Chrysler to prune vehicle models, dealerships

09 February 2008

Mumbai: US automaker Chrysler LLC will streamline its vehicle lines, to avoid overlap among brands, and reduce number of dealers by encouraging combined sales of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands.

Chrysler said it planned to stop production of some vehicles that compete with other brands and to become a smaller, profitable company.

Chrysler's vehicle line-up and dealer network could support annual production of 4 million vehicles, whereas it sells just about 1.5 million.

While the dealer consolidation would bring all three Chrysler brands under one roof, its president Jim Press said, production needs to be sized to sell about 2.5 million.

While Chrysler earlier said it would cut a few slow-selling models, Press would not say just how deep the cuts might be for the automaker.

"The product portfolio has to consolidate …We don't know how many models we're going to have. Nobody knows that," Press said at a JD Power and Associates meeting.