BTW- does anyone have the full WSJ story that they can post??
Here's a google translation of the article, in German, that Baz posted a link to above, which is supposed to be the WSJ article:
The Dodge Viper is history. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne is a production of the American cult of super-sports car. And not only that. Marchionne deletes the range of models from Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep together radically. Instead, the Fiat boss with Italian cars and brands, the Americans want to lead from the crisis. Alfa Romeo is to judge it.
HB MILAN / FRANKFURT. The rescue plan for Chrysler, which will introduce the Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne on Wednesday in Detroit to take shape. In the U.S. resulting from the insolvency carmaker Chrysler is following the entry of the Italian rival Fiat a radical transformation of the model range bring the change. In 2011, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the small car 500 in the U.S. come to the market and 2012 will follow different Alfa Romeo models. It was planned to continue producing vehicles in the U.S. and Mexico. Chrysler's Dodge brand on the other hand, the production of individual models completely inapplicable.
Fiat was entered four months ago as a savior at Chrysler and has medium-term option, the majority of the ailing company to take over. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has however already today as CEO of Chrysler is in charge. The Italian-American is known as a turnaround specialist and has been returned to the Italian car company Fiat declared dead within a few years in the profit zone.
Fiat had retreated to the mid-90s from the U.S. market, where volumes only offered sports cars such as Ferrari and Maserati. Now the two automakers, according to work "WSJE" for new vehicles for the U.S. market. The first was to 2012, a mid-size car based on Fiat under the Chrysler label on the market.
The Alfa Romeo models will be produced entirely in North America. Besides the new compact car Alfa Mito middle Milano and another mid-size car to be built in the USA. Later on Fiat platform to bring Chrysler also include three new models on the market: a midsize car, and a small car, the 2012 will come on the market, and a small jeep, one or two years.
Marchionne to intervene dramatically in the Dodge brand seems. There, the Caliber compact car is completely stopped, just like the Nitro SUV and Avenger mid-size model. The retro design for its popular Chrysler PT Cruiser and the Jeep Commander SUV, Compass and Patriot are the medium for information of the Wall Street Journal no longer be offered.
With the new strategy for Chrysler Marchionne wants to continue while serving customers in the lower middle class, but it is also more challenging to warm Americans to European models.
Fiat has not confirmed the report. But even in Italy, the first leaks are known. According to a report by the business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore is the retro-compact car 500 at the Chrysler plants in Canada are produced in Mexico and not, as the Wall Street Journal writes with regard to people familiar with the situation.
To grab the renovation in 2012 lie, but a barren spell in front of the government-backed car maker, writes the WSJE. In September, the U.S. market share had shrunk by more than eleven percent of Chrysler last year to just over eight percent.
In fact, the situation in Detroit seem far more dramatic is meant to be. After months of intensive work in the Detroit headquarters Marchionne verdict was a sobering effect on the IAA motor show in Frankfurt: "We were surprised at how little has been done in the past 24 months."
Thus, the Fiat boss, the first gloomy rumors had confirmed that leaked several weeks of dealing with the rehabilitation counselors and Fiat executives. Accordingly, in the course of all the restructuring, the first with Daimler Chrysler and go through with Cerberus and suffered to leave, thousands of engineers and developers to the company. The upshot: the much-needed upgrade of the product portfolio will take longer than the Marchionne has been assumed. Exactly Marchionne now takes extensive back on Fiat products for Chrysler.
How bad the situation is in this existential point for Chrysler, was shown at the IAA. There was standing alone and leave only one relevant innovation: namely, a heavily reworked Dodge Caliber, have missed the mother's Chrysler Group, in collaboration with Fiat aufgehübschten one interior and a new diesel engine. That must be enough. In Europe, it does so not.
well done 
Stories like this can do nothing but harm the motor industry 
