If I were the Car Czar (Part 2)...

Last week, I fixed GM. Today, it's Chrysler's turn. This one's a little trickier, because they have a new partner (Fiat). So here goes:

1. Stop building FWD cars.

No, really. Now that you have a partnership with Fiat, leverage their extensive experience in this area, and trash your entire FWD fleet. None of them is really worth saving. Just look at how many Chryslers were purchased during the Cash for Clunkers program and you'll see what I mean.

Most importantly, get the Fiat 500 over here as soon as possible! It's a great competitor for Mini, and it can create a halo effect to get people back into dealerships.

2. Reduce "Badge Engineering".

Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep has WAY too many nameplates, given their market share. How many vehicles can you build off of the Caliber platform, anyway (I count at least 4!). Depending on how you count, there are between 20 and 25 nameplates across these three brands.

3. Clearly focus each brand.

Right now, each brand is trying to reach every consumer (hence the proliferation of nameplates). Refocus each one on its core customer.

Chrysler represents style and class. FWD is fine here, because Chrysler buyers aren't hot-rodders. Aspen is out of place - not clearly differentiated from the Durango it came from. Journey is more the Chrysler style.

Dodge is power. For cars, this means RWD. Challenger and Charger fit. Nitro doesn't. Dodge is also the logical home for trucks. Durango and Ram are right at home here. No sissy boys here!

Jeep is for the off-road crowd. No Jeep should ever be beaten off-road by any non-Jeep. Liberty? Maybe. Patriot? Probably not. Compass? Definitely not.

All three brands (especially Chrysler/Dodge) can be sold at the same dealership (and usually are), so people can cross-shop. Make sure that they don't see the same car over and over with different badges on the hood!

4. Leverage the Fiat relationship.

I mentioned this earlier with regard to FWD cars, but the reverse holds true as well. Alfa Romeo (a Fiat brand) has been selling fine FWD cars for quite some time. But they could (and it appears they will) leverage the 300 platform for the next-gen Alfa 159, which will allow for economies of scale in production and development.

On top of that, you now have a dealer network you can leverage to sell Fiats and (more importantly) Alfas in the States again, and a dealer network in Europe that can sell American muscle and off-roaders.

And finally, you now have plants on just about every continent, so if you get your production systems aligned (not a trivial task), you can build cars wherever it makes the most sense based on manufacturing and transportation costs.

5. Most importantly: FIX THE QUALITY.

Land Rover has perennially been at the bottom of the quality ratings, but this year, they were bumped out of that slot by Jeep. Build quality is abysmal, and hasn't really shown much improvement.

On top of that, the appearance of quality is missing! Too many hard plastics, loose switches and enormous panel gaps. As I said in the previous post, VW, despite middling quality, is able to sell on quality because the cars SEEM well put-together. Without that, you'll never get anyone back.
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Of the Big Three, Chrysler is the company with the most challenges ahead of it. But the partnership with Fiat presents some unique and promising opportunities. Let's just hope they don't let those slip through their fingers, because it would mean the end of several storied automotive marques.