faraday ff91

Tesla’s tough future (and Musk’s likely response)

August 14, 2018 David Zatz 0

Elon Musk rose from riches to more riches by being one of the creators of an online payment system. It was not a “save-the-world” project, but an opportunistic one. Since then, his main legacy has been the Tesla electric car company, which has made a profit in just two quarters […]

Mike Manley, FCA CEO

Words for Mike Manley, now in charge of Fiat Chrysler

August 1, 2018 David Zatz 2

Congratulations, Mr. Manley — or is it Mike? — on taking over Fiat Chrysler. I admit I don’t know you well, since we met just once (you didn’t seem impressed; I guess my digital recorder exploding didn’t help). It’s clear you’re driven by both customers and business issues, and that […]

Camp Jeep demo

Making sense of Fiat Chrysler, from Dodge to Maserati

July 16, 2018 David Zatz 1

For many years before Fiat arrived, Chrysler’s brands were poorly defined and overlapped each other. Marchionne, who oversees seven different brands, immediately started working on clarifying them — with effects that took years to become apparent. There are easy brands — Ram makes pickups and commercial vehicles; Jeep sells crossovers and SUVs, […]

maserati trofeo

Meet the V8-powered Maserati Levante Trofeo

June 18, 2018 David Zatz 1

Maserati has already announced its next step in crossovers — the V8-powered Levante Trofeo, designed to spark more interest in a vehicle that hasn’t gained quite as many sales as it was supposed to. The official launch was at the New York Auto Show, accompanied by thunder and lightning no […]

1956 Chrysler car

FCA to phase out both Fiat and Chrysler?

May 30, 2018 David Zatz 1

FCA is set to announce its next five-year plan (or four-year plan, depending on the source) tomorrow — but Bloomberg’s Tommaso Ebhardt has been talking about what’s in it today, over the radio and in print. In essence, the plan is mainly more of the same — Chrysler being restricted to […]