Talk about a clash of cultures. It will be fascinating, in kind of the same way a cockfight is fascinating, if you can ignore the blood, to see how Chrysler fares with its new partners. If a company run by Fiat execs, the union, the federal government and what’s left of the Chrysler management can survive, anything is possible. The goal is to start producing new Chrysler models using advanced Fiat technology within a few years. The last time Fiat was in the American market, the last term you would have heard would have been “advanced Fiat technology.”  The Fiats of that era spent most of their time in the shop. It’s a sign of how far behind the American auto industry has fallen that an American manufacturer must rely on the technological advances of an Italian auto maker to survive.

Topics: auto industry, bankruptcy, Chrysler, Fiat, Obama