Is Chrysler's Marchionne On Track To Do A Better Job Than Mulally Did With Ford?

In less than 24 hours, the CEO of Chrysler Group LLC watches the United Auto Workers leadership certify a split contract ratification vote, sees European leaders craft a credible response to their sovereign debt crisis, gets a stronger-than-expected report on third quarter U.S. gross domestic product and unexpectedly releases Chrysler's quarterly numbers.

Unrelated events? Not if you're running a transnational automaker rooted deeply in western Europe and the United States. The prospects for Chrysler and its controlling shareholder, Fiat SpA of Italy, are slightly brighter today because of the union deal — the least generous among the three — and mildly improving macro-economic conditions.

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sdcarguy - 10/28/2011 10:58:53 PM

0 Boost

Both have done a commendable job. I think Marchionne's task was harder and he has brought a corpse back from the dead.

mini22 - 10/29/2011 12:33:44 AM

-1 Boost

Marchionne saved Fiat from extinction. Essentially he is saving Fiat again based on Chrysler's sales performance.The European market has contracted greatly and Fiat has been the worst performer. The other part of this is that Fiat has injected a lot of funds into Chrysler leaving a limited budget to rejuvinate Fiat with new products. However Fiat has Europeanized the Dodge Journey, the Chrysler 300 and the Dodge 200 convertable into both Chrysler and Lancia products to be sold in Europe. Time will tell if this was the right move.But Fiat is using it's small car platform technology to rebuild smaller Chrysler and Dodge model range.Fiat/Chrysler offer more interesting news then whats happening at Ford and GM at the moment. Together they are still a small company compared to Ford and GM but under Marchionne I think they will double in size.

mini22 - 10/30/2011 8:08:24 PM

-2 Boost

Yes Blazinboy-If you look at the revised Chrysler 300, revised Dodge Charger,the new Grand Cherokee,the revised Sebring/200 there is no evidence that Chrysler is going anywhere near what GM did.There is Badge engineering going only to Fiat and that's just a few models to fill in car ranges that Fiat did not have.EG-Dodge Journey to Fiat Freemont,Chrysler 300 to Lancia Thema, Chrysler 200 convertable to Lancia Flavia,Dodge Caravan to Lancia Voyager (I think).As I stated Fiat did not offer these types of vehicles in it's lineup previously.What is coming from the C-Evo platform is different from Alfa. The platform is wider and longer. It will have a Dodge and Chrysler styled body over it. It will be less similar then the B segment platform shared between Ford, Mazda, and Volvo(same platform but very different cars in terms of ride and handling).Daimler failed with Chrysler group because they were unwilling to put money to continue to refine and update the Chrysler platforms. My understanding is that the platform the 300, Challenger and Charger ride on has been completely revised to the point that you can no longer tell it came from Daimler.While Chrysler has not invested so much in chassis tech with the 200/Avenger it has done so in a major way with the 300/Challenger/Charger chassis.Also because the Avenger has not sold well Marchionne is dropping it when the new 200 comes out. If you read back a few weeks ago Marchionne intimated that the consumer is not stupid and would clearly see badge engineering if a new Avenger replaced the current one so as to be too much like the 200 replacement.In fact there will be a crossover that will ultimately replace the Avenger.

TheDepressingTruth - 11/5/2011 8:03:04 AM

+1 Boost

Most of the product line at Ford was already "in the pipeline" when Mulally came on board at Ford..The only thing Mulally DID fix, was the Ford "FiveHundred" Name fiasco.
The Taurus Name was to go on the Fusion,(Mid-Size) but consumer testing (Taurus had a age demographic just slightly younger than Buick) rejected a "smaller" Taurus...So some Dumb A** dropped the Taurus name.
If Mulally is SOOO smart, then WHY can't he fix Lincoln? Because in the final analysis, Mulally ain't a CAR GUY...He AIN'T NO BOB LUTZ!
Marchionne IS a CAR GUY...I look look forward to the next generation 200/Avenger/Whatever based on an Alfa platform, it might even make me open up my wallet.