2013 Dodge Dart, Future Jeeps Provide Opportunities for Fiat Brand

Just the Facts:

• Even with the launch of the new 2013 Dart, Dodge's days of attempting to become a global brand — a strategy pursued in the Daimler Chrysler days — appear to be over as new corporate parent Fiat envisions a much different role.
• CEO Marchionne says Fiat will sell a version of the new Dart in China.
• Further, Dodge will become a "top hat" donor to the Fiat brand and will share its platform architecture in Europe.

LONDON — Dodge may be about to launch a major new model with the 2013 Dart, to be unveiled next month at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show as a successor to the Caliber, but its days of attempting to become a global brand — a strategy pursued in the Daimler Chrysler days — appear to be over. New corporate parent Fiat envisions a much different role for Dodge: a springboard for the Fiat brand, both in the U.S. and overseas.

Speaking at the Fiat Panda's European launch last week, Fiat-Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne said, "We have no plans to build the Dodge brand globally. There are some markets where we will continue to sell, like Latin America and Argentina, but we have very limited international ambitions. But Dodge will be a 'top hat' donor. In China, Fiat will sell a version of the Dart."

Both the Dart and future Jeeps will also have much more in common with Fiat under the skin, thanks to the widespread use of a new architecture developed primarily for the North American market called CUSW (for C-segment, U.S., Wide) that has been derived from the platform that underpins the Alfa Romeo Giulietta.

Fiat badly needs a replacement in Europe for its painfully slow-selling C-segment Bravo hatchback and, says Marchionne, "our assimilation with Chrysler in 2009 has given us an opportunity. We've turned the business around and will make more than $2 billion profit in 2011." That profitability is giving the group the firepower to roll out a plan that will see it launching no fewer than eight models based on the CUSW architecture, including the 2013 Dart and several new Jeeps.

"Previously, we've never had competitive C- and D-segment models" in Europe, Marchionne says. "The C and D (segments) are more than half of the U.S. market's 14 million cars, and the C-segment is the biggest in the U.S. If Fiat tried to do (a C-segment model) in the European context alone, it would fail. Industrializing these models in the U.S. allows us to come back to Europe."

The C-segment is also one of the biggest in Europe, dominated by the Ford Focus, Opel Astra and Volkswagen Golf, but 35 years ago Fiat was also a big player with its ground-breaking 128 sedan. The 128's success has never been repeated, however, with the succeeding Ritmo (Strada in the U.S.), Tipo, Stilo and two generations of Bravo each selling fewer copies than their predecessors.

Marchionne hopes the new wave of sister cars from Dodge and Jeep — and Fiat — will reverse that unfortunate trend.

Inside Line says: Just two years after it bought into Chrysler, Fiat is using its leverage to develop major new models for Europe.