<\/p>\n
Everything has gone international,\u201d says new Chrysler CEO Al Gardner, when asked how the auto industry has changed since he came on board the company in 1986.<\/p>\n
Nothing better illustrates that than Gardner himself.<\/p>\n
He is the British-born head of a Michigan-based company that is owned by Italy\u2019s Fiat. The youthful-looking 50-year old \u2014 he resembles Beck Bennett, the interviewer in those adorable \u201cIt\u2019s Not Complicated\u201d AT&T ads \u2014 comes standard with dry English wit. But make no mistake, after management stints in Boston, Vermont, California, and that most American of cities \u2014 Orlando \u2014 he bleeds red, white and blue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am fully Disney-fied,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is home.\u201d<\/p>\n
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 \u201cthe new face of Chrysler.\u201d<\/p>\n
HP:<\/b>\u00a0Say I\u2019m a Toyota Camry owner. Sell me the Chrysler 200.<\/p>\n
Gardner:<\/b>\u00a0It\u2019s a stunningly good-looking car. We take three years, we rip up all our designs, we\u2019re going to build something that no one else can build. We\u2019re going to put a 9-speed transmission in it. We\u2019re going to put a decoupling, all-wheel-drive system in it for better fuel economy. We\u2019re going to have a four-cylinder and a six-cylinder. We\u2019ll give you 35 mpg or (the) raw power of 295 horsepower. You get the style, you get the craftsmanship, you get the\u00a0elegance HP:<\/b>\u00a0Quality is a key piece of this segment. Does the new Sterling Heights plant help the 200 compete with the Camry and Accord?<\/p>\n Gardner:<\/b>\u00a0It has to. You don\u2019t build a brand new, billion-dollar plant if you can\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n HP:<\/b>\u00a0Ram is the gold standard of trucks. Japanese models are the gold standard of sedans. How does Chrysler become the Ram of the sedan segment?<\/p>\n Gardner:<\/b>\u00a0Honda and Toyota … build tremendous products but they don\u2019t put in any character. They are fairly vanilla. You can beat these guys at their own game by \u2014 at the same price point \u2014 building (cars) with heart. That\u2019s what Ram does. Jeep Cherokee does the same. It\u2019ll take on a BMW because it\u2019s built with that kind of value. The 200 is no different. We know how to do it \u2014 it just takes time, effort, and priority.<\/p>\n HP:<\/b>\u00a0Does the Alfa platform help give this car character?<\/p>\n Gardner:<\/b>\u00a0The Alfa lineage certainly gives it … performance since (the platform is) built for performance first. But it\u2019s not the Alfa piece that\u2019s going to make this succeed, it\u2019s the American know-how (speaking as a Brit, naturally) that\u2019s going to build a car for this part of the world. But without Alfa and Fiat we wouldn\u2019t be here today.<\/p>\n HP:<\/b>\u00a0Ford talks a lot about a global car with different brands\u00a0like Mondeo<\/a>\u00a0in Europe and Fusion here. Is this a global car?<\/p>\n Gardner:<\/b>\u00a0This 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 \u2014 make it taller \u2014 to meet Europe\u2019s (pedestrian crash) standards. We didn\u2019t want to compromise. We wanted to build this car for North America so you have the flattened, sporty-looking front end.<\/p>\n HP:\u00a0<\/b>You call the 200 \u201cthe new face of Chrysler.\u201d How does the 200 inspire the rest of the lineup?<\/p>\n Gardner:<\/b>\u00a0The front end is what the image of Chrysler should be going forward \u2014 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\u2019s got to be lineage. We don\u2019t have an easy flow from one\u00a0vehicle Everything has gone international,\u201d 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\u2019s Fiat. The youthful-looking 50-year old \u2014 he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14588,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14587\/revisions\/14588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/images.intellitxt.com\/ast\/adTypes\/icon1.png\")
<\/a>. Ford will give you a good looking vehicle and take it off an Aston Martin. We will\u00a0not<\/i>\u00a0take it off a Maserati. We will give you something truly elegant in the midsize segment and then we will pack it with value.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0to another. They don\u2019t have to look the same but they have to\u00a0know<\/i>\u00a0each 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"