Its too early in the morning for too much insight and verbosity, at least for me, but it is my humble opinion that Fiat will try to keep Chrysler as they are deriving great benefit from it. Fiat is worldwide, and does fair to middlin' in the ROW. Plus, they manufacture heavy and agricultural equipment as well. [MaSnart can tell you about that as I remember] They have never done well in the US due to several factors, not the least of which was the simple fact that their cars are NOT designed for Americans or our topography. Plus, in the mid to late 70s when the window of golden opportunity for small cars to gain a foothold in America was thrown open, they were experiencing reliability [and rust] problems on a scale theretofore unknown. [credit the rise and radicalisation of unions and the extreme left government at the time dictating steel being bought from Russia. At one point from the mid 70s thru the early 90s, Italy had the highest percentage of communist party members in the "West" outside of 'the iron curtain' nations] They also lacked a decent dealer/service/parts network and failed to invest in one. They, like many European makes. simply did not understand that America is a whole 'nuther thing, and we dont put up with a lot of stuff like waiting forever on parts, oil leaks, and overheating...
Fiat has long had engineering offices in Detroit - almost all of their emissions engineering has been done here as well as quite a bit of safety/crash testing also. And this after their exit from our market. They have historically also 'rented' lab space and facilities from Ford [in the 90s] , so now they have their own. The engineering prowess that Chrysler brings to the table, as well as facilities and dealer network in the world's largest consumer market simply cannot be overlooked.
The other thing that I think is key here is Jeep. The brand alone is worth billions; never mind the product. The Jeep line is the one thing that has kept Chrysler afloat for years [off and on] - Fiat would be insane to try and absorb it or water it down. Plymouth [wrongly imho] met its fate long before Fiat came into the picture. Dodge and to a limited extent Chrysler, have too strong of a presence to be eradicated I believe. Spinning the trucks off into "Ram" was an 'interesting' move tho...
So I dont think that they are gonna try and simply liquidate the nameplate. We will see more 'badge engineering' such as the Dart thats really an Alfa Romeo. That may not be a bad thing - Alfa has made some really great cars over the years and small-ish, performance cars that get good gas mileage are their forte. And when hussein's handlers make sure we have $6 / gallon gasoline, those ugly little Fiat 500s may just keep the dealerships and Mother Mopar alive for awhile.
I just hope they dont try and take a page out of Mercedes playbook and just gut us [ChryCo] then leave us to bleed...
