IME and that of many other owners, Chrysler’s quality was a perception issue more than a reality. There quality did not make huge improvements which is what Marchionne falsely believes. Consumer perception of the brand improved with new ownership, but that will be short lived.

As far as Mercedes they did exactly what Fiat is doing. They bought Chrysler to increase profits and market penetration of products produced outside the U.S. Mercedes bailed because they do not understand the U.S. market well as even their luxury models demonstrate. Fiat will pull the same deal in a few years when they are unable to sell enough Fiats with Chrysler/Jeep/RAM name plates.

There are many naive people in the world and they are the ones who believe that Chysler’s product quality just magically became wonderful on the cars designed and manufactured by the same people who have been doing this work for many years before and after Fiat bought Chrylser. There was no major quality issue to magically improve from, it was a perception issue.

Marchionne is naive if he thinks consumers won’t soon see thru the perceived “dramatic” quality improvements in the Chrysler/RAM/Jeep brands. They have been decent brands for some time and nothing since Fiat bought Chrysler has changed the quality level substantially. It’s all perception. Wait until customers get some run time on the Fiat based products or try to get service parts… THAT will be a reality check.