The car maker has a reputation for creating products that start out as hits - owing to edgy "gotta get one" designs - but that quickly fade from the scene. The once-hot Dodge Magnum sport wagon now takes more than 100 days to sell. Same for the recently-introduced Dodge Nitro which went from "hot" to "not" in just a few months.
The fact that Chrysler has managed to maintain a relatively flat 11-to-13 percent market share over the last few years is largely thanks to fleet sales, said Jesse Toprak of Edmunds.com, rather than genuine consumer demand.
Meanwhile, Chrysler product owners, in a 2007 survey by J.D. Power and Associates, rated Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep products lower than almost any of their competitors (Jeep scored lower than any other brand).
Chrysler representatives acknowledge that there are problems, and they say the company is working quickly to fix them. At the same time, Chrysler doesn't want to lose its edge in exterior design or stray too far from hard won brand positions.
This will not be easy. It will, however, be absolutely critical to the future of Chrysler. Here's a look at what Chrysler is doing right - and doing wrong - with its three brands.
