At last year's Chicago Auto Show, protesters descended on DaimlerChrysler AG's exhibit. They carried signs, passed out leaflets, sang civil rights songs and -- most importantly -- pleaded with customers to join a boycott that hurt the automaker's sales last year. This year, though, the automaker is displaying its Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Mercedes cars and trucks in peace. The show ends Sunday, and nary a picket sign has been seen. There have been no similar protests or lawsuits in metro Detroit The lawsuits that prompted the strife have certainly not gone away. Rather, the cases accusing DaimlerChrysler of discriminating against African Americans and Hispanics who applied for auto loans -- one filed by former Chrysler dealer Gerald Gorman and the other a class-action filed by his customers -- are still inching through federal courts. But DaimlerChrysler has been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in Chicago to improve its image -- a move that seems to be working. After meetings with black leaders there, the automaker helped buy vans for at least two churches, made a donation to a job-training program operated by one of the leaders who initially backed the boycott and is now planning to support ethnic festivals in the area. "We had a situation where a particular dealer, or group of dealers, dragged our name through the mud in their town, and we can't let that happen," said Chrysler Group spokesman Mike Aberlich. "So yeah, we're going to invest in the community." DaimlerChrysler has maintained that it does not tolerate discrimination and that the Chicago lawsuits are a smoke screen to cover up financial and legal improprieties by Gorman's dealership, including falsifying information on credit applications. But Gorman, the white dealer who rallied black churches to his cause and denies all wrongdoing, is questioning DaimlerChrysler's motives for its community outreach. "If they didn't do anything wrong to begin with, why are they spending all this money?" Gorman said. "I think it's an attempt to buy silence in the community, and it's a shame that community leaders are letting themselves be bought." [more]