Chrysler slips to fifth in US, may take over Lancia name
December 7, 2009 by Tim Beissmann
November’s sales figures have guaranteed that Chrysler will slip to fifth behind Honda in the US market for 2009.
Honda has sold 1.044 million vehicles in the first 11 months of 2009, leading Chrysler by an unassailable 200,000 units, but the American brand is confident it is on the right track.
“We are taking the steps that are necessary to have a good foundation and to build consumer confidence,” said a Chrysler spokeswoman.
“We are on the right path. There will be short-term pain to get to our long-term goals.”
Last year Chrysler held off the Japanese manufacturer by 25,000 units and Honda America executive vice president, John Mendel, said everyone was finding the industry difficult at the moment.
“We are all in the same hospital, and some of us are more critical than others.
“Everyone is hurting. We cut Formula One. We cut 200,000 units of production. It was the right thing to do, but it was painful,” he said.
The news comes just days after Fiat-Chrysler CEO, Sergio Marchionne, hinted that the Chrysler brand name could replace Lancia in most European markets.
“There is no doubt that, outside a limited number of markets in Europe, Chrysler is going to be the global brand,” he said.
But Marchionne insisted that the 103-year-old Lancia name would not disappear entirely.
“We need to be very careful that we don’t destroy Lancia’s roots, to find a way to preserve the identity of Lancia through an agreement that commonises as much of the portfolio as possible (with Chrysler).”
In its home in Italy, 93,000 Lancias were sold in 2008 while Belgium and France also recorded strong figures.
Last year 29,000 Chryslers were sold in Europe compared to 103,000 Lancias.
Another possibility is to make the Lancia name an upscale derivative of Chrysler, like Abarth is to Fiat, but that is expected to be unpopular in Italy and result in a sales backlash.
Marchionne said his company would be in a better position to make a decision after the introduction of the new 300C, Sebring and Voyager models in 2010.
“We need to see product, we need to see positioning and based on that we can make a decision,” he said.
A decision on the future of the Chrysler and Lancia names is expected by the end of next year.
(with Automotive News)
No tags for this post.
I’d much rather a Lancia badge over a Chrysler badge. Doesn’t seem like a great idea to me.
+ 1 here…
I agree with the above comment.I’d much prefer a Lancia badge. That being said, i’m not surprised in the slip for Chrysler. They have a lot of work ahead to regain any position of leadership.
“Regain” implies they lost leadership, but they never had it.
Chrysler is truly irrelevant in the motoring world now.
Not only that, but they haven’t really been relevant for over a decade. It’s becoming painful to watch this once great company die a slow death.
God that new Delta is STUNNING!!!! I wouldn’t mind a piece of that action!!!! :D
Agree with most of the comments here. Lancia have a great niche product offering with some clever engines MultiAir etc.
Better off building the Lancia brand across europe and keeping the Chrysler brand for the North American market.
There are more lancias sold in Italy this year than Alfa Romeos whith less than half the model product range.
What is this guy smoking? How could swapping ‘Lancia’ for ‘Chrysler’ in Europe possibly achieve anything but euthanasia for both brands? He may as well swap the Fiat badge for Plymouth. Or Alfa Romeo for DeSoto. Down at the betting shop, the odds for survival of the Fiat/Chrysler conglomerate just went out to 20:1.
Lancia these days are nothing more than a brand name, most of their current products are pretty ordinary anyways. As long as Alfa Romeo is safe, I don’t mind.
I have a soft spot for the Lancia name and I think it should be preserved. But it’s sales figres show just how week it is. In 2008 Chrysler sold more 300 models than Lancia did for its entire line. Simple math like this dictates that Lancias, in one form or another, will become more like Chryslers. And to kill the Chrysler name would be corporate suicide. The more one looks at Fiat the more one sees that it needs Chrysler as much as Chrysler needs Fiat.
1978, many readers were not even born at this time… Fiat was in the U.S., Lancia, it was barely here…. I was a young light infantry airborne LT. at West Point New, York… Young and dumb was I, I bought this really neat Lancia Beta Coupe… sliding roof, electric windows, shifter on the floor, 1.8L double over head cam engine (FIAT), and it was a screamer in the urban driving area… the brakes, would stop on a dime… but within the first year, rust was showing through. The electrical system really sucked… My Mazda Rx4 was more maintenance free, and it too was a real screamer… the Lancia timing belt, if you did not change it at 18000 miles, you had better have a tow truck ready… the exhaust system after 2 years, the bolts and springs were falling out of it… exhaust head noise was horrible… Independent rear suspension, it broke on the right rear, over $1000 in 1979 USD and 4 months waiting on parts… door panels coming apart within 3 years… the leather seats were cracking within 2 years… and the clutch cable, stretched beyond adjustment within 2 years… the dash was cracking within 3 years…. and at that time, the 1.8L, if you didn’t adjust the valves, or if the belt slipped, I could guarantee you that you would be replacing valves… The Bosch alternator, BBQ’d the regulator twice in 3 years… Worst of all, the warranty was horrible… it took forever to get your car fixed… Parts availability was despicable. I could repair a John Deere tractor faster… The Lancia Zagato, it was a gorgeous coupe, but so way underpowered… and Lancia Beta wagon, it won the ugly contest, I would have rather been seen in a Saab…
Was I a happy camper… that should be an easy answer… after 4 years of ownership, American Express, and Master Card told me that I had shelled out almost as much money in maintenance and repairs as I had originally paid for the POS… and now they want to re-badge a Lancia as a Chrysler??? OMG… this will kill any Chrysler loyalty that was built over the past 100 years…