DETROIT — Chrysler always had a showman’s flair for grabbing attention at this city’s annual auto show. Its stunt highlight reel includes driving a Jeep through the front window of the convention center and dropping a pickup truck from its ceiling.þþBut this year, Chrysler is more wallflower than star. þþIt has scheduled no news conferences, primarily because it has no new models to show. And the focal points of its exhibit are vehicles manufactured by its new Italian partner, Fiat.þþIt is hardly the image that Chrysler hoped to project after it emerged from a government-sponsored bankruptcy this summer.þþSergio Marchionne, who serves as chief executive of both Chrysler and Fiat, said on Monday that the company had to endure a fallow period before it could refresh its vehicle lineup.þþ“It’s just going to take some time until we get the new products into the marketplace,” Mr. Marchionne said. “The important thing is the long term.”þþPresident Obama’s auto task force concluded last year that Chrysler could not survive on its own, and the government would not lend it money unless it found a viable partner. That partner turned out to be Fiat, which had been exploring joint projects with Chrysler for some time. þþAt the behest of the task force, Fiat agreed to take a 20 percent stake in Chrysler, and lead a sweeping overhaul of its management and product lineup.þþSo far, Mr. Marchionne and an overhauled management team have little to show for their efforts to inject new life into the automaker. þþLast year, Chrysler’s sales in the United States tumbled 36 percent, and it sold fewer than a million cars for the first time since 1962.þþThe company does not have a significant new product to introduce before its restyled Jeep Grand Cherokee has its debut later this year. Until then, the company is relying on some revamped versions of older models, like a Chrysler 300 sedan with a black grille in place of the standard chrome.þþ“Sergio is a very dynamic and capable leader, but we all know it’s going to be a very difficult transition period,” said Michael Jackson, chief executive of the AutoNation chain of car dealerships.þþMr. Marchionne stressed that there were no shortcuts to a Chrysler revival. Several of its current cars will be replaced with vehicles developed by Fiat, but those models will not arrive in United States showrooms until 2011.þþHe acknowledged that Chrysler’s auto show stand this year was lacking the buzz surrounding that of General Motors, the other American automaker bailed out by the government.þþ“Our stand in 2011 is going to be a completely different stand than you see today,” Mr. Marchionne said. þþThe big question is whether Chrysler can hold on financially until the new products arrive from Fiat.þþMr. Marchionne said that Chrysler had $5 billion to $6 billion in cash on hand, which should be enough to finance its operations. When asked if Chrysler had enough money to survive, he said, “The answer is yes.”þþBut the company cannot earn a profit at the paltry level of sales it had in 2009. Mr. Marchionne said that Chrysler had to sell at least 1.1 million vehicles in the United States to break even.þþ“The important thing here is to make money and not to burn cash,” he said.þþFor now, Chrysler is heavily dependent on sales of its old-model cars and S.U.V.’s to rental fleets. Most automakers are trying to cut back on fleet sales because the profit margins are minuscule, and the practice tends to water down the resale value of the same vehicles sold through showrooms at the retail level.þþBut Mr. Marchionne said Chrysler could not afford to worry about those issues while the company was struggling. þþ“If there is a month where I have to sell 40 percent of my volume as fleet, I will,” he said.þ
Source: NY Times
