[Jeepers]

Fiat may have its problems and challenges but Jeep is not one of them. As a part of its recently revealed corporate road map, Fiat touted Jeep as its linchpin, the corporation's "lead global brand." Jeep is poised to sell 1 million Jeeps this year, and it hopes to have that figure up to 1.9 million by 2018.

Jeep is really outshining its corporate siblings. As Jeep sales grow each year, Fiat sales have actually been shrinking each year. You can see this in this graph.

Business Week compares Jeep to Subaru, "another utility specialist that currently can do no wrong. In April, both brands posted their best sales month ever."

Do you think that Jeep is destined to become a really big global brand? Is there more of a chance of Jeep going mainstream than Chrysler?

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-06/can-jeep-make-it-in-the-mainstream-fiat-thinks-so

 

[tony]

I think they are on the right track to become a global brand

 

[Jeepriot]

I think the biggest fear across the board here is that, as the chart shows Fiat is in the negative. Whats to say down the road that poor management, redesigns, new vehicles doesn't drag Jeep and Chrysler down too? There bottom line might look better now but they really haven't seen the ramifications of taking over these companys and probably won't for a few years. It could be a good thing and it could be a bad thing, time will tell.

 

[Willy]

Chrysler is actually about to be come the big volume brand. Its been gutted over the past few years, with only the 200, 300 and Town and Country on the docket. FCA wants to make Chrysler compete on volume again with Ford and Chev, so look for small hatches and a bunch of crossovers. They'll actually probably get something based of the Renegade.

Globally though I think FCA wants FIAT and Alfa to do all the heavy lifting... well Jeep as well but I meant other than Jeep...

 

[Jeepers]

Management is going to play a role in the success or failure of each brand, but I think that part of each brand's success or failure depends on what it is right now. Fiat and Chrysler just don't seem to be brands that people have a connection to. Their brand identity and design language are just not as relevant to what is going on right now. Management can take the brand in a new direction, but you can only do so much to re-brand a brand while still keeping it the same brand.

 

[4x4]

i could see jeep doing well as chryslers global brand

 

[Rivmage]

Fiat is smart by making smaller jeeps, the demand for large SUV/CUV around the world is limited mostly to North America. I expect Jeep's and thus FCA's bread and butter to be the smaller SUVs/CUVs.

I wonder how FCA plans to market Chrysler as a mainstream car. I know for at least me when shopping for a car, I've never even considered a Chrysler branded car.

Scott

 

[Willy]

Whats funny though is that for all Sergio's bombast the stock got slapped around pretty good...

From the Auto Extremest:

The Investor community doesn't think much of The Great Sergio's new five-year plan, apparently. As reported by David Shepardson in The Detroit News this morning (Wednesday, May 7), "Investors didn’t like Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s aggressive five-year plan to spend more than $65 billion dollars on product development in a bid to ramp up sales over the next five years, sending shares down by 8.6 percent. In trading in Europe, shares of Fiat fell to 7.74 euros ($10.78) down 0.73 euros ($1.02) a share." Marchionne of course dismissed all negativity because he insists that he delivered on the 2009 plan - while glossing over and conveniently forgetting the parts that he didn't deliver on, but hey, in Sergio's world such negativity is purged, or deemed as being hopelessly uninformed - and that he will deliver on this new plan, too, just you wait and see. But members of the investment community are a humorless lot and they don't much cotton to over-promising, especially when the majority of those promises are works of gulp fiction. Did Sergio pull some of those ridiculous numbers out of his ass? Yes, of course he did. But in classic egomaniacal fashion, he's absolutely certain that he can get away with it because he is, after all, The Miracle Worker who saved Chrysler from itself and the Greatest automobile executive Of All Time. But the ugly reality is that a lot of Marchionne's vaunted "plan" is pure unmitigated bullshit, and there are a lot of people inside and outside the business who are smart enough to know it too. - PMD

Thats what worries me, this isn't the first time we had the great planning session in the sky....

https://www.google.com/finance?q=FIAT&ei=13VqU_ioD-Ww6QHg6gE

 

[Jeepers]

The plan does seem so ambitious that it can't possibly be fully realized, but Sergio himself must know that. If he can deliver on 90% of what he has laid out here then I'm sure things will be fine. You'd think that stocks would go up after the announcement of his plan though.

What do you think is so bad about the plan that it has sent some investors running?

 

[4x4]

you gotta spend money to make money

 

[tony]

Investors probably want to see the plan in action first before investing, at least see some proof of how well it will work when put to work