Shades of Sherwood Egbert? (Sergio Replaced/Passed)

[556063]

This all developed this weekend. I am no way even remotely a fan of him, but I think he didn't want some unpleasant things to happen on his watch. The head of Jeep will replace him. Since both Dodge and Chrysler were not in the Five Year Plan released a few weeks ago, stay tuned. Nothing shocks me anymore.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/22/how-fiat-chrysler-told-employees-sergio-marchionne-was-being-replaced.html

[8E45E]

Nothing shocks me anymore.

Right up until his last gasp! It was rather sudden: http://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topst...gNb9&ocid=iehp

RIP Sergio.

Craig

[jts359]

He was certainly one of a kind, RIP

[556063]

Truly sorry that he passed. His grave condition was not disclosed until Monday (7/23). But, it was buried deeply in a story on the events of the weekend. I guess he slipped into a coma Friday.

My distaste of him comes from two things:


1) How he ended up with Chrysler/Jeep. and who he had to "get in bed" with to get what he wanted. It worked for him, so hats off to him. Nothing good happened in 2009-10. Fiat was trying to sell itself to Chrysler back in the 80's when I was in the business. So ironic it happened in reverse. But, Iacocca was much smarter than that.

2) I worked for a company up to August of 2017 that was a distributor for Case Construction Equipment. A part of CNH Industrial. I don't know how many here are aware he was also the head of Case IH, New Holland, and Case Construction. I got to see first hand how his management style worked. I ended up enduring another branch closure as a result of joining that CNH supplied company in 2015. Just as the Construction Business was supposedly "coming back". After being owned by Fiat since 1999, and subjected to Fiat's management style so long, it's no wonder John Deere and Caterpillar throw CNH around like a toy. As CNH vertically integrates all their brands with Fiat supplied components, it gets to be a harder sell to traditional buyers. The Ag stores have been consolidating at even a more rapid pace than Construction, due mostly to the ongoing farm price slump.


I do have to give him one thing. He had more personality, and at least some sense of product importance. Plus, tons of spunk and hard work. He was obviously more lively and committed than the current crop of brain dead/group think CEO's that have advanced the last decade in America. He pushed trucks and SUV's when a U.S. CEO would have been all about electrification and alternative fueled self driving cars. When you are running the smallest company, there is less room for error. He seemed to know that.

20 years ago, his inability to pull most of his brands up to even mid pack in reliability ratings would have ended his tenure prematurely. Boy, do times change. Dodge now has a better chance of survival than Chrysler because of his green lighting of the stuff they charge confiscatory prices for. We will see how his highly leveraged empire does without him.

I may have actually liked him if he didn't work for Fiat.

[8E45E]

I wonder how the Lancia admirers in its home country feel about Fiat's letting it (almost) wither and die: http://autoweek.com/article/car-life/defense-lancia

Craig

[Milaca]

I was shocked and surprised to hear of Sergio being replaced as head of Fiat last Saturday morning, and this morning I was very saddened to hear of his passing. I was looking forward to what he would accomplish before his planned retirement date in April of 2019. Now I am curious as to what will become of the Chrysler division under new leadership.

[studegary]

I was shocked and surprised to hear of Sergio being replaced as head of Fiat last Saturday morning, and this morning I was very saddened to hear of his passing. I was looking forward to what he would accomplish before his planned retirement date in April of 2019. Now I am curious as to what will become of the Chrysler division under new leadership.

I think that the plan, while Sergio was still there, was to let Chrysler and Dodge wither away.

[Warren Webb]

I wonder how the Lancia admirers in its home country feel about Fiat's letting it (almost) wither and die: http://autoweek.com/article/car-life/defense-lancia

Craig

In 1980 I worked at a Fiat dealership in Torrance, Calif. Not one of my best but not the worst either. What got me was we had a brand new Lancia Zagato there that was a parts car. Parts were so bad being shipped that we had to go to that extreme. One day a tech took apart one of the troublesome electronic ignition boxes only to find inside was what appeared to be the same unit found in GM hei units! We ordered one for a gm car & an hour later the car was running again, at least until another customer's car needed something. Along with wiring that changed colors after connectors making troubleshooting a real challenge & things like a wiring connector located under the carpet on the l/f wheel well that happened to be where many drivers would rest their foot. Naturally the connector just pushed together & didn't have a snap connector so the drivers foot caused the engine to stop at inopportune times.

[Bob Andrews]

Personally I was a big fan of Sergio. The guy took on Chrysler with the intent to save it, where everybody else had been looking to strip it for usable parts. Talk to the government into way $6 billion loan at 19.7% interest and paid it back far ahead of schedule. He didn’t sit in the penthouse at Chrysler looking down on everybody, he took an office in the building with the engineers. And best of all, as a lifelong Mopar lover, he greenlighted Mopar performance projects, namely the return of the Challenger, with performance so high that I forced Ford and GM to step up their game is to keep up; and at present I would argue that Mopar is still the boss in that area.

I went and found this video of when he was on 60 minutes. To me, this video shows why I liked hi, and why I would have liked to have met him in person. Rest in peace, Serge. Job well done.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=815&v=h3ppoyWNN7s&ebc=ANyPxKpGgs53E0DYdsklfks1WzFRYhNUTAct5_5kIyuC0pbEJxJnc3l9kl8uvZC7kuDcjBlnQky7OA577ZBYtLEZodiqJCVlBg

[Kurt]

RIP Serge. You did a miracle at Chrysler. I'm still not sure they will survive the ultra competitive auto marketplace, but you have kept them alive for a few more years and at least right now making money. I have driven Chrysler products for 21 years. I got started with minivans. They aren't cool anymore, but you get a lot of car for the dollar spent. I have had mostly good luck with the first 3. All driven close to 200,000 miles. The latest I just bought, so I haven't given up on them yet.

[8E45E]

And best of all, as a lifelong Mopar lover, he greenlighted Mopar performance projects, namely the return of the Challenger, with performance so high that I forced Ford and GM to step up their game is to keep up; and at present I would argue that Mopar is still the boss in that area.

Sergio Marchionne had absolutely nothing to do with the return of the Challenger. The Challenger was planned in 2004 and appeared as a concept at the Detroit Auto Show in January, 2006, while it was still Daimler-Chrysler, and thanks to overwhelming public response, it was placed into production in early 2008, well before Sergio Marchionne was involved with Chrysler. We talked about it here: http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.c...us-Modern-Iron

If you care to read the history of Sergio Marchionne's involvement with Fiat and Chrysler in nearly all the tributes to him now making the news, you will read he didn't get involved until 2009.

Craig

[fargoguy]

Never let the Facts get in the way of a good story, Right Craig?

And I would argue that Ford has ALWAYS been in the performance game- Mustangs and Shelbys- the Mustang has always been there, while Chrysler took a break.

[sweetolbob]

I think we can discuss Sergio's contribution until the cows come home but, in reality, FCA did rather well under his guidance. Ram and Jeep contributed strongly to the resurgence as truck and SUV sales did to Ford and GM. He did try on several occasions to integrate with other large auto firms with no success and his support of several European makes that were not profit centers (Alfa Romeo for example ) was a sticking point with many inside and outside the organization.

That said, he did make FCA profitable on the whole and deserves much credit for that alone.

It will be interesting to see what happens under Manley from Ram/Jeep as they move forward. His promotion over the European counterpart could indicate a future much like Ford with Ram/Jeep as the profit centers and lesser non-profitable models disappearing.

Some thoughts on the future - http://www.autonews.com/article/2018...eep-marchionne

We shall see. Bob

[BobPalma]

Nice article on Sergio in today's Hemmings Blog:

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2018/07/25/remembering-fca-ceo-sergio-marchionne/?refer=news

RIP, Mr. Marchionne; a life well-lived. BP

[556063]

Sergio had nothing to do with Challenger's launch, but he did let happen or bless the Demon, Hellcat, etc. Allowing (or looking the other way) to let some of the old line Mopar guys to do their thing. The Challenger now has more special editions than you can count on one hand. One of them even drew my brother into Sergio's web, the Challenger T/A. This was the first new Mopar in my immediate family since 2006. It's amazingly visually true to the original according to my brother. I haven't seen it in person, he lives 1000 miles away. He bought it for his wife last September, and it's been recalled three times. She only drives 3000 miles or so a year. It had been on the lot for more than six months, and he drove a hard bargain for it. The one with the bigger Hemi, yellow and just like it, is still on the dealer's lot. He sends me all the hilarious communications begging him to buy extended warranty on it. He jokes if she drove it any more than what she does, he'd need the warranty. Challengers tug at my heartstrings, but aren't practical for me, and I couldn't live with the Fiat mechanicals/electronics.

As far as Sergio "Saving Chrysler" That platform is also what Charger and 300 are on. Very long in the tooth. And nothing in the pipeline to follow them. You can also point to the botched Dart/200 attempt. Simply rebranding undersized and underpowered Alfa/Fiat models for sale here. I knew where that was headed when the Avenger out sold them handily until it was dropped.

Not everything he did worked. He leaves a Chrysler/Dodge that really is just existing on almost 20 year old legacy product. The company may have returned to profit, but not because of any product moves he made at Dodge or Chrysler. Milking a legacy, unless it's a Jeep or "Ram". And when you boil it down, that's what he did. And, Fiat isn't much better product wise, and Fiat also NOT mentioned in the five year plan. His legacy will be Jeep.