Tell It Like It Is: Marchionne Tells Fiat Labor To "Get Off Their Butts"

Wow, I wonder if this is due to the heavy capital investment Fiat did into Chrysler. If you shift your money away from your core company of course it is going to suffer.

Mr. Marchionne has first to blame himself. Most of the Fiat, Alfa and Lancia models have outdated technology, boring design (beside the 500) or are just rebadged Chrylser models. This is completely diluting the character of italian cars, once loved for style and emotion. Today most of this cars are only sold by price...I think the next economic crisis will kill the Fiat brand.

NoMoreObama2012 wrote: "If Benz, a much better company the FIAT can't help Chrysler, what makes anyone think FIAT can turn Chrysler around?"

The answer to that question can be found here:
http://www.autospies.com/news/Chrysler-Continues-To-Make-Good-On-Bailout-Bet-With-A-44-Jump-In-January-Sales-68932/

NoMoreObama2012. FYI, Diamler had no intentions helping Chrysler to become better. They took the Billions Chrysler had in a slush fund [thanks to Lee Iacocca]to make sure Chrysler would never have to borrow again. The monies were used to buy other Corps like White Freightliner, Detroit Diesel and others. They threw Chrysler a bone with a 10 year old platform and when they were done sold Chrysler in an auction. Much more went on but I'm sure you get the point. Chrysler had plenty of Cash and should have never been involved with Diamler.

When people say that Fiat and Chrysler are terrible companies I think they are talking out of their "Ace Ventura". Chrysler has struggled because up until Fiat ran Chrysler and eventually bought majority shares of ownership it was run piss poor by 2 previous companies. Daimler may be a good company but it has proven inept at running another company.Cerberus was just a holding company trying to find a buyer for Chrysler. It did nothing for Chrysler in terms of product. Fiat has been struggling recently for 3 reasons. 1)The European market has been down in general.2)Italian labor costs are uncompetative compared to Eastern Europe.3)Fiat has put a lot of money into Chrysler products leaving little money to invest in Fiat products. However this is starting to turn around with the new Fiat Panda and 500 L.Those cars should help future sales.Alfa has also suffered. It has discontinued production of the Alfa 159/Brera, the Alfa GT coupe. There are just 2 Alfa's to hold the fort until new models-The Giulietta(from which the Dodge Dart is based on)and the Mito hatchback. There is not enough product.That's again about to change in the next 2 yrs.

What a bunch of morons!

theman440, except for mini22. Everytime someone like NoMoreObama makes negative comments about Chrysler I truly want to respond with the facts but mini22 nails it and I don't have to. Chrysler is now #1 in Canada, sales are through the roof, a few of the products are now outselling the competition. The Dart sales will be very impressive.