."

After falling out of favor at DaimlerChrysler, Bernhard landed at Volks-

wagen, where he was put in charge of the struggling VW brand. He introduced aggressive cost-cutting and restructuring measures before he resigned that job after his patron, VW Group CEO Bernd Pischetsrieder, was forced out last November.

"He is somebody who calls a spade a spade," said a DaimlerChrysler executive in Europe. "He speaks bluntly, very bluntly, which didn't make him friends with many people in Europe.

"He doesn't like unwritten rules and customs you have to respect. He is a much tougher guy in his style."