chrysler shuts down all of its production....

[Gator]

Actually, I just proposed this plan to some coworkers yesterday.  GM / Ford / Chrysler take a month off - unpaid vacation if you will.  This would

A - save a ton of money short term
B - reduce bloated inventories
C - give them 30 days to clean / repair / retool / revamp / close / consolidate / etc their plants

mitt

it will also make it "the new guy's" problem

Too late;
NYT

President Bush announced $13.4 billion in emergency loans to
prevent the collapse of General Motors and Chrysler, and
another $4 billion available for the hobbled automakers in
February, with the entire bailout conditioned on the
companies undertaking sweeping reorganization plans to show
that they can return to profitability quickly.

[pennyrobber]

I am personally tired of looking at GM's and Chrysler's on the road anyway.

[MendoDave]

They should figure out how to make those 25k Diesel soot filters for less money, and sell them for 7 or 8 K to all the California Operators. They could sell those by the thousands.