Sergio Marchione dead at age 66

Sad news. He came to Kokomo Transmission Plant in 02/2013 as we were tooling up and launching the 8 speed transmission, V6 & Ferrari engine blocks.
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Sad day here not a lot of intel as to what the way forward will be but time will tell. The Company is bigger than one man but he was and will be remembered as the Savior of Chrysler IMHO. RIP
 
Sad day here not a lot of intel as to what the way forward will be but time will tell. The Company is bigger than one man but he was and will be remembered as the Savior of Chrysler IMHO. RIP


Obviously I'm not in the know but since Obama got involved I've always viewed it as anyone after and including him is a killer.
 
Obviously I'm not in the know but since Obama got involved I've always viewed it as anyone after and including him is a killer.

Obviously, you are not.................................so why say anything?
 
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Very sad news indeed. Marchionne was a passionate car guy, and passionate about product quality. And almost a magician as a leader. Without him, Chrysler would have gone down the pipe in 2009.

RIP.
 
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Ok .... lets forget that reply and allow me to re answer ...

For the same reason you just did....

When I do not know anything about a subject, I refrain from saying anything. The rhetoric in Wash DC these days is unhinged too.

In your case you admitted you did not know anything about Sergio, so to me it doesn't make sense to provide any reply. For a man that has done a great deal and essentially gave his life for the company and the nation in retaining and increasing jobs we need so badly, it seems inappropriate just after he has passed away to call him a "killer" because he interacted with a past President who was trying to fix the broken economic system circa 2008. I just don't get it. But we won't get anywhere with this so lets just move on. It pains me because I resepected Sergio a great deal. And I also worked for the company and am very glad he rescued it because I love the good things they did and still do.
 
Probably , you and I are usually as far away on opinion as the space between us.

I am not so sure about that Dave, as you and I can certainly agree on many things automotive. Politically, probably not, but that is not what this board is about anyway. I mean no ill will toward you and respect many of your automotive opinions. Take care. And I do still remember the kindness you showed the older lady who previously owned your convertible after her husband passed away. That counts in my book.
 
The auto industry has lost a Titan. I know many of us didn't like his decisions regarding the Chrysler brands lack of models and his push to expand Alfa Romeo. But these are more about our passion for Chrysler and our own personal emotions. He was a dedicated auto executive with a great mind for business and brought BILLIONS of dollars in profits to the company. I know he planned to retire next spring, so most of his work was done, leaving the company with a new 5 year plan, but 66 is just too young by today's standards. RIP Mr. Machione. We must appreciate every day we wake up to see another day.
 
I'm going to give an opinion that will surely not "jive" with what you're going to read in the media. Largely because I don't believe in sentimental BS. Luckily I don't have to run my feelings through a PR department.

What saved Fiat from exiting the car business entirely was the $2 Billion Sergio negotiated from GM in 2005. (For not exercising an option to purchase their car business.) Wisely this money was spent to green-light the retro-cute 500 model in cheap-labor Poland, despite Italian protests. No one man designs any automobile, but one man can recognize a solid proposal. It debuted in 2007 and hit the (European) market just right, something like the retro-cute PT Cruiser in 2000. Concurrently, Daimler was exiting Chrysler and selling the light bulbs from the fixtures. The Cerberus deal was put together in haste, to cut-off angry German shareholders who were staring to demand Daimler consider all potential buyers, not just the ones management favored, which meant an employee-purchase agreement backed by Kerkorian cash was frozen out.

The Bush administration split $25 billion among the Detroit 3, which was a sliver of what they gave banks who created the credit crisis and dried up financing and leases. The net effect was no one went out of business on Bush's watch just before an election. Despite popular wisdom, Cerberus did a few things right, especially by re-contenting cars (2009 Ram and 2011 Grand Cherokee, 300 and Gen I 200 were done on their watch). The industry has very long lead times, so Marchione couldn't impact much by June of 2009 when he was anointed by the Obama Auto Czar. That whole deal was basically Obama paying back the industrial Midwest for voting for him... And it should be noted, I take no issue with that. The McCain plan was essentially "America still makes cars? I drive a Lexus. Go f-yourself and get training as a nursing assistant or Barista". As a noted capitalist, I didn't take issue because no American President (until now :)) ever gave a sh*t that American companies were "tariffed" out of foreign markets and therefore could not enjoy the economy-of-scale benefits of the Asians, or the premium pricing of the Euros once the Feds turned American, luxury cars into FWD crap via CAFE regulations. Obama's plan was a nice gesture, but like most Government plans it did nothing to address a root-cause. It was also long on appearance and puddle-deep.

Cerberus would not be given a chance because they were an evil Private Equity Capital Management Partnership. In other words, something Americans would think of as "bankers", so the appearance of bailing them out looked bad. On the other hand, Fiat was a European company that made small cars and therefore the smartest people in the room. They even promised to sell the Fiat 500 here! Hurray! Or should I say "thud".

So let's look at what really happened since Sergio's involvement...

  • Bankruptcy wiped all debits, including Chrysler's portion of the $25 billion. Wiped a lot of dealers too, but some were just crooks and this was the only way to dump them.
  • $10.5 Billion in loans that was wisely poured into neglected manufacturing facilities, netting quality improvements. I'd like to think the Feds made this a requirement, but given their typical stupidity, probably not. Loan was repaid.
  • No Fiat model has impacted the company's profits.
  • Fiat involvement on the Dart produced an underpowered (by US standards) sedan with so-so mileage.
  • Basically the same flop repeated with Gen II 200, except the problem this time was me-too bland styling with a cramped interior. Saving grace was the 3.6 Pentastar; an awesome engine (funded under Cerberus) that hauls *** and returns good mileage.
  • Ram-branded Fiat vans. Flop.
  • Ram (2009-18 Dodge) trucks print money. No Fiat involvement beyond 1500 diesel that's tangled up with EPA investigation.
  • Ram (2018) no Fiat involvement.
  • L cars date to 2005 and continue to print money. Nothing remotely Fiat about them.
  • Grand Cherokee (2011) and spinoff Durango (2012) are cash machines. No Fiat connection.
  • Wrangler, cash machine. Fiat connection related only to Patton driving through a smashed Facist Italy.
  • Cherokee, Fiat/Chrysler-reworked platform that was almost a disaster, but has redeemed itself.
  • Renegade, Fiat platform that sells based on name and being unrecognizable as a Fiat.
  • T&C and Caravan, no Fiat.
  • Pacifica, very little from Fiat.
  • Electric/hybrid platforms all from Chrysler side of house.
  • Alfa-Romeo, ego stroke that wont crack 1% of the market, but has diverted funds from modernizing many old platforms.
  • Constant public desire to merge with other companies destroys employee morale, makes it hard to recruit talent.
  • Stupid public comments about Dart/200 while they sat on dealer lots. Exiting car-packaging was smart, but keep your mouth shut!
  • VP-level corruption proven.
Like I said, not very PC, but all documentable. I can at least say we survived... Largely because of appearances and debts owed, but survival is survival. Live to fight another day.
 
Your summary is interesting and weaves a bit, but it seems your basic message is that Fiat really was of little help to the "real" Chrysler Corporation, a reality I would find hard to argue with. But you discuss what came from the Chrysler side that was worthy and I agree. On Sergio's watch, what I saw, being an outsider by then, was a steady improvement in design quality from the old Chrysler Corporation in terms of content, reliability, ruggedness and good looks. Sergio was vocal about the shitty design of the Caliber, for example, and other crap products and put a halt to crap vehicles on the Chrysler side from what I saw. I agree on the "help" Fiat provided on the Dart was to genrate a real loser, but maybe he was trying to integrate Fiat in a way that would make them grow into a better organization, but it didn't work as you summarized.

As you said, although the initial 3.6 Pentastar engine had inherent design issues with the cylinder heads, those issues were resolved well and the engine went on to be a strong core offering in a majority of their vehicles on his watch.

And my first impressions of the new Pacifica were that it was a game changing vehicle, every bit the quality and design competence to give the Odysseys and Siennas a real run for the money. That was also on his watch.

I also thought the Chrysler 200 was a very good looking car, best in the segment to my eyes, but the need to cut cost and content in order to compete with the really high volume Accords and Camrys was a tough road to hoe and the interior room, as you said, really drew the ire of Consumer Reports among other things. But big strides in quality of that vehicle due to an upgrade to Sterling Heights to make them world class made them well built cars from what I saw. But in the end, they didn't have the volume to compete out of the gate with the well liked Camrys and Accords with very good ratings from every automotive journal. Now those facilities are being utilized by Ram I guess.

It seems you are saying the old Chrysler Corporation would have done just fine without Fiat or Sergio, but I don't agree about the part without Sergio. He knew a quality vehicle when he saw and drove one, and he enabled guys like his now successor (Manley) to make Ram and Jeep strong successes. Basically, he was a "car guy" to a reasonable extent, and many CEOs of major automotive companies are not - look at the current CEO of Ford for example. And Ram just gets better and better, with many saying it is now the best full-size truck in the segment. He also let Dodge loose to develop some remarkable Challenger vehicles that demonstrated the competence of the "old" Chrysler corporation engineers. I wonder if most people realize the engineering excellence that has to go into making a 707 HP vehicle in relatively large volumes at a reasonable price and have it be durable and last in the hands of the enthusiast segment of the public?

I really don't care about the contribution of Fiat, but rather the leadership and quality that Sergio demanded be in every Chrysler product, leaving the Fiat stuff aside - cars which never suited the U.S. market and seemingly from another company. Even a very good leader can't accomplish much with a poor engineering organization.

While I didn't like starving the Chrysler and Dodge full size cars and focusing on Alfa Romeo and Mesarati instead this probably was due to his view that Chrysler and Dodge brands didn't have much world wide name recognition while Alfa Romeo and Mesarati did and thereby he focused on them instead in order to improve their world wide sales potential compared to what could be achieved with those same dollars if invested in the Chrysler/Dodge brands and trying to market them around the world. Hard to argue with even though I didn't like it. Unfortunately, they might have done better if passenger car sales hadn't started tanking due to consumers' mad rush to SUVs. Ford basically has exited that market. So timing for Sergio was regrettable.

All I am saying is he didn't have much to work with on the Fiat side, but he did with the Chrysler side, and he managed that well in my opinion. And that is why I give him high marks. He kept a steady focus on profits but also demanded they build quality vehicles on the Chrysler side where it mattered most. The Italians were a lost cause, although I thought their multi air engine design should have been developed further since it really provided continuously variable valve timing and lift, which so far no one else has been able to accomplish. But it was relatively expensive to incorporate, but a really innovative approach to improving fuel economy that I wish could have gone further.
 
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