2015 Chrysler 200 Limited on 2040-cars

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Investors want answers about Marchionne’s final days

The mystery of Sergio Marchionne's surprise death last week continues, with investors now questioning the timeliness of disclosures by the company and family. Bloomberg reports that Italy's market regulator is making a routine check into how Fiat Chrysler handled communications regarding his illness. Fiat Chrysler's stock is down 12 percent in both Italy and on the New York Stock Exchange since the announcement of Marchionne's death. University Hospital Zurich last week issued a statement saying that Marchionne, who died July 25 while recovering from an unspecified should surgery, had been treated for more than a year for a serious illness that it didn't define. Marchionne's family told Reuters the companies hadn't been aware of his health conditions. The Italian business website Lettera 43 reported July 5, and FCA later confirmed, that Marchionne had undergone shoulder surgery in a Swiss hospital. But the company later denied a July 20 report by the website that Fiat Chairman John Elkann planned to meet with company leaders to divide Marchionne's responsibilities. Yet the FCA board indeed met on July 21 and chose Mike Manley, who had formerly overseen the Jeep and Ram brands, to succeed Marchionne as CEO. The company on July 25 published a brief statement acknowledging the former CEO's death. "Unfortunately, what we feared has come to pass. Sergio Marchionne, man and friend, is gone," Elkann said in the statement. Marchionne told no one outside his inner circle — reportedly not even Elkann — that he was seriously ill. His partner, Manuela Battezzato, who works in Fiat's press department, told Bloomberg that Marchionne's family didn't tell the company about his health condition. The famously hard-working CEO, who had quit smoking about a year ago, had also reportedly stopped responding to messages and calls from some advisors since the end of June. People close to him told Bloomberg that Marchionne died from complications following the shoulder surgery, including two cardiac arrests. Image Credit: Ferrari flags hang at half-staff at the Hungarian Grand Prix / Getty Chrysler Fiat Sergio Marchionne

Chrysler 200 subtitles performance in latest round of advertising

Every once in a while, we come across a car video narrated in a foreign language and subtitled in English. They usually center on foreign-made automobiles, but this latest series of videos comes straight from Detroit.
Airing for the first time during's NFL broadcasts, these four commercials for the 2015 Chrysler 200 were produced by Wieden + Kennedy Portland - the same advertising firm that created the now-legendary Eminem spot for the last-generation 200.
Each clip in the "Ready to Take on the World" campaign highlights a different aspect of the American sedan and is narrated in Japanese, German or Swedish - each with English subtitles - associating the 200's Japanese level of quality, German performance and Swedish safety standards. But while the clips are ostensibly set in Japan, Germany and Sweden, Automotive News reports that they were actually filmed at home in the US.

FCA and PSA sign merger agreement

Confirming an earlier rumor, PSA Group and Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) signed a binding merger agreement to create the world's fourth-largest automaker. The partners hope to leverage the benefits of economies of scale as they develop new technologies and expand their global presence. The announcement ends FCA's years-long search for a partner, which nearly ended earlier in 2019 when it came close to merging with Renault, PSA's rival. It brings Fiat, Chrysler, Dodge, Ram, Jeep, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia, Peugeot, Citroen, DS, and Opel/Vauxhall under the same roof. That's a huge portfolio of brands that often overlap, but executives pledged to keep them all open, as well as all their respective factories as a result of the transaction. They're committed to making this big family of automakers work by building on each one's strengths, whether they're technical or regional. FCA and PSA jointly predicted they'll sell about 8.7 million cars annually around the globe, while posting an ˆ11 billion (about $12.2 million) profit. North America, a strong market for FCA, will provide 43% of its revenues, and 46% will be generated in Europe, where Peugeot's brands are doing better than ever. Together, they plan to achieve ˆ3.7 billion (about $4.1 million) in annual run-rate synergies. They'll notably have the purchasing power to negotiate a better price with suppliers, and they'll merge their research and development efforts where it makes sense to do so. Over two thirds of the group's annual volume will be built on two shared platforms. One will underpin about three million small cars annually, and the other will serve as the foundation for approximately three million compact and mid-sized cars. Details about these architectures haven't been made public yet, but a quick look at both companies' product portfolios reveals the small car will very likely come from Peugeot. Recent additions to its range, like the second-generation 208, are built on a new architecture named Common Modular Platform (CMP) developed with electric powertrains in mind. Meanwhile, Fiat is still making the cheeky 500 on an evolution of the platform found under the second-generation Panda released in 2003. The bigger architecture could come from FCA, however. The group's brands will share engines, transmissions, electric powertrains, infotainment systems, various sensors used to power electronic driving aids, and other components like wiring looms, but each one will retain its own identity.