FIX IT AGAIN, SERGIO

9/6/09

I don’t write about cars and the car business nearly as much as I used to in the Insightful Pontificator or as I did in its predecessors, the Insightful Weekly Commentary and the Insightful Irregular Commentary. Some of my readers would find one such column too many, some consider the few I write far too few. But cars are a subject of general interest, and certainly remain close to my heart, so I write about things automotive when I have something interesting to say that might have applications, or ramifications, beyond the car business.

I wrote the following letter to Motor Trend magazine in the wake of a completely asinine comment by Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, who has graced the Insightful Pontificator several times this year in the wake of his becoming the current car industry rage and, supposedly, a large component of Chrysler’s salvation:


9/6/09

Your October “Trend” section quotes Fiat, and now Chrysler, head honcho Sergio Marchionne as saying:

“The level of competition between these two brands is tremendous because they are both going after the same customer. Dodge is the American musclecar (sic), while Alfa Romeo is the European musclecar (sic). How we dovetail the two brands is very important.”

Dodge is the American muscle car? Someone ought to tell the boys in Turin that this is 2009, not 1971. Even the Challenger redux, coolly competitive in the pony car segment despite its extra large proportions, and the very serious, but perhaps soon to be gone, Viper cannot make a sales channel that features the Caravan, Nitro, Caliber, and “no stick available” Charger a muscle car division.

Alfa and Dodge are going after the same customer? A more apt assessment of the two divisions is that Alfa is Fiat’s upscale division and Dodge is Chrysler’s bargain division, and the two should be kept as far apart as possible if Alfa is to compete successfully as a premium channel in the United States.

My confidence in Fiat’s, and Mr. Marchionne’s, ability to serve as Chrysler’s savior, never that great in the first place, has been taken down a notch or twelve.

Mark Quinn
Naperville, IL