Chrysler Reports 3rd Quarter Profit Up 80 Percent

With just days before the election and all the talk about jobs and the auto industry, this press release from Chrysler was timely indeed. Reporting an 80% increase in third quarter profits, the Italian controlled Pentastar seems to be on a roll. This is great news to be sure. But amidst the popping corks and clinking glasses, the newlywed Fiat/Chrysler Group is not out the woods just yet. Check out all the details at Yahoo.com

First, the record profits are coming from a Chrysler product lineup that was in gestation long before Sergio Marchionne and Co. rode into town like a spaghetti western. The stars of Mopar’s lineup are the LX family of cars, the Jeep franchise and Ram trucks and all were conceived waaaay before Obama handed Fiat the reigns. Cerberus incubated the current “2.0 versions” of these cars and although Marchionne was at the helm when they debuted, they can hardly be attributed to him.

The car that DOES have his stamp, is the Dart and although cool, it’s a bit bland and has been slow out of the gate sales wise. We’ll see if the world’s been waiting for a Neon with Italian seasoning. The Dart’s a nice little car, but the jury’s still out on this one.

Speaking of Italy, the Fiat brand is in a money losing tailspin in Europe and the 500 is probably never gonna be bigger than a niche player in the North American market. Aside from the Multi-Air technology and farming out B and C segment sedan development to Alfa Romeo, where’s the synergy?

A note to Ralph Gilles. Please don’t muck up the next  Challenger/Barracuda thing by trying to make a Mopar Celica based on a Fiat platform. Import guys won’t bite and IT WON’T WORK for us die hard fans. Just put the Challenger on a diet and lose 500 lbs, massage the exterior and interior and call it good, okay? Don’t subject our beloved Barracuda to the same fate as the new age Mercury Cougar or Ford Probe either. We’re counting on you to do the right thing.

To see if this union really has what it takes and continue to be profitable, we’ll have to wait until the aforementioned pony cars and mid-size sedans roll out for evidence that this is a marriage made in heaven, not a shotgun wedding consummated in the depths of the “Carpocolypse…”