Is Sergio the worst car maker CEO ever?

IMO, Marchionne must be the worst CEO ever to head a major car company. He's a complete JOKE of the industry. Now delaying the cars he said Alfa and Maserati "needed". Can't anyone at Fiat / Chrysler get their acts together?

Alfa Romeo Giulia and SUV production delay


Maserati also falters as Fiat decides to review and re-order vehicle launches

Alfa Romeo will delay the sales launches of two key new models, according to sources, in a further setback for the struggling Fiat Chrysler Automobiles brand.


Maserati setback

Marchionne said on the Oct. 28 call that the continued weakness of imported luxury vehicles in China had forced a reassessment of FCA's strategy for Alfa, but Max Warburton, an auto analyst at Bernstein, said Maserati’s falling sales may have prompted Marchionne to re-examine his strategy for Alfa.

"It's a bit odd to start blaming China for a fundamental change in the plan for Alfa," he said. Marchionne is probably shocked by the speed of the deterioration in Maserati’s demand. "Maserati was the dry run for Alfa and it has not gone to plan," Warburton said.

Maserati has been hurt by slowing demand in the U.S. and China, its two largest markets. The brand’s global vehicle sales fell 22 percent to 6,916 in the third quarter.


Even on the eve of the Giulia preview in June, analysts were skeptical about Marchionne’s ambitious plans for Alfa. Bernstein’s Warburton said in a June 18 investors note that the Giulia will eventually go on sale but “we remain unconvinced that it will be followed by a significant expansion of the model range.”

“Fiat has promised numerous re-launches for Alfa Romeo in the Marchionne era. New products and bold volume targets have come and gone,” Warburton said.

Richard Hilgert, an auto analyst at Morningstar, said Marchionne’s 400,000 sales target is over-reaching. “I would be impressed if the brand sold 200,000,” he said.

Said Hilgert: “I think Marchionne set an overly-lofty target as a shock treatment to a patient in cardiac arrest. The idea being to get an immediate dramatic response, but his plan for 400,000 units in 2018 would have the patient immediately get up and run a 5-kilometer race.”

 

Ughh. This is bad for Alfa. They need to strike while the iron is hot with the buzz around the 4c. Wait another year and people will have forgotten Alfa and moved on to the usual German brands.
They need some lower priced sedans, so you can move Fiat to Alfa to Maserati. Fill in those gaps with reasonable offerings and soon. And scrap the SUV's/crossover.

 

I am not at all surprised by this "reassessment" of strategy. It was just a matter of time before Maserati's problems started showing up. They had some pretty aggressive sales targets for a product that is mediocre at best when compared to its competitors. Once the fanboy buyers were tapped out, sales had to take a hit (corruption crackdown and general economic slowdown in China does not help either). Fiat Chrysler can do all the financial engineering that it may want to but at the end of the day it is a car company and if it does not make great cars it is not going to do well. We have seen this story repeat again and again (in all kinds of industries).
Ferrari got it's valuation because of one reason and one reason alone, it makes great cars!

 

I think the guy is a stooge, but worst ever?

 

I would agree that he may not be half as good as he thinks he is, but to be fair lets look at how the car industry has changed over the last 15 years (some of this is the same reason I said two years ago that the Viper would be gone). Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, and Audi have all expanded their model offerings, all of them now offer everything most buyers want with better established dealers (if anyone has had experience with a Fiat dealer I do not have to explain), and dealers used to dealing with the type of buyer that can afford higher end models. You add in Tesla and McLaren, AM, and Bentley, not to mention Ferrari and Lamborghini and you have a pretty big pool with not a lot of people that can afford the price of admission. I think it was only a matter of time before Maserati started to loose its luster, The Mayor is right about the fanboys, and when you are building sedans to go up against BME, Merc, & Audi, they better do more that just look better and have an Italian sounding name. That will only get to so far in the car business, and they have already gotten as far as that will take them. Resale value and features may not matter that much to the guy writing a 300k+ check for check for a Ferrari, but it does matter to the guy taking out a loan on a 50k sedan. Making more cars than dealers could sell did not help that value at all. And saying lets make a SUV does not solve the rest of your problems. In the end I would be very surprised if Alfa succeeds, and Maserati ever gets to the numbers he has said they will. So is he the worst ever, I am not in a position to judge that, but he is definitely guilty of making some foolish mistakes.

 

Mayor-the worst ever? That unquestionably has to go to the vw criminals, and there are people who are claiming that piech created the mentality/Corp culture that led to the current mess. This will end up costing vw billions.

At least sm has put scuderia Ferrari on the right path. As for Maserati the plans were too ambitious and the marketing of all the cars has been poor. The 4c should have been a lancia stratos for this generation and they should have done a new delta to go up against the golf. Alfa should have come in with a new spider, sedan and coupe. Maserati needs the new Alfieri asap. BUILD QUALITY is what they need across the line. Fun driving cars are useless if they fall apart while you are driving them.

 

Peter DeLorenzo's weekly column autoextremist.com has been critical of Mr. Marchione since day 1.
He hasn't let up yet.....
Rants - Autoextremist.com ~ the bare-knuckled, unvarnished, high octane truth...

 

That blog makes me laugh, but he is a bit irrational at times. M did help save Chrysler/FIAT and he is trying to save Alfa, in a sometimes half ass way. I do not like his idea that Ferraris and Maserati's should be so big. They have gained a lot of weight since his take over. He likes giant sports cars.

 

Nothing about Mr. DeLorenzo's column is ever subtle.
That's what makes it so fun to read.
I don't always agree with him, but you can't ignore him.

 

Excellent point.

 

The organization reminds me of the USPS.

Service is worse than ever and prices are higher than ever yet rather than fix their core business they expand into other products and services insuring a perpetual state of mediocrity.

He should be in government...He would fit right in.

 

Thanks! keep the 4c updates coming....

 

Marchionne is a business man, and from what I have read on the guy quite skilled at what he does. More than likely he looks at Ferrari in a different way than most of us here at FerrariChat. It is a means for him to make more money and the directors, board and share holders happy. I think it is to early to judge him in the handling of Ferrari, possibly after one year some here may have ammunition to back up their reasoning.

 

TURIN: Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles will halt production of its Maserati Ghibli and Quattroporte sedans at a plant near Turin
during the first week of November to adjust output to market conditions, a company
source said on Wednesday.

Around 2,000 workers at the Maserati plant in the Grugliasco factory will be placed on a temporary jobless scheme between Nov. 2 and 8, the source said.

 

VW in addition to the tdi fiasco now has to recall 1.8 tsi gas engines due to possible camshaft failure. Vw is a mess. That said, I'm pissed that Alfa is delaying the Giulia but if they need time to get it right so be it; let's not forget this chassis is going to be the backbone for a whole slew of models so don't rush it if ts going to be half-arsed due to a rush to release.

 

And they had lots of other technical failures past couple years; high oil consumption 1.8 and 2.0 TFSI engines, distribution chain failures 1.4 TSI engines, failing turbo's 1.4 TSI, etc.

VW is probably paying the price of wanting to be the biggest too quickly.

Exactly, it needs to be good.

 

Hi,

Not to get too off topic, just wondering if the timing of Piech's (supposedly pushed out) departure had anything to do with the storm that emerged shortly later. In any case, Sergio would seem to be head and shoulders above the guys at VW.

Just my two cents

Ramin

 

I wouldn't give Sergio too much grief yet, he brought back Fiat which has not been on these shores since 82, Alfa is somewhat back but obviously not enough since 95. I have an Abarth and I picked up a 500x for my daughter, the 4C is definitely on my radar, none of this would have been possible 4yrs ago. I'm happy for now, but am disappointed that a Giulia will not be avail come June when my wife's lease is up. May have to look at the new Jag unfortunately.

 

Hows the abarth? How's the 500x? I agree re the jag-anything but a 3, a4 or c class. A dime a dozen in the ny area.

 

worst ever?

well let's see, Fiat forced GM to pay them $2B to cancel the "Fiat put", and GM subsequently went bankrupt, so he clearly can't be the worst...

 

Let's add some perspective to this. In the Q3 Maserati's sales "fell" 22% to 6,916 units, in 2012 Maserati's entire yearly production was 6,288.

 

Well the Abarth as I am sure you have read just never fails to put a smile on your face. Only have 13k miles now, but all 100% trouble free. My commute is only 12 miles to Armonk down rte 22 and I always look forward to the drive. Another 25hp would be nice, but for what it is she's a pisser. I'm 5'10" 165 and it does not feel small to me at all although people at work will often say how can you drive such a small car.

500x Trecking we gave to my daughter in Aug, perfect car for her as it's safe and is just different enough to be fun. Have not had the chance to spend a lot of time with it as she is a junior in college, but I can say that it is solid, quiet, and very tossable on these back country roads. The NAV, Bluetooth,stereo are all great and actually work. 9 speed tranny comes in for plenty of criticism, but it does learn habits and I actually like it...70 on the highway and in 9th gear is pretty amazing IMO, but then I'm from the days of 3 speed trannys. I also have a Hummer, but will definitely look at the 500x Abarth version when it comes out...the X is a neat little crossover that I could definitely live with on a daily basis. Now to just get a 4C and an Abarth X as my daily and I will be a happy man.

 

And the U.S. gave him Chrysler/Jeep.

 

The worst? Nah, I give that title to Roger Smith of GM. He lost HALF of GM's market share in 10 years. Now that takes talent.

Jimmy

 

The Ghibli has been pretty much a disaster. Sergio wanted 75K cars a year. He's not even getting 1/4 of that. By any measure, FAIL.
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