2013 Chrysler 200 Touring on 2040-cars

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Chrysler banks $507 million in Q2, trims 2013 earnings forecast

Chrysler has some good news and some bad news. First, profits were up 16 percent over the second quarter of 2012, bringing the Auburn Hills, Michigan-based manufacturer $507 million on the back of strong demand for trucks and SUVs (a recurring theme this quarter, particularly in the US). Q2 revenue was up as well, from $16.8 billion in 2012 to $18 billion in 2013. The bad news is that the Pentastar's overall earnings forecast for net income in 2013 has been trimmed from $2.2 billion to between $1.7 and $2.2 billion, according to Automotive News.
In addition to the adjusted net income forecast, Chrysler tweaked its operating profit from $3.8 billion to between $3.3 and $3.8 billion. This has gone largely unexplained by Chrysler, perhaps hoping the news of a three-percent increase in its transaction prices for Q2 will allow it to sweep this adjustment under the rug.
The star of the show for Chrysler has been its US sales, which saw a 10-percent jump, both bettering the industry average of eight percent and improving over the same stretch of 2012. As with the increase in transaction prices, Chrysler has the new Ram pickup and Jeep Grand Cherokee to thank. Perhaps most worrying from this report, though, is that every brand in the automaker's stable saw an increase in sales... except for the Chrysler brand itself.

Fiat's Marchionne ponders Chrysler going public again

Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne says there's a real possibility that its majority-owned Chrysler Group may eventually return to the ranks of publicly traded companies. According to Bloomberg, the Fiat and Chrysler CEO gives that a "50 percent chance" of happening, but he doesn't appear to favor that scenario: "My preference is to be one single company... we belong together."
Marchionne has seemingly been operating under the assumption that Fiat will eventually own all of Chrysler, working to buy up the shares it doesn't own and looking to buy out the retiree trust fund that it shares Chrysler ownership with. Certainly, Chrysler going independent again would be increasingly difficult, as the companies continue to blend products, technologies, facilities and staffing, a trend started immediately after the Italian automaker became custodian of the brand following Chrysler's bankruptcy in 2009.
Marchionne's remarks to the media came at Chrysler's Kokomo, Indiana plant, where he was on hand to announce a major investment at four facilities in the state to build eight- and nine-speed automatic transmissions.

Is Chrysler's 'America's Import' campaign outdated or offensive? [w/poll]

Chrysler launched its America's Import campaign with a splashy ad during the Super Bowl starring Bob Dylan and featuring a whole bunch of patriotic imagery that included Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, factory employees and, of course, the city of Detroit. Since then, the brand has followed the original spot with even more ads using the same tagline. Not everyone is pleased, it seems, including The Detroit Free Press auto critic Mark Phelan, who's fed up with the marketing. In an editorial for the newspaper, Phelan claims that it's insulting to the US auto industry and its workers.
"The phrase 'America's import,' with its suggestion that 'import' equals 'better,' feels terribly dated, a relic of the 1980s. It's the rhetorical equivalent of hanging a pastel-hued 'Miami Vice' poster on your office wall," writes Phelan in the piece. Also, since some of the brand's cars are made in Canada, the line isn't even entirely true, he claims. Phelan goes on to praise the company's earlier Imported from Detroit commercials for getting the right message across and showing pride in the city.
While "America's Import" might be the tagline for Chrysler's ads, it's not the whole message. Subsequent ads keep the hard-working, patriotic imagery from the original Super Bowl spot but put a bigger emphasis on the Chrysler 200 that the commercials are meant to sell.