Chrysler: Then and now

[rickaren]

CHRYSLER: THEN AND NOW

04/12/2011

This time last year John was kind enough to ask me to sit in for him here and I said the company was in such bad shape and Sergio Marchionne’s bold management style was such a shocking change one of two things would happen, either spectacular success or spectacular failure.

Well, we here in metro Detroit have become all too well acquainted with spectacular failure and so the notion of that kind of success is a little frightening to contemplate. And yet, by all outward appearances it is what we are looking at in Auburn Hills.

Unlike Chrysler’s two previous owners, Sergio is what he appears to be: a very smart, shrewd and tireless leader dedicated to rebuilding Chrysler into a legitimate contender.

When he first arrived I asked him why we should believe he would be the one to remake and rebuild Chrysler into a competitor again and he said because he had done the same with Fiat. It wasn’t exactly awe inspiring. But now, nearly two years after the bankruptcy, I can say what he’s accomplished is nothing short of remarkable.

I had a chance to drive a Chrysler 200 recently. This is the car Eminem drove in the now legendary Super Bowl commercial. If all Marchionne had done was keep Chrysler alive long enough to make a commercial mentioned in the same breath with the Apple 1984 Super Bowl ad . . . you might say he’d accomplished more than Daimler and Cerberus ever did with Chrysler.

But in the auto industry it’s all about the product. That remade Sebring had a very nicely upgraded interior and it drove a far cry better than the one that became the laughing stock of the industry. Then look at the execution of the Jeep Grand Cherokee and you begin to believe Chrysler’s future is actually bright.

Marchionne is steering toward an IPO fairly soon, wanting to make certain fiat gets majority ownership stake in advance. The markets are starting to circle this deal like they did GM’s IPO. They smell a profit.

All of a sudden we have a legitimate car company in Auburn Hills again. Marchionne succeeds and so does metro Detroit! That’s a surprisingly spectacular success we could have only dreamed about two years ago and one, we here, are especially grateful to see.

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[dhh3]

The only problem that I have with all of this is the fact that the new introductions from Chrysler we are witnessing here today were all in preproduction phases before Mr Fiat took over. The new GC started development when Daimler was still in charge, it being based on the ML chassis. I'm not diminishing him in any way. He has taken the ball mid field and is headed for a touchdown.