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Do IT this week: Layering
Line includes Alfa Romeo SUV and subcompact 500
By Nelson D. Schwartz
New York Times
Published on Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009
Four months after Fiat won control of Chrysler and its billions of dollars in loans from Washington with a promise to bring small-car expertise to Detroit, the Italian automaker could be poised to offer something a bit bigger to power-hungry American drivers: an Alfa Romeo SUV.
Next week, Chrysler will unveil its new product line in Detroit, which will include the Fiat 500, the chic urban subcompact that has attracted a wide following in Europe and that executives hope will draw younger buyers on the East and West coasts back to its showrooms.
But even as Chrysler prepares to kill off giants like the Jeep Commander and the Dodge Dakota, bigger models will remain critical to the company, which generates more than 75 percent of its sales in North America.
Sergio Marchionne, the chief executive of Fiat and Chrysler, is scrambling to get Chrysler through the next 18 months, after which the partnership between the two companies is expected to really begin producing results.
After a period of relative quiet since Marchionne took over as head of Chrysler, next week's news conference is widely anticipated in Detroit and Europe, where he has long been among the most outspoken and colorful auto executives.
In addition to unveiling Chrysler's lineup, Marchionne and other executives will discuss the company's engineering and manufacturing plans and its financial goals.
Chrysler, the third-biggest American automaker, emerged from bankruptcy on June 10, with Fiat taking a 20 percent stake in the new company. Fiat, based in Turin, Italy, received $6.6 billion in loans from the U.S. government to help get Chrysler back on its feet.
The new Alfa Romeo would be manufactured in the United States and be based on the platform of the Jeep Grand Cherokee, one of Chrysler's most successful models. A Jeep-like Alfa Romeo would follow in the tracks of hot-selling upscale sport utility vehicles like the BMW X3 and deliver much fatter profit margins than traditional small cars.
It could also help reintroduce the Alfa Romeo brand to younger drivers after a 14-year absence from the United States. Older drivers remember Alfa Romeo cars as much for their mechanical problems as their cool factor. Fiat's reputation for reliability became so bad that it withdrew from the American market amid poor sales.
Fiat is set to replace the midsize Chrysler Sebring with a new sedan inspired by Alfa Romeo technology, according to industry officials who insisted on anonymity, because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the products before they are announced.
Plans to introduce the Fiat 500 and the Alfa Romeo MiTo compact and midsize Milano have been in the works since the spring.
While an Alfa Romeo crossover or SUV might not be the kind of small car envisioned by some supporters of the Chrysler bailout, Fiat officials insisted that Chrysler's new vehicles would feature more fuel-efficient ''green'' technology, whatever the size of the vehicle.
In addition, the models to be unveiled over the next five years will most likely offer diesel technology, which consumes less fuel and has already proved popular in Europe. Fiat's diesel technology has long been considered among the best in world, and the company worked with General Motors to develop a successful diesel engine for Opel, GM's European operation, earlier this decade.
''The product won't be a problem. It's the brand perception,'' said analyst Arndt Ellinghorst of Credit Suisse in London.
''It took Volkswagen a long time, and they're still not where they want to be, while the French struggled and eventually left.''
Four months after Fiat won control of Chrysler and its billions of dollars in loans from Washington with a promise to bring small-car expertise to Detroit, the Italian automaker could be poised to offer something a bit bigger to power-hungry American drivers: an Alfa Romeo SUV.
Get the full article here.
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