Advertisement

Chrysler and Fiat model synergy plan

February 19, 2009 at 9:34 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Chrysler, Fiat, International News

Chrysler Fiat Business Plan
Click for enlarged version

Chrysler has unveiled their business restructuring plan for submission to the US government in order to quality for the rest of their bailout money. The total money asked for us now US$9 billion, up US$2 billion from the original US$7 billion amount, of which they have already received US$4 billion. Anyway that is not the point, what we’re here to look at is how they plan to integrate Fiat models into their product line-up.

Chrysler will be grabbing 9 models for the US market together with Fiat’s Multi-Air engines (FIRE and FAMB), commonrail turbodiesel engine technology and a dual clutch transmission. Chrysler will be able to supply Fiat with the Dodge Journey, the GEMA world engine with displacements between 1.8 litres to 2.4 litres, and the Phoenix family 3.6 litre V6 engine. The 9 Fiat models include models that will be sold as their original brands which are the Fiat 500, the Alfa Romeo Mito, the Fiat Punto, the Alfa Milano and Giulia (149 and C-EVO based 159 replacement), and an unnamed Alfa crossover.

The other three will use Fiat underpinings but will be Chrysler-branded vehicles: a B-segment 5-door hatchback, a sedan based on the 159′s C-EVO platform, and a larger vehicle based on the D-EVO platform.

Of course whether this will all happen or not depends on whether Chrysler gets the bailout money. Fiat will only confirm its on board with a share take-up (for free!) if that happens.

10 Comments      

Nissan and Chrysler cancel 2 joint car projects

February 15, 2009 at 9:32 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Chrysler, International News, Nissan

Dodge Hornet
Scrapped small car project could have been the Dodge Hornet

Chrysler and Nissan originally planned to expand their current cooperation of marketing the Nissan Versa in South America as the Dodge Trazo with another two cars – another Chrysler-designed Nissan (Japanese)-built small car (dare we say this might be the Dodge Hornet?) and a full-sized Nissan pick-up based on a Chrysler (next gen Nissan Titan). But right now in face of a depressing economy and unfavorable dollar to yen exchange rates, that plan has been put on hold. The Versa project will go on as planned.

Other than the Versa, there are also other third-party sourced small cars sold there, such as the Hyundai Atos and the Hyundai Accent, sold as the Dodge Atos and Dodge Attitude respectively. Word is that the Versa-based Trazo will replace the Attitude as Hyundai has officially entered the Mexican market.

The word is that the cancellation/postponement of the other two vehicle projects have nothing to do with the recent involvement of Fiat in the American company, but it’s just that the projects were a deal done during better times, which unfortunately have ended what feels like a long time ago.

7 Comments      


Chrysler and Fiat unveil platform-sharing line-up

January 28, 2009 at 6:38 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Chrysler, Fiat, International News

Dodge Caliber SRT-4

After the marriage and the short “family planning” course, Fiat and Chrysler have unveiled details on their new American family. 7 new cars will make their way into the US market, four with Chrysler brands and three with either Fiat or Alfa Romeo badges.

The Chrysler-badged cars could stretch all the way from the A-segment up to the D-segment. Something based on the Fiat Panda/500 platform (also used by Ford to underpin their Ford Ka) would give Chrysler the city car they need. The B-segment will be served by the Grande Punto/Mito platform. A C-segment car will utilize Fiat’s C-Evo platform, which could replace the Dodge Caliber.

Finally, a D-segment car would use a stretched version of the mentioned C-Evo platform to replace the Chrysler Sebring and the Dodge Avenger. This apparently fits well into Chrysler’s vehicle roadmap according to Chrysler executive VP Frank Klegon, as Chrysler does not have an A or B-segment vehicle and their C-segment Dodge Caliber is due to be replaced soon.

The Fiat/Alfa Romeo branded cars are likely to be hits such as the Fiat 500, the Alfa Romeo MiTo, and a new vehicle based on the C-Evo platform for the C-segment which could end up being the Alfa Romeo “149″ (successor to the aging 147).

Chrysler will also get access to Fiat’s Fire T-JET small displacement engines (1.4L to 1.8L). If I’m not mistaken, Chrysler’s smallest engine family right now is the GEMA engine, something it gained from DaimlerChrysler times. The GEMA family ranges from 1.8 litres (4B10) to 2.4 litres (4B12), and Chrysler uses these (including a turbocharged 2.4 litre) in cars like the Dodge Caliber (photo shown above).

5 Comments      

Chrysler to sponsor Terminator Salvation movie

January 22, 2009 at 2:22 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Chrysler, Videos

Terminator SalvationNot wanting to lose out on the latest fad of automobile manufacturers sponsoring movie franchises, Chrysler has announced it will be sponsoring the new Terminator 4: Salvation movie, which will see Chrysler cars being product placed in the movie. Chrysler did not say how much money it would be spending on this though.

The other big Detroit automakers also have/had movie deals. Notice the many Ford cars in the last two James Bond movies and the new Knight Rider, and the GM placements in the Transformers movie.

I checked out the trailer and didn’t notice any Chrysler cars. You can watch it yourself after the jump.
[Read more...]

16 Comments      

Fiat to take up 35% stake in Chrysler and share platforms and engines

January 20, 2009 at 7:21 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Chrysler, Fiat, International News

Fiat LogoFiat S.p.A today confirmed that it has signed a “a non-binding term sheet to establish a global strategic alliance” with Chrysler and Chrysler’s majority shareholder Cerberus Capital Management. Initial details of the alliance have been revealed. It includes Fiat taking up a 35% stake in the American automaker as well as allowing Chrysler to use “competitive and fuel-efficient” vehicle platforms, components and powertrains to be produced at Chrysler manufacturing bases.

Chrysler LogoFiat will also allow Chrysler access to its distribution network in areas that are key for growth, and you could probably assume Chrysler would be the way for Alfa Romeo to get back into the American market. The word is that the Italian company plans to increase this 35% up to 55% over time. Fiat will also assist Chrysler with the viability plan it needs to support to the U.S. Treasury. And apparently the 35% deal does not involve any money. In return for the platforms and management consultancy help with restructuring, 35% of Chrysler will be handed over to Fiat for free.

The other two Detroit companies already have suitable platforms and powertrains to enter the European (Eastern Europe in particular) and Asian markets. GM has Daewoo while Ford has always built decent cars for the European market in the first place. This announcement fills that missing piece in the puzzle of how Chrysler plans its turnaround. It already has existing deals with Nissan mainly for Latin America, and a failed partnership with Chinese automaker Chery, but nothing like this new Fiat deal.

The last time Fiat and Chrysler had alliance talks was in the early 1990s, but that did not go anywhere, and many blame that on disagreements between Lee Iacocca and Bob Lutz, who is now at GM. Then a Chrysler exec, Bob Lutz had likened Fiat to “a bride lying on her deathbed.” Well Mr Lutz, Fiat has turned itself around and both the company you used to work for and the company you are looking for are going around asking for multi-billion dollar bail-outs.

I wonder what happened to the supposed upcoming merger between PSA Peugeot Citroen and Fiat, as reported by an Italian newspaper. Are we looking at a new PSA-Fiat-Chrysler trinity in the future?

10 Comments      

Chrysler considering new car-based pick-up truck

January 20, 2009 at 3:15 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Chrysler, International News

Dodge NP200
Could Dodge rebadge the Nissan NP200 for an entry-level pickup? Artist’s impression by Theophilus Chin.

Chrysler is said to be mulling introducing a small pick-up truck based on a monocoque car chassis to slot in below its large ladderframe trucks. Such a vehicle would allow Chrysler to improve its Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, as the more fuel efficient small truck would compensate for the large guzzlers at the top of the line.

What immediately comes to mind is a pick-up truck based on the Nissan NP200 pickup, which was itself based on the Dacia Logan pickup. Chrysler already has a partnership with Nissan, who supplies Chrysler with compact vehicles to sell under the Dodge brand in Latin America. For example, the Nissan Latio is sold under the Dodge brand as the Dodge Trazo with little changes, not even a major adaptation of the Latio’s grille to match the Dodge corporate nose.

While we’re at it, they really might as well look into replacing the Dodge Dakota with a rebadged Nissan Navara (artist’s impression after the jump), like Suzuki has done with the Suzuki Equator.
[Read more...]

13 Comments      

Chrysler kicks itself in the nuts with wasteful “Thank You” full-page ad campaign

January 1, 2009 at 1:01 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Chrysler, International News

Chrysler Thank You Ad
Click for enlarged version

So you’ve just got US$4 billion in bailout money. What do you do? Do you immediately get to trying to turn your company around, cut costs, boost sales, etc? Well no. Not if you’re Bob Nardelli and the bunch of monkeys working under him.

One of their first moves are to blow several hundreds of thousands, perhaps even up to a million US dollars on full-page ads in mainstream American newspapers, including USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. A full page ad in the WSJ can cost between $206,000 to $264,000 while a similiar ad in the USA Today costs between $112,000 to $217,000. Of course, this money probably has already been paid for in advance via a bulk buy for the whole year.

But still, even if the taxpayer treasure trove raiders wanted to thank the public for the money (which apparently more than half the Americans did not agree to), what they could have done is write a letter to the editor’s mailbox or something, I’m sure the papers would have got it published considering how Chrysler probably regularly takes up ads for its cars. Or maybe call a press conference. Haven’t they learned by now how to get coverage through press management, or is throwing random amounts of money at problems their lazy way of solving things? Their PR people should have seen these public sentiments from miles away!

Here are some of the angry repercussions found written in Chrysler’s blog:

Mr Nardelli, Fire your PR and advertising teams and execs immediately. We the People did not want to see any more ads and money wasted on ads, be it from Chrysler, et al, or from your own pocket. You should have put up a website thanking the people and just submitted it to various online news aggregators for free. Once again, I am pained to see you are demonstrating a lack of common sense and fiscal responsibility.

First of all, do you need to spend your precious dollars on expensive newspaper space? Second of all, it’s hard to say “America” is really responsible for granting the bridge loans. One survey said that 61% of Americans were against it.

Your resignation and the resignations of senior executives who have mismanaged the business would have been much more appropriate.

Dear Mr. Nardelli and the “over one million people who depend on Chrysler” – You’ve got some nerve to thank us for our forced “investment” when we didn’t want it to happen in the first place. Isn’t forced or coerced investment akin to robbery?

Mr. Home Depot has now shown that he can take extravagance to another extreme high. Why in the world are you thanking people that didn’t want this. You need to spend the money you spent on this ad to bailout one of your line workers whose house is about to go into default.

I’m speechless. And I’m saddened that a corporate management team is so inept at understanding public opinion. Some advice: issue a press release stating that you regret that you made a mistake using taxpayers’ money in this manner.

This ad just goes to show that you and your company has not learned anything, and like the rest of the US I am upset. This opportunity was squandered, by you and your incompetance. For the sake of my tax dollars I hope you succeed with a restructure like the late 70s early 80s when you received your first bail-out. However, with the poor decisions of this ad I forsee a bad investment on the horizon by the US Government.

Obviously nothing has changed. Chrysler is still making stupid decisions by wasting its stolen taxpayer money on useless ads. I will never, ever even consider buying a Chrysler.

What a great way to spend the taxpayer money!!! Spend hundreds of thousands if not a million to put full page ads in news papers all over the country. The NYT add alone cost over $200,000!!! I will never buy a Chrysler vehicle!! You guys suck!!

Way to blow hundreds of thousands of dollars on a useless ad campaign that will surely only worsen your public image. We weren’t buying your cars before because they are all gas guzzling, unreliable, uninteresting cars that look like they were styled by the coleman plastic cooler division, inside and out. So then you steal our money through the government so you can waste more of it on useless ads, and you have the audacity to remind us all about it. Go to hell Chrysler.

Sharp words, but I bet all those billions of dollars are a quick cure for the pain. What a way to end 2008! Happy New Year people!

20 Comments      

Chrysler could be the Mercedes of America?

December 22, 2008 at 4:17 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Chrysler, International News

Dodge Ram 1500
Uh… right.

Chrysler co-President Jim Press is suggesting that Chrysler could become a “boutique enterprise” similiar to the BMW and Mercedes-Benz, premium carmakers of Germany. Yes, Chrysler could become the Mercedes or BMW of America! He even likened the new 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 to what a Mercedes-Benz pickup truck would be like!

Such confidence, he must have forgotten that Mercedes-Benz’s parent company Daimler AG had only freshly ejected Chrysler from its so-called DaimlerChrysler marriage of equals. Chrysler had been dragging DaimlerChrysler down for so long and Daimler management received endless grilling from shareholders for keeping the “alliance” up for as long as they have.

He continued on to say that GM and Ford are making basic cars and “gingerbreading” them to premium while Chrysler makes premium cars from the ground-up. He added that the 2010 Jeep Grand Cherokee prototype has the “most rigid body and the best suspension he has ever seen”.

Source

15 Comments      

GM and Chrysler get US$17.4 billion bailout

December 21, 2008 at 5:09 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Ford, International News

gm logoThey’ve done it, the Detroit boys have managed to secure federal emergency loans to execute their plans to stay afloat. Initially their request for money was rejected by the US Senate, but the Bush administration has decided to take money from the US$700 billion that was allocated to bail out their failed banks.

The amount to be given to GM and Chrysler (Ford doesn’t need the money apparently as they build cars that people actually want to buy, thanks to their extensive European involvement) totals up to US$17.4 billion. US$4 billion will go to Chrysler this month and GM will get the same this month, with the remaining US$5.4 billion set to fall into their hands next year pending the release of the other half of the US$700 billion by the congress.

George Bush says the bailout was because he and the American people did not want the indigenous auto companies to fail, and he also did no want to hand over the administration over to Barack Obama next year with the auto industry in shambles.

The two companies have until March 31st 2009 to become “financially viable”, otherwise the loan will be recalled and all funds are to be returned to the U.S. Treasury. In this case, financially viable is defined to be “having a positive net value, taking into account all current and future costs, and can fully repay the loan.”

Other terms and conditions include: firms must provide warrants for non-voting stock, firms must accept limits on executive pay and eliminate perks such as corporate jets, debt owned to the government would be placed at higher priority than other debts to the extent permitted by law, firms must allow the government to examine their accounting books and records, firms must report any transaction greater than US$100 million and the government has the power to block any of these transactions greater than US$100 million, firms must comply with Federal fuel efficiency and emissions requirements, and firms must not issue new dividends while in debt with the government.

Ford, the healther of the Detroit 3, is still asking for a US$9 billion government line of credit in case conditions worsen or one of the other Detroit 3 fails. But they do not need any money immediately at the moment, unlike as claimed by GM and Chrysler.

Canada has also extended help to the Canadian arms of GM and Chrysler. The Canadian government will provide C$2.7 billion while the Ontario state government will top up another C$1.3 billion for a total of C$4 billion. Of this total, C$3 billion will go to GM while C$1 billion will go to Chrysler. Canadian production capacity represents 20% of total North American auto production capacity, but this aid amount only represents 16% of all total aid offered by North American governments.

So far the response from the industry have been mixed, but the positive ones so far are only coming from pro-Detroit government officials and GM dealers and other industry-related people who stand to benefit from the loan. Standard and Poor equity analyst Efraim Levy expects GM to quickly blow the billions they are getting and then request another multi-billion dollar loan on March 31st 2009. Jerry Webman, chief economist at Oppenheimer Funds said this bail-out is much like the government infusing the blood in on arm while it’s bleeding out the other arm in attempt to keep them alive.

13 Comments      

GM apologizes to the American taxpayer

December 9, 2008 at 3:44 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Ford, International News

gm logoOkay, so the Detroit Three have finally got their money, but exactly the amount they wanted but it’s money. They asked for US$34 billion but only got US$15 billion. Seems now they’re heading north, asking another country for money.

GM, Chrysler and Ford is asking for a collective US$6 billion in loans, of which US$2 billion is a request from Ford and only a “stand-by” line of credit in-case the situation gets worse. Ford seems to be the least affected of all 3, could it be they are actually making cars people want to buy?

GM seems to be the worse off. GM is also asking an additional “immediate” US$800 million from Canada to make it through the end of 2008. U.S. Senator Chris Dodd has suggested that GM CEO Rick Wagoner “move on”, given an almost “impossible to defend” record (according to BusinessWeek) that includes wasting US$1.3 billion on a stake in Subaru which yielded absolutely nothing – no new cars, no technology, nothing, and then proceeded to sell off the stake later, partly to Toyota. He also spent US$2.3 billion to buy a share in Fiat and another US$2 billion to get out of it. Read the BusinessWeek link for more on Wagoner’s track record in GM.

The American taxpayers are probably furious at GM and the silver lining is at least GM knows it, hence this two-page apology letter to the American taxpayer you can read below.

GM Taxpayer Letter 1
GM Taxpayer Letter 2

35 Comments