No big sellers in sight to save troubled Chrysler

Chrysler's U.S. sales are down 25 percent through September, the worst decline of any major automaker. Losses are mounting: well over $1 billion for the first half of the year. Things are so bad that Chrysler LLC wants to shed a quarter of its salaried work force, and its owner, Cerberus Capital Management LP, is talking with General Motors Corp. and others about a sale.

Of Chrysler's 26 models on sale in both 2007 and 2008, only four have sold more this year than last, and three of those are small-volume niche vehicles such as the Dodge Viper. The company's market share has dwindled from 16.2 percent in 1996 to 11 percent this year, according to Ward's AutoInfoBank.

Analysts say there are no cutting-edge designs or potential big sellers in sight to rescue the maker of the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands.

The smallest of Detroit's three automakers, once-brash Chrysler took risks and gained big rewards for vehicles like the 300 full-size sedan in 2005. The company invented the minivan when it introduced the Plymouth Voyager and Dodge Caravan in 1984. The Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries "K-car" sedans of 1982 helped earn the money to repay $1.5 billion in government-guaranteed loans that saved Chrysler from going under in 1980.

"If Chrysler has another hit on the way, I am unaware of it," said David Lewis, professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, who followed the auto industry and taught business history for 43 years until retiring earlier this year. "Oh, for the days when the minivan was an instant homerun, and Chrysler owned that highly profitable market segment."

With little in its product pipeline, a chilly economy and the worst U.S. auto sales slump in 15 years, analysts say Chrysler may not make it on its own, and that's why Cerberus is shopping the company to GM and others. Chrysler also has a lineup tilted toward trucks and sport utility vehicles when customers are buying mainly fuel-efficient cars.

"In many ways this really looks like the end of the road for Chrysler in the way that we know it," said Aaron Bragman, an auto analyst with the consulting company IHS Global Insight. "They are going to face a change in ownership, that is a certainty. From what we hear, product development is on hold because of the uncertainty."

Chrysler's lackluster products, said Bragman, can be traced to the nine years it was owned by Germany's Daimler, which approved chintzy interiors and cars with more noise and vibration than the competition.

"The truth is Daimler did them no favors," said Jim Hall, managing director of 2953 Analytics of Birmingham, Mich. "They approved products that previous Chrysler management wouldn't have approved if they were completely drunk and beaten crazy."