Former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca has decided to weigh in on the current situation at his former employer, when interviewed by the Associated Press. Iacocca believes that the automaker needs to get the government out of the business as soon as possible, noting that government intervention is "strong motivation to repay the loan early." Iacocca added that the government "oversight is just too extreme." He reminded readers how Chrysler repaid the previous ten year loan from the government in three.

Chrysler and General Motors (OTC: GMGMQ) are have both received billions of dollars in government loans. Chrysler has recently exited bankruptcy protection, while GM remains in Chapter 11. The Treasury Department's auto task force has already made its presence felt, forcing out both CEOs and is reshaping their boards.

About 29 years ago -- in August 1979 -- Chrysler was at death's door. It made gas guzzlers that nobody wanted to buy and it asked for $1 billion to keep itself going until a fleet of more fuel efficient cars could take up the sales slack. If it failed, a Congressional Budget Office study said that 360,000 jobs would be lost.

The U.S. turned down Chrysler's request and offered loan guarantees to encourage banks to make Chrysler the loans it needed to cover its $100 million a month operating expenses until the new car line could hit the dealer floors. That story had a happy ending -- and offers some lessons for the current situation.

Except for the much smaller numbers this story sounds much like the plight of General Motors (NYSE: GM) . As I posted, GM is trying to convince the Congress that it will fail without a $25 billion bailout and that such a failure would cost 2.5 million jobs and $125 billion in lost economic activity. It remains to be seen whether the U.S. will come through with the money that GM wants.

In the ads he's depicted as an almost fantastical creature, "Dr. Z," who answers consumers' quirky questions about their cars. And Dieter Zetsche sought to join Dave Thomas, Colonel Sanders, Bill Ford Jr. and even (yes) Lee Iaccoca as a CEO who pitched his company's products in its advertisements. The TV ads for DaimlerChrysler AG (USA (NYSE:DCX) have inspired much delight amongst consumers (especially me), although there's a problem: consumers don't believe Dr. Z is really the CEO of Chrysler.

Chrysler put Dr. Z on temporary leave a few weeks ago, prompting a firestorm of complaints by faithful (and cheers by those who were "creeped out" by his mustache, or simply couldn't understand his cute German accent).

The Wall Street Journal [subscription required] says today that Dr. Z might be fired permanently as pitchman (despite the $100 million DaimlerChrylser has spent on the campaign thus far), citing the $1.5 billion the company lost in the third quarter as a catalyst for change. (No one's saying Zetsche might being fired as CEO, just for the record.) Could Dr. Z be too cute for his own good? Even I had to go look at DaimlerChrysler's corporate profile to be sure that Zetsche was really the CEO when I first saw the advertisements (and I should know better).

In my opinion, though, Dr. Z is more than successful. He's got people talking, and he's just so adorable. I love thinking about DaimlerChrysler as this mesh between German engineering and American chutzpah. He's so vastly better than the Hemi guy, I can't even figure out a way to put it into words. And I had the same questions about Wendy's Dave Thomas when I first started seeing him on commercials -- is he real, or is he SAG? -- and advertising critics the world over agree that Thomas was good for the hamburger chain. Dr. Z makes me, and countless other potential consumers, feel good about Chrysler cars, and that's what it's all about.

Please, DaimlerChrysler, fire the Hemi guy, instead!