Chrysler planning to scrap five models

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By TIM HIGGINS/Detroit Free Press

DETROIT — Chrysler LLC could cut as many as five nameplates within the month as part of its quick and dramatic makeover as a newly private company.

It’s “highly likely” Chrysler’s top brass will approve plans to kill vehicles this month, a person familiar with the situation told the Detroit Free Press. About five vehicles are being considered for elimination, but the source would not reveal which ones.

The boardroom drama could help explain why the UAW was unable to win the same sort of future-product guarantees in its tentative labor deal with the Auburn Hills, Mich., automaker as it did in its deal with General Motors Corp.

The product review comes as the automaker is seeking to get its tentative agreement with the UAW ratified by rank-and-file union members.

GM has already won ratification of what analysts see as a potentially transformational contract that can give Detroit automakers labor costs nearly equal to Toyota Motor Corp.’s non-unionized U.S. factories.

But Chrysler union local leaders have complained that unlike the GM contract, the proposed Chrysler deal fails to reclassify lower-paid temporary workers as permanent hires and lacks the kind of plant-by-plant outline of possible future products listed in the union’s description of the GM agreement.

Bob Nardelli, who became Chrysler’s chief executive officer in August, shortly after Cerberus Capital Management took majority control, indicated in a September speech that the company could reduce its model offerings.

A Chrysler spokesman declined to comment.

Auto industry analysts predict the Chrysler Pacifica, Dodge Dakota, and Jeep Commander and Compass could face elimination. A company insider included those vehicles among a list of vehicles facing review. The source and another familiar with Chrysler’s design pipeline also questioned the future of the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Durango.

The Chrysler Sebring is being considered for a complete makeover, though if that is not feasible, the car will probably be eliminated, the company insider said.

Yet another person familiar with Cerberus’ thinking said the private equity firm questions why Chrysler’s lineup includes the Dodge Durango SUV, which has seen its U.S. sales slide 30 percent this year.

A Cerberus spokesman did not respond to an inquiry regarding this story.

“I think the Durango is dead in the water. I won’t order a Durango anymore. I told my guys don’t ever order another Durango,” said Carl Galeana of Galeana Automotive Group.

The week Nardelli was made Chrysler’s CEO, Los Angeles Times critic Dan Neil welcomed him with a review of the Sebring convertible, recommending that he drive a 2008 Limited model with a retractable hardtop. “See, Bob, that’s a bad one.

“Not just bad, but a veritable chalice of wretchedness, a rattling, thumping, lolling tragedy of a car, a summary indictment of Chrysler’s recent management and its self-eradicating product planning, all cast in plastic worthy of a Chinese water pistol.”

Chrysler has already made one high-profile change to the product plan this year.

In July, about two months after the Cerberus acquisition was announced, Chrysler pulled the plug on plans for the Chrysler Imperial, which was going to be a full-size luxury sedan built on the same platform as the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger and Magnum.

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Detroit Free Press business writers Sarah A. Webster and Joe Guy Collier contributed to this report.