Chrysler

Chrysler's new Italian chief has said the American icon is a leaner, more focused automaker well on its way to achieving long-term profitability and regaining its sense of style. Wearing his signature rumpled sweater, Sergio Marchionne led a team of executives through an eight-hour-long presentation of the automaker's five year plan, some five months after Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy protection. "What you're witnessing is the beginning of a genuine transformation," Marchionne told reporters and analysts gathered in Chrysler's design dome at its Auburn Hills, Michigan headquarters. "It's comprehensive, it's ambitious and it's serious." Chrysler said it expects to break even next year, reach profitability ... Read Full Story

The new Chrysler has emerged from bankruptcy protection as a leaner, hipper and more competitive automaker, top executives said Wednesday as they presented a five-year plan aimed at achieving long-term profitability. "The problems that led to the bankruptcy of the previous Chrysler can be solved," board chairman Robert Kidder told journalists and analysts gathered in Chrysler's design dome at its Auburn Hills, Michigan headquarters. Kidder said new chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne and the team he has brought from Fiat -- which obtained a 20-percent stake and controlling interest in Chrysler in exchange for sharing its technology -- has been working "tirelessly" to transform ... Read Full Story

MARCHIONNE REVS UP Fasten your seat belts--here comes Chrysler Italiano. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne will deliver his fix-it plan for Chrysler on Nov. 4. Controlling owner Fiat aims to use its engineering works to make compact and midsize cars for Chrysler and will offer the Fiat 500 subcompact in the U.S. Various Dodge models, including the Grand Caravan, and several Jeeps will disappear. And Fiat's Alfa Romeo brand will build an SUV based on the Jeep Grand Cherokee. Also on the auto front, Bloomberg reported on Oct. 28 that lender GMAC Financial Services is looking for a third bailout from the Treasury--between $2.8 billion ... Read Full Story

Chrysler plans to revamp its struggling Dodge car brand under a new turnaround plan and says the company's cash has grown by nearly $2 billion since it exited bankruptcy protection in June. Under the plan, the automaker aims to introduce four new Dodges by 2013 and put new exteriors, interiors and engines on most of its current lineup. The new Dodges include a mid-size sedan for the North American market designed by Fiat SpA, the Italian automaker that now owns 35 percent of Chrysler. That sedan is a key component of Chrysler LLC's five-year overhaul, which is being outlined here Wednesday. Chrysler currently lacks ... Read Full Story

Coming to your local Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep dealer: Tractor-trailers full of cars and trucks with lower sticker prices. The big discounts are part of new CEO Sergio Marchionne's attempt to revive the Detroit company the way he did Italian automaker Fiat. His five-year plan for Chrysler Group LLC, to be unveiled Wednesday, calls for deep discounts across many models over the next 18 months. The goal is to lift sales, generate cash and keep the automaker going. That will give Marchionne, who is working 20-hour days, enough time to try to revamp the automaker's struggling model lineup, according to a person briefed on ... Read Full Story

Chrysler has returned $5.5 million in bonds to an Indiana county to settle a dispute over millions of dollars the county spent toward a transmission plant that a Chrysler supplier stopped building last year. The Indiana secretary of state's office said Wednesday that it agreed to drop a securities fraud complaint against the automaker now known as Old Carco LLC as part of a consent agreement accepted Oct. 22 by a federal bankruptcy court in New York. The bonds backed by Tipton County were used to pay for infrastructure at the Getrag Transmission Manufacturing site along U.S. 31 near Tipton. Getrag, a German auto ... Read Full Story

Chrysler has been sending its dealers back to class, reminding them about the importance of courtesy and communication: Always return phone calls. Limit wait times. Open doors for customers. However, the automaker isn't following its own advice. New management has said little about plans to revamp Chrysler's ailing lineup and return the once-great company to profitability. Dealers are left to wonder what they'll be selling this time next year, even as they struggle to unload unpopular models from their lots. The lack of communication is a symptom of an automaker so focused on its grand plan that it may be overlooking the basics of ... Read Full Story