Today’s the day automakers reveal their US new car sales numbers for June. For the last umpteen years, Chrysler has greeted the gloaming with a conference call with jobbing journos and anxious analysts: a spinmeisterfest wherein ChryCo would attempt to explain away their hemorrhaging bottom line with talk of The Next Big Thing (electric minivans!). Ah, but this is NEW Chrysler (a.k.a. Fiatsler). The Italian stallion running the US taxpayer-supported company has decreed the American part of his fiefdom should stay shtum on its stinking, sinking sales. (I guess he missed GM CEO Fritz Henderson’s transparency pledge.) In fact, Ohio.com reports that Chrysler’s top suits have said anything about anything since the company emerged from bankruptcy. All except the boss, of course, who told Bloomberg that ChryCo’s cash burn is returning to simmer. Oh, Sergio!
“We are still burning cash, but it’s slowed down by far,” Marchionne told Bloomie’s yesterday. “The question is how quickly we can stop the bleeding. That is priority No. 1.”
OK, signore, spill! I mean, we’re paying for this right? So tell us how you’re doing and what you’re gonna do. Fair’s fair, yes?
“It would be very useful for the public, and the people who have funded us, including the taxpayers, to know how we’re doing,” he said. Marchionne said he’s working with the US Treasury to decide what information Chrysler might report and when to release it.
By the end of the month, Marchionne wants to decide how the partnership will manage its Dodge and Alfa Romeo brands, which he sees as American and European counterparts.
“The level of competition between these two brands is tremendous because they are both going after the same customer,” Marchionne said. “Dodge is the American muscle car, while Alfa Romeo is the European muscle car. How we dovetail these two brands is very important.”
That’s what he’s worried about? We are so screwed. Meanwhile (yet not entirely unrelated), the Wall Street Journal reports that those Chrysler dealers that remain are having trouble securing vehicles that actually sell (e.g., Jeep Wrangler and T&C minivan). The WSJ sees the “high-demand” model drought as one of them there “signs of stability.” And then coughs-up the real deal.
While it had less than a 40-day supply of a few vehicles, including the Wrangler, at the end of May, according to Autodata, it had a glut of others, such as the Dodge Caliber and the Jeep Patriot. Some dealers said they are being forced to buy less-sought-after vehicles from their fellow dealers in order to get a few coveted Wranglers or Town and Countrys.
Plus ça change and all that, only in Italian.
If the new Charger was anywhere even close to as bad ass as the one pictured above, Chrysler might actually be able to sell some cars. There isn’t one Chrysler vehicle that stirs anything inside me, not even the Challenger that everyone seems to go all ga-ga over. Much less do they have anything mainstream that’s even reasonable. Comparing their offerings in nearly any category against all other competitors only brings shame. I honestly can’t think of any car sold at a Chrysler dealership that I would spend my own money to buy. Not one. That’s why they’re in trouble.
Dodge=Alfa? LOL
Alfa used to compare itself with BMW. And Alfa cars are WAY more upscale than anything with a Dodge badge in it.
The car in the picture… I think was featured in HotRod. At that time it had a EFI 440 with Ford EECIV engine management. REALLY NICE.
The problem is that even if they made something that “stirs anything inside me” I’d be afraid that it was indigestion worrying about when it was going to break.
My direct experience with Chrysler is that they still have a way to go to get the needed reliability and consistency.
shtum?
RF, I think you mean “stumm” (if real german), and “schtumm” (if some kind of yiddish dialect).
Suppliers were negotiating their “cure” contracts with the Old Chrysler, trying to figure out how to be made whole (recover their development expenses and investments) made on the current vehicles once the New Chrysler begins to sell them, and before they reach their end-of-production.
Reality is, that these cars were not really competitive when new, and while some are decent designs (Ram p/u), others are dorky or too thematic to enjoy a long steady life (for instance, Camry and Accord can pull this off because people buy them for things other than their astetic appeal) … given the blood bath of the last two years, which intensified over the last year (6,000 bucks incentive on the hood, Oy Vey!) and one can begin to see a scenario where due to the age/style/sales-pull-ahead Chrysler may have sold the vast majority of these vehicles, and will suffer until the Fiat-based vehicles come on line in 2 years.
Despite Sergio’s comments and enthusiasm, I expect the cash burn to leave the simmer setting before long as sales stay weak, incentives increase, and new-product investment and expenses all add up.
Dodge screwed its naming all up. I’ve mentioned this before, but the current Charger sedan should have been called the Coronet.
Mopar built six-cylinder Coronet sedans back in the day so modern 2.7L and 3.5L versions wouldn’t be blasphemy. Plus, both the LX Charger and 1970 Coronet have a similar “scowling headlight” look, and it still would have allowed Dodge to create sported-up Super Bee versions but remain correctly in-line with history.
Just as important though, it would have freed up the Charger nameplate so that the current LY-Challenger could be the new Charger. I do think the ’09 Challenger looks good, but its dimensions are so wrong that it doesn’t give me flashbacks to the E-body. The LY-platform is actually closer in size to the B-body that the Charger was based on.
I imagine that a LY-coupe skinned like a 1970 Charger would have a much cleaner look- it would probably be more popular too.
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It wouldn’t have saved Chrysler, but at least would have made people complain less.
The level of competition between these two brands is tremendous because they are both going after the same customer,” Marchionne said. “Dodge is the American muscle car, while Alfa Romeo is the European muscle car.”
yeah I can see a lot of cannibalism betwen Dodge sales and Alfa’s. I like them both, but they are half a world apart. Oddly enough.