Chrysler gives cause for hope

Auburn Hills

Detroit's auto CEOs have their own style.

Ford Motor Co.'s Alan Mulally never wears a suit. A sport coat and tie, but not a suit. Not even when he's meeting the president.

General Motors Co.'s Fritz Henderson is almost always in a suit. He's a financial guy.

Chrysler Group LLC's new CEO Sergio Marchionne is a sweater and slacks guy, which held true Wednesday when he and his team unveiled the company's business plan here to analysts, media and the world.

The atmosphere was hectic, even frantic at times -- it's been a while since Chrysler hosted any events. Heck, it's been a while since they even talked to us.

The international press was in attendance, cameras and lights pointed at closed doors waiting for an Italian executive to burst through and save the day.

Only that's not what Wednesday was all about. It was about Chrysler. About integrating technologies. Picking the best pieces from Chrysler and partner Fiat SpA and creating a world-class operation again.

Questions, doubts aplenty

There remain plenty of questions and doubts about some of the benchmarks that were outlined.

The Chrysler brand will double its market share by 2014. The company will be profitable within two years. It will bring products to market in 18 months instead of 36. It will improve quality and get consumers to notice -- and buy -- its cars again.

"We all know quality is a sensitive issue for us," said Doug Betts, Chrysler senior vice president of quality. "We are not in denial."

That's good. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, right?

Chrysler set for itself a definitive course and talked at length -- again -- about rebuilding reputation and fixing their issues. They have to.

The company's market share has dropped to 7.9 percent, below Honda Motor Co. at 10.2 percent and barely ahead of Nissan Motor Co. at 7.2 percent. And its sales fell 30.4 percent in October, according to Autodata Corp.

Thriving on skepticism

We'll find out if Chrysler's latest partner can be successful where others have not.

Shortly after the sessions ended Wednesday, skeptics and doubters began grousing about what they heard -- or didn't hear.

Chrysler expected that to happen and Marchionne expects to prove them wrong.

Personally, I came away impressed after a brief exchange with Marchionne. The self-importance that surrounds plenty of executives wasn't there and you could tell he was confident in what he'd lined up for Chrysler.

Executives thrive on being told they can't. Mulally heard it at Ford. Henderson is still hearing it at GM.

And Marchionne heard it at Fiat.

Now he is charting his own course for Chrysler. And the only way to prove that the plan is more than just overt optimism is to succeed where plenty of others have failed.

mlopez@detnews.com">mlopez@detnews.com Auto Editor Manny Lopez's column runs Thursday.