Post-Bankruptcy: Are Chrysler And GM Vehicles Worth More?

Since the new Chrysler (or Chrysler Group) has emerged in partnership with Fiat, the American Leasing Guide, now says all three of the American brands (Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep) are now worth significantly more than they were before bankruptcy. This is good news to customers who are either trading in their vehicles or for the few who had plans on leasing a vehicle. For leases, higher residuals values typically result in lower car payments, which means less money coming out of your pocket in this tight economy.

For the months of July and August (post-bankruptcy), the 36-month residual values set by the American Leasing Guide are 32.5% for Chrysler, 34.8% for Dodge and 37.4% for Jeep. Jeep's value increased 5% from May and June (pre-bankruptcy), Chrysler’s rose 3.7% and Dodge’s rose 3.5%. While these residuals values are still lower than the industry average, the new Chrysler (or Chrysler Group) is making progress with aged products. The only newly designed vehicles in the companies portfolio are the Dodge Challenger and the Dodge Ram.

Like the Chrysler Group, now that GM is out of bankruptcy, they too, should benefit from increase residual values with their vehicles. Unlike the Chrysler Group, GM has a slew of newly designed products debuting over the next 12 months. Just maybe the government bailout wasn't a bad thing. If both GM and Chrysler pay back their loans, this should quiet all of the critics who were adamantly against the bailout.