A Resurgent Chrysler Says It Is Here to Stay

By BILL VLASIC
NYT

DETROIT — A year ago, Chrysler didn’t have a single new vehicle to display at its hometown auto show, and rival executives were taking bets on how long the smallest and most troubled of Detroit’s three automakers would last.

Now it is looking like the obituaries were premature. After stabilizing sales in the United States last year, Chrysler is in the midst of a product blitz that company executives and industry analysts say should help it pay off its government loans and re-emerge as a public company this year.

Chrysler’s chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, said Monday that the company was gaining traction with new products after subsisting on older models in the aftermath of its government-financed bankruptcy in 2009.

“I haven’t gotten any questions yet today like, ‘Will you be here next year?’ ” Mr. Marchionne said on the opening day of media previews at the North American International Auto Show here. “There were some severe doubts that we could execute what we promised.”

(More here.)