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Jim Press after many years at Toyota takes the job of fixing Chrysler.

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Wolfgand Bernhard is expected from early reports to become Chairman of Chrysler once Cerberus Capital Management completes its purchase of Chrysler and La Sorda will remain CEO.

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Readers will ask the question why did it take GM so long to close the jobs bank? Not till January 29, 2008, in the depths of the downturn with looming bankruptcy did GM close the jobs bank.

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Chrysler has ample inventory of the Sebring and Jeep Compass models that were made at the plants in 4 states that it closed down till the Plastech supplier issues were settled. Chrysler's position was that it wanted to end the relationship with Plastech and have it tooling equipment returned to Chrysler by supplier Plastech and that it could not offer Plastech any financial help as Plastech struggled financially.

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To promote the green image Chrysler is downplaying the Hemi engine. It will be offered as an option but won't be called Hemi, but simply 5.7 liter V8 for certain jeeps. Chrysler will emphasize smaller engines such as the V6 Pentastar engine and 4 cylinder engines.

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Chrysler has no new models in its product lineup except for the small Fiat 500 car and some product redesigns like the new 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee. For about 2 years Chrysler has had liitle that is new to show buyers coming into its dealership showrooms. As competitors Ford and GM recovered sales after the 2008 crisis, Chrysler's sales have been dismal. A lot is dependent on how the new Jeep Grand Cherokee is seen by car buyers. Chrysler and Mercedes had essentially redesigned the Grand Cherokee by the time of the bankruptcy filing in April 2009 and Fiat's takeover. So even though it is presented as the new Chrysler, analysts say its not something Fiat's involvement created. What Fiat added is attention to some of the technical details, and working on the marketing aspects so that its off-road and on-road capabilities are presented in the best possible way to attract buyer interest, keeping price as close to sticker as possible. The question now is whether in Chrysler's difficult situation, the American car buyer will respond to the new Cherokee with interest. Sales peaked for the Cherokee at 300,000 in 1999 and dropped to 50,000 in 2009....

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Chrysler marketing experts say their research shows customers are giving importance to vehicle interiors. Nardelli describes this thought as customers wanting their favorite room under their roof, quiet and with the gadgets and technology to make it comfortably and cozy.

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Many of Cerberus executives and advisers are former GE employees and Nardelli was part of the group looking at Chrysler for Cerberus. He is being hired mainly for the work he did at GE, for his work promoting Six Sigma and quality control which would come in useful at Chrysler, and his work in doubling the power generation business at GE with large earnings increase. His experience at Home Depot has been discounted, probably seen as a bad fit for Nardelli. Moreover even as CEO he will have to work closely with the owners and theadvisers and with La Sorda who has experience running Chrysler, and he won't be involved with a retail market or with shareholders in the way it happened at Home Depot. As far as huge compensation which could alienate the unions Nardelli will be compensated on the basis of ownership in the new Chrysler if it meets its goals. So it could be a way to take advantage of experience at GE, carefully limiting the downside of Nardelli because of the nature of the position in the Cerberus owned Chrysler. And Cerberus may be thinking also that Nardelli would have learned from his recent experience and also that he is motivated to do his best to rebuild his reputation....

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Detroit carmakers Chrysler and GM are falling back on incentives to grow sales for 2010 models. Chrysler is offering rebates upto $4000 and 0% financing. But it is a sign of how low the capacity utilization is in the industry. North American auto capacity utilization will average about 50% in 2009 according to JD Power & Associates.

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Nardelli is expected to become CEO of Chrysler. He left Home Depot this year. La Sord will remain President and Vice Chairman. Bernhard decided not to take the Chrysler CEO position.

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Leading engineers who left Chrysler include Mike Donoughe, and William Mattingly.

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Howes gives Marchionne high marks for doing what Daimler failed to do. He says Fiat took the best of what Chrysler had and melded it with the best parts of Fiat to create an integrated company. Both Chrysler and Fiat benefit in the process. There is a lot to be done especially with paying off government debt, building the fuel efficient vehicles essential to do well in a time of high gasoline prices, and operating in a highly uncertain economic environment. But the steps taken so far show Marchionne has put Chrysler on the right path. The new version of the Jeep Cherokee has done well- with a sales increase of 34% in first quarter 2011 over the prior year.

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Chrysler may sell some none core assets like Mopar a parts making unit.

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The 2 tier wage system is scrapped at U.S. autoworkers Ford, GM and Fiat Chrysler after a vote following the Fiat Chrysler negotiations leads to a rejection of the system. This is a major achievement of UAW president Steve Williams and union members. All autoworkers can now have a path to the top factory wage of $29 per hour.

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New models introduced by Chrysler, Ford and GM, and the revitalization of the U.S. auto industry in 2011-2013.

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Automakers had U.S. sales of 1.2 million cars and light trucks in December, 2011, an increase of 8.7% over Dec. 2010, acccording to Autodata Corp. Total light vehicle sales for 2011 were 12.8 millon, an increase of 10.3% over 2010. Chrysler showed a 37% increase in Dec. 2011 over Dec. 2010, Ford 10%, and GM 4.6%. For 2011 Chrysler showed the biggest increase in sales over 2010 of 26%, followed by Ford at 11% and GM at 13%. Toyota's sales declined in 2011 by 6.7% to 1.64 million. Honda's sales for 2011 declined by 7.1% to 1.15 million. American manufacturers introduced new models in the small and midsize segments to take market share from the Japanese. Ford plans a new version of the Fusion and Chrysler will introduce the Dart in the small car segment. GM and Ford are forecasting auto sales above 13.5 million for 2012 in the U.S. market.

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Deborah Wahl Meyer takes up the position of chief marketing officer for Chrysler, she is a former Ford and Toyota manager who tried new things to promote the Lexus brand. Expect imaginative and new ideas from Ms Wahl.

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Chrysler CEO Nardelli sees impact of housing market on car sales and will take a good hard look at things financially for the next 3 years and also look towards a ten year planning cycle for new products instead of the usual five.

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The big question is what Chrysler can do between now and 2012 when it gets a whole new face and a lineup of new models. It is getting smaller every month and current models and models in 2010 and 20111 will only have marginal changes.

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Fiat's Marchionne leads Chrysler. He will keep Jim Press as deputy CEO. Press is a veteran from Toyota. The four brand CEO's are Peter Fong for Chrysler, Michael Manley for Jeep, Michael Accavitti for Dodge, and Pietro Gorlier for Mopar. Except for Gorlier, all are Chrysler employees. Ralph Gilles continues as Design executive, and Scott Kunselman, a Chrysler veteran will lead product development. Frank Ewasyshyn will continue to lead manufacturing. Doug Betts will remain in charge of quality, and Scott Gaberding, as head of procurement. Only Marchionne and Richard Palmer, the new Chief Financial Officer are the new faces at the upper ranks. Marchionne's mesage to Chrysler employees is that Fiat was perceived by many as failing in 2004, " a lethargic automaker that produced low-quality cars." But he says "most of the people capable of remaking Fiat had been there all the time. Through hard work and tough choices, we have remade Fiat into a profitable company." One thing that Marchionne has already in mind is a flattened organization with which he says "we are able to increase speed of decision-making and improve communication." Marchionne is actually a manager who worked and spent many years in Canada. He got his MBA at the University of Windsor, in Windsor, Ontario, in 1980 and his LLB law degree from York University in Toronto. His parents immigrated to Canada when he was 13, and he grew up in Toronto. He worked at Deloitte Touche and Canadian companies before moving to Europe. So he is very familiar with working in North America. Compared to the young group he had working for him in changing Fiat, he has many older managers at Chrysler. ...

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That Chrysler was pushing its new Dodge Ram pickup with a cattle drive through the streets of Detroit in January 2008, and GM and Ford were counting on new redesigned pickups to help them through the year shows how badly the three companies miscalculated the market and how costly it will end up being. The Big Three may end up being the Big Two as Chrysler depends even more on larger vehicles like vans, SUV's and pickups and sales decline is the highest on Chrysler vehicles in June, and Chrysler does not have the money to come up with a completely new product line like its competitors. It also does not have the overseas operations that are earning money. For all three companies its finance arms which used to bring in earnings now are at a loss especially as loans go sour and the resale value of pickups and trucks is in a sharp decline. See the Manheim US auction prices May 2008, source of graph Morgan Stanley.

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Marchionne's comments that a new Fiat might merge with Chrysler and move headquarters from Turin to Detroit causes an uproar in Italy.