The Story That Won't Go Away

MM49 wrote:

RobertRyan wrote:

FishOnOne wrote:
Are there any successful or good looking vehicles that Chrysler has released under the Fiat moniker. I will say that the 200 is probably the closest thing to good looking, but I rarely even see one on the road.

It seams that Fiat is just adding small updates (new grills, interior tweaks, etc) to vehicles that were designed by the Daimler moniker.

They have problems with their cars globally. Jeep has quality issues, the actual FIAT cars are struggling. Only their CNH/iVECO division is going well

With all your wisdom.Mabee you could comment on how FCA is doing in South America? I would enjoy hearing you eat your words.
MM49

Yes Fiat has a prescence in Brazil, but struggling everywhere else. The Truck division is fine, but everything else has problems

NV brands were ranked at the bottom of an influential quality survey released Wednesday, the latest sign that the Italian-U.S. auto maker is struggling to keep up with mainstream rivals at home and abroad.

J.D. Power & Associates released its 2015 Initial Quality Study, saying brands that historically were seen as quality laggards have gained considerable ground. South Korea’s affiliated auto makers Kia Motors Corp. and Hyundai Motor Inc., once occupying the industry’s bottom rung, are now the best mass-market brands. General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co., meanwhile, have caught up with Japanese auto makers that once solidly outpaced Detroit.

Three Fiat Chrysler brands—Chrysler, Jeep and Fiat—were among the bottom five in its survey, which J.D. Power blamed on a range of “defect malfunctions.” The firm’s initial quality expert, Renee Stephens, said Chrysler’s relatively new 200 sedan, for instance, has a nine-speed transmission that attracted several complaints, and many Fiat Chrysler products suffer from routine problems that could be addressed before leaving the assembly plant, including unsatisfactory paint jobs or the way parts fit together.

The study, performed earlier this year, asked 84,000 new vehicle buyers to report things gone wrong over the first three months of ownership. There are more than 200 potential defects on J.D. Power’s list including a range of technology glitches, and the average score for a brand in 2015 was 112 defects per 100 vehicles, an improvement over 2014. While not the only industry quality study, the IQS has long been considered the most influential.

Even in Brazil a traditionally strong market there are problems

GENEVA (Reuters) -- Fiat Chrysler Automobiles expects a new plant in Brazil to boost its profitability in that market by 2017 after a cut to subsidies and currency effects hit profits there last year, CEO Sergio Marchionne said.

"I'm absolutely convinced that by 2017, which will be the first year of full production at the Pernambuco plant, we will return to making double digit margins in Brazil," Marchionne told journalists at the Geneva auto show. He did not say whether the margins referred to profits or sales.

The Pernambuco plant, which will open next year, will produce models that better match market demand, Marchionne has said. It will build the small Jeep Renegade and other models. Production of the Renegade has already started at a plant in Italy.

Brazil used to account for about one fifth of Fiat profit, helping to offset losses in Europe, but an end to car sales incentives, higher input costs and currency effects have weighed on profitability in the region.

FCA, created after Fiat took full control of Chrysler in January in a $4.35 billion deal to create the world's seventh-largest auto group, cut its 2014 profit forecast after an 80-percent slump in Latin American core earnings in the final quarter of 2013.

Separately, Marchionne said he was optimistic about the market recovery in Europe, but added he did not think underlying problems of oversupply had been cured, and cuts in production were needed for the recovery to gain momentum.

"Supply issues still continue to be a big problem in Europe and we've only partially dealt with that," he said.

Marchionne expects a new strategy focusing on high-end car brands such as Maserati and Alfa Romeo for exports to help override some of the weak demand in its traditional markets, especially Italy. A new industrial plan outlining new models and investments will be presented in May.