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Fiat Chrysler profit up as it closes in on retiring its debt

MILAN — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles reduced its debt by more than expected in the first quarter, putting the carmaker well on course to become cash positive later this year. Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne expects to cancel all debt during 2018 — possibly by the end of June — and generate around 4 billion euros ($5 billion) in net cash by the end of the year. Marchionne has said that forecast does not include any one-off measures, nor the impact of the planned spinoff of parts maker Magneti Marelli, which he hopes to execute by early 2019. The world's seventh-largest carmaker said on Thursday net debt had fallen to 1.3 billion euros ($1.6 billion) by the end of March, well below a consensus forecast of 2.6 billion euros in a Thomson Reuters poll of analysts. FCA said capital spending fell 900 million euros in the quarter due to "program timing," which analysts said implied higher investments for the rest of the year. The Italian-American group said first-quarter operating profit rose 5 percent to 1.61 billion euros, below a consensus forecast of 1.74 billion, as a weaker performance from its North American profit center weighed. Shipments there were higher due to the new Jeep Wrangler and Compass models. But currency moves hit revenues and earnings, and costs related to new product launches added to the pressure. FCA's shift to sell more trucks and SUVs boosted margins yet again in North America to 7.4 percent from 7.3 percent in the same quarter a year ago, although they were down from the 8 percent recorded in the preceding three months. Marchionne, preparing to hand over to an internal successor next year, is close to his goal of ending a margin gap with larger U.S. rivals General Motors and Ford. The 65-year-old has said becoming debt free and being able to compete on a par with U.S. peers would mean FCA no longer needed a partner to survive and could well succeed on its own. The CEO has previously said tying up with another carmaker would help to meet the huge costs in an industry investing in electric vehicles and automated driving. FCA shares fell immediately after the results, but recovered to trade up 3 percent at 19.71 euros by 1150 GMT, outperforming a 0.4 percent rise in Europe's blue-chip stock index. ($1 = 0.8214 euros) Reporting by Agnieszka FlakRelated Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Marchionne hopes Apple will partner with Fiat

Apple wants to make a car. Fiat already makes cars. Therefore, Apple and Fiat should partner to make an Apple Car. Makes sense, right? Clearly, it's not quite that easy, but FCA chief Sergio Marchionne hopes that Cupertino will consider Fiat a worthy candidate for partnership, assuming, of course, that Apple follows through with its overtures into the automobile industry. Marchionne is, according to Bloomberg, a self-proclaimed "Apple freak" who owns every kind of product Apple makes. He suggests that he understands the tech company's needs and wants. "Apple has a language, and you have to be able to speak that language," said Marchionne. "Usually the industry comes into that dialogue with a high degree of arrogance as we know how to make cars. That's not very helpful as their syntax is worth more than our ability to build cars." By "syntax," we assume Marchionne means Apple's sleek and modern design language more than the code behind its software. It's interesting to note that the FCA CEO seems to indicate that Apple would bring more to any partnership than the automaker would. Fair or not, we'd wager that more buyers would care about a potential Apple Car's design and branding than would be concerned with which automaker helped assembled it. A partnership with Apple may be exactly the kind of cure that the FCA CEO believes ails the auto industry. After finding it impossible to further pursue industry consolidation, a tie-up with the massive tech industry, particularly Apple, could generate some much-needed positive cash flow. At present, though, it's all just conjecture – Apple hasn't offered any hints as to the true nature of its so-called Project Titan automotive project, and doesn't seem likely to anytime soon. Related Video:

Junkyard Gem: 1991 Chrysler LeBaron GTC Convertible

Chrysler's versatile front-wheel-drive K Platform saved the company from certain doom during the early 1980s, then spawned so many derivatives — including the vehicle that started the minivan revolution — that we can't keep track of all of them. One of the original K-cars was the affordably luxurious 1982 Chrysler LeBaron, which evolved into a snazzy convertible later in the decade. The LeBaron disappeared after 1995, replaced by the Sebring and the Cirrus, and I'm seeing fewer and fewer of these cars during my wrecking-yard explorations. Here's a sporty '91 convertible in a Denver-area yard. The top-of-the-line LeBaron convertible in 1991 was, in fact, badged by Maserati and came only with a Mitsubishi V6. That 141-horse engine was the base powerplant for the '91 LeBaron GTC, though an optional 2.5-liter, 152-horsepower straight-four could be purchased for the LeBaron (but not for the TC By Maserati). The "litre" spelling was considered very classy by Detroit during the 1975-2000 period. Whoever bought this car in the first place must have been a bit of a hell-raiser, because here's the 5-speed manual transmission that became increasingly rare in members of the K-Car family as automatics got cheaper. It also has the driver's-side airbag, which meant that those horrible automatic seat belts that ruined early-1990s cars weren't required. The interior has suffered much fading from the Colorado sun, but it started life as an exquisitely 1980s/1990s Bordello Red palace, all done up in pseudo-velour and hard plastic. Not quite 150,000 miles on the clock. 1992 was the last year for the LeBaron's pop-up headlights. That's just as well, because the mechanisms that opened the "eyelids" tended to get flaky as the years went by. ] This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. There Is No Luxury Without Engineering.