Q&Auto: CEO Al Gardner, the new face of Chrysler

Posted by hpayne on March 31, 2014

Everything has gone international,” says new Chrysler CEO Al Gardner, when asked how the auto industry has changed since he came on board the company in 1986.

Nothing better illustrates that than Gardner himself.

He is the British-born head of a Michigan-based company that is owned by Italy’s Fiat. The youthful-looking 50-year old — he resembles Beck Bennett, the interviewer in those adorable “It’s Not Complicated” AT&T ads — comes standard with dry English wit. But make no mistake, after management stints in Boston, Vermont, California, and that most American of cities — Orlando — he bleeds red, white and blue.

“I am fully Disney-fied,” he says. “This is home.”

Gardner assumes huge responsibility in his new role: Making Chrysler relevant again in the midsize sedan market with an internationally-bred product: The all-new, Alfa Romeo-based, 2015 Chrysler 200. I sat down with Gardner at a 200 test drive in Louisville, Ky. to talk about “the new face of Chrysler.”

HP: Say I’m a Toyota Camry owner. Sell me the Chrysler 200.

Gardner: It’s a stunningly good-looking car. We take three years, we rip up all our designs, we’re going to build something that no one else can build. We’re going to put a 9-speed transmission in it. We’re going to put a decoupling, all-wheel-drive system in it for better fuel economy. We’re going to have a four-cylinder and a six-cylinder. We’ll give you 35 mpg or (the) raw power of 295 horsepower. You get the style, you get the craftsmanship, you get the elegance. Ford will give you a good looking vehicle and take it off an Aston Martin. We will not take it off a Maserati. We will give you something truly elegant in the midsize segment and then we will pack it with value.

HP: Quality is a key piece of this segment. Does the new Sterling Heights plant help the 200 compete with the Camry and Accord?

Gardner: It has to. You don’t build a brand new, billion-dollar plant if you can’t compete at that level. This is a long-term play, and the quality comes from a state-of-the-art plant. You can eat off the ground at this place. We have put our heart and soul in it.

HP: Ram is the gold standard of trucks. Japanese models are the gold standard of sedans. How does Chrysler become the Ram of the sedan segment?

Gardner: Honda and Toyota … build tremendous products but they don’t put in any character. They are fairly vanilla. You can beat these guys at their own game by — at the same price point — building (cars) with heart. That’s what Ram does. Jeep Cherokee does the same. It’ll take on a BMW because it’s built with that kind of value. The 200 is no different. We know how to do it — it just takes time, effort, and priority.

HP: Does the Alfa platform help give this car character?

Gardner: The Alfa lineage certainly gives it … performance since (the platform is) built for performance first. But it’s not the Alfa piece that’s going to make this succeed, it’s the American know-how (speaking as a Brit, naturally) that’s going to build a car for this part of the world. But without Alfa and Fiat we wouldn’t be here today.

HP: Ford talks a lot about a global car with different brands like Mondeo in Europe and Fusion here. Is this a global car?

Gardner: This was designed and built for North America specifically. We looked at going back into Europe, but the reality is that if you do that you have to change the front end on this car — make it taller — to meet Europe’s (pedestrian crash) standards. We didn’t want to compromise. We wanted to build this car for North America so you have the flattened, sporty-looking front end.

HP: You call the 200 “the new face of Chrysler.” How does the 200 inspire the rest of the lineup?

Gardner: The front end is what the image of Chrysler should be going forward — the floating badge, the beautiful silhouette, the headlights that pull everything together. As we look at replacing the 300, Town & Country, and future vehicles … there’s got to be lineage. We don’t have an easy flow from one vehicle to another. They don’t have to look the same but they have to know each other. Continuity and discipline in how we go to market is important. We do it extremely well in the Jeep lineup. This is a genuine departure to build something different.

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