>> when sergio took over at chrysler, he banned the top executives from talking to the media. for nearly a year the company went dark. today we get to shine a light on what is going on at chrysler. joining me joe dehner, chris barman and clause busse. i want to get them to talk about the projects they are working on, but i want to get a sense of

whatner working on right now, especially after going through bankruptcy. i want to know how it's run differently now that it's ownb d by daimler. >> we'll be back in a moment to give you an insider perspective of what is going on at chrysler. >> from our studios in the motor city, this is "autoline." here now is john mcelroy. >> welcome to our discussion here in the studio all about things going on at chrysler. joining us are joe dehner, head of ram and dodge design, chris barman head of e-segment and clause busse.

chris, let's start with you. what is e-class vehicles? >> they are the rear wheel drive sedan program. >> i was very surprised when i saw the new charger because it's very much different than before. i thought these cars were going to be a minor facelift where you change the headlights. this is significant sheet metal change and interior change. why did you guys go to so much trouble? >> this is the second generation. we wanted to revamp it and make it more competitive. we looked at the best vehicles in the luxury segment, lexus, 460 as aspirational competition and brought a lot of that element into the product. >> speak to that. since when that chrysler set b.m.w. and dodge as a target to

go after? >> why not? we are looking for the spirited driving that the bmw has. we brought that into the vehicle, into the charger itself and looked into the chasse to see what we could improve it. we started from the foundation of the rear wheel drive dynamics to make the ride spirited, more neutral and a lot of fun to drive. >> joe, you are involved in the exterior design. >> even though you got a chance to change the sheet metal, talking about the charger and chrysler 300, it's an evolutionary design. what was the thinking to evolve it rather than come up with something totally different? >> i consider both cars instant

icons when they hit the market. on the dodge, which i'm more familiar with, we had an opportunity there to mind some of the history of the past, the charger 1968 to 1970. that's what we as designers wanted to do. t there was not intended to be called a charger. that was an 11th hour decision. >> you were just doing a car, marketing came and said, we'll call this is charge? >> that's correct. this gave us the opportunity to do what we wanted to do, knowing that it was going to be a charger and mine the design history of the past. >> that's an amazing story. had you known originally, you would have done the design differently. >> quite a bit differently. >> did you pull the old chargers into the studio for inspiration, or how did you work that? >> we went into the historical

collection. we have a 1968 red charger, black vinyl top that we referenced. the rest is history. >> talk a little bit about the design cues on the charger that people can look for that tie into the earlier one. >> the biggest design cue is what we call coke bottle. back in the '60s we call it the design double side. >> wwe integrated that into the design. the second part is the scallops on the body side and hood which were lifted in a modern way, if you will and applied to the new design. >> i can't wait to see the sales figures start showing up in the showroom to see how the public takes to it.

klaus, you have made dynamic changes in the vehicles being designed. what's different -- i don't want to get you into trouble, but why has it improved so much, i guess, is the kind way to put it? >> we got a lot of internal help to realize that what we had done in the past was not competitive enough. help from people like you, the media and our customers had to sit down to find out what wrong iin the system. when you go through a bankruptcy, you have to ask yourself what we can do to change as a company? interiors were on the top of the list. we had to do better world class interiors. >> i'm sure one of the first steps is to spend more money on better materials. >> it's a little bit of that,

but also being more clever and passionate about it. before we did an okay job doing interior and exterior. we have to create a team that doesn't want to do anything but exteriors. we found those people. they have the dedication it takes. that makes the difference. the money helps, but the passion and quality of people we have working on it. >> i'm sure when you have people dedicated to the interior, they can monitor what the competition is doing. >> they are experts. they know -- an a.c. outlet, how should it work? how can you hide the vein gaps? you have experts that go in there. we had people sitting at a conference, and we had to hold them back so that one moment when the sunshines into it and

shows it, they are obsessed with quality. it goes all the way into the details. >> chris, klaus mentioned something interesting. when you go through bankruptcy, what did it feel like as an employee at chrysler knowing that your company is going into bankruptcy? >> driving in in the morning and listening to the radio to all the bad news. you walk into the studio and see all of the models and great stuff you were doing, and you thought, its noise. the people that are here want to be here. they want to be in the auto industry. they are dedicate today the product, so the energy took off from their. the people put their heart and soul into what you see. i think it shows very well. >> joe, i'm sure you have seen up and downs in the industry. bankruptcy is totally difference

than a bad year in a recession. >> it's a slippery slope you don't want to go down. i happened. as chris pointed out and klaus would agree, we are "the insiders" because we touch the future product every year. >> we see the light at the end of the tunnel. it's all about the product. we get to see and feel and touch that. it's strictly background noise at that point. >> to the end of the way they offered the buyouts, right? >> anyone of us could have walked away with a nice chunk of money to say, there is no future for the company. i'm proud to say i have not lost a single person on my team because they are so passionate about what they are working on. the charger, wrangler, 300, all of those products were done in the studio during those dark days. we were so focused on it.

at one point you learn not to listen to the new in the morning or the e-mails or web blocks in the evening. stay focused on the job and you succeed. >> klaus, you are german. did you ever think what did you get into? >> i did not, but my family did. my parents, even my wife asked me, what are you doing with my daughter? >> it's nice to show not only friends and family, but all the people out there, this is why we stayed -- not only me, all of us -- stayed. we like chrysler. we like living here, working here. >> chris, one of the reasons i like having all three of you on here is chrysler went dark. even in chrysler you say dark. you didn't talk to the people.

you have not given us teasers. tell us about that. what is it like working at chrysler versus what it was before? >> everybody's ideas are flowing. there is a lot of information internally. we went dark, but even though we did, we had confidence that we don't need to tell anybody else. we know what we are doing. our product is solid. we focus on that. refocus is internally. information flows now better than it ever has. we joke about that we have cross trained each other. joe liked it when we talked about the tricoat red on the dodger, and how it's a beautiful color. >> joe tells you about arrow. he can tell you about arrow and everything done to the design to help fuel economy. when you have the whole team understanding each other's needs

and how to cover for each other to make the best product, you are firing on all cylinders. >> you say information is better now. what is different? >> there are cross functional teams that get support and representation from all discipline. that's the biggest thing i have noticed. we are quick to make decisions too, and we stick to them. >> i think also there is more coastiveness -- cohesiveness. with the launching we have been doing every other week with top management, the head of quality, head of manufacturing, head of purchasing, head of engineering, we have to report to them as a whole and talk about the tradeoffs of okay, we have has launch date but we have a quality irv.

how will we blangs at the end of the day to make sure the customer is protected and it doesn't matter whose group it is. it's what's the best thing for the product and customer. >> chris, this is an echo for me an echo back to the early '90 when chrysler had a platform team. is that getting back to that? >> not in the design world. we are brand centric now. we used to have studios set up per platform where you had a charger and something else in the same studio. from the brand standpoint, there could be cross pollination. >> they end up looking the same. >> yes. now we are brand centric, and i think it's become better that way. >> klaus you are doing the same with interiors?

>> slightly. it wasn't differentiating chrysler from the dodge, it was quality materials and the passion factor. now that we have mastered that and prove fod the public that we have mastered it, it's a consideration but too early to talk about it. right now it's quality across the board. although i believe when you look at our product, we can define them by brand. >> do you get the sense that you are getting thecep the sense thu have a lot of product coming out. 16 vehicles coming out, unprecedenced by an automaker, but i hear you people are working like dog, never worked harder in your lives. is this true, and can you keep the pace up? >> future product development

will help. the big bang theory with the product launching, it's a great thing to experience. as we go forward, yeah, more resources will be the key there. >> we'll have the resources where they need to be at the right time in the period. we now start to redeploy people to where they need to be on the next future product coming. if there are more future actions, we'll have a few people back to work on that. >> we couldn't continue to be the first and last in the office anymore because you would be in the office 24/7. at any given point someone is in the office from my team and your team. the management style changes to empower people not to tell them what to do. right? i trust you to do the job. go with it. let me know if there's a problem. it let's us go home at

8:00 versus midnight. >> i gather the 16 projects were an enormous effort. i wonder if if you will get to a more natural product cadence. >> i know you have another coming too. >> the thing we don't want to fall into is normal. we have to do what is right at the right point in time. that's the competitive advantage -- read the market. what do we need to do for any one of our brand in the showroom to be flexible to that. it doesn't have to be a new product. you can take significant actions on a program or project with limited resources and be impactful with that. i don't know that there is a normal anymore. >> you don't tell a race driver to take a lap easy because that's the lap he will crash. you want to stay focused, give it all. the team is trying to do that.

we have to be careful, don't want to burn them out, but right now we are running. you see what's happening. it's reenergying the fire. we are not slowing down. >> talk about how you are separating the brand from a design engineering standpoint in the like. i find it fascinating that you have the dodge and chrysler in the studio next to each other and that's not happening. it seems to me that chrysler is more brand focused than in a long time. >> it starts at the top of the ceo's with brand respective brands. in the studios, i follow ram and dodge. ram and dodge have separated. ram continues with the ram's head mascot. dodge continues with no mascot and its own identity. that presents a good opportunity for dodge to shed some of the

visual baggage of the trucks. >> you had to have design cues from the truck. >> and the crosshairs on the grill was the biggest which i t. ram will continue on with the crosshair. dodge will be more serial. it will not be as prominent and mechanical looking. that's probably the biggest opportunity we have for dodge as we separate the brands. >> how about for you? you are e class dodge and chrysler. how do you handle the brand differents or when you get into hard core engineering, does it not matt center matter? >> it does matter. each product has its own d.n.a. we have to understand that and understand who is going to buy a charger versus a 300.

they are both sedans. when they walk into the showroom they'll gravitate toward one or the other. we don't want it to be just cosmetic one looks better. the charger is different from the 300. >> how do you tune a chasse so a dodge is different from the chrysler. >> we focused on the handling element of the charger. we wanted it to feel light and nimble. we may have traded that for ride. >> your ride may be harsher, feel it flew the seat of your pants. on the chrysler side, we wanted it to be more comfortable, more touring, go down the road. not as quick in the turns as with the charger, very nimble, but more of a comfort of the ride so the customer appreciates

the features themes, the safety features, active front head lamps, heated seats, cool cup holders. the experience where the guy getting the charger is like, i care about the driving and performance. i want it to be fun to drive. >> we separate those thinking who wants to buy that car. >> klaus, same question. chrysler seems to be brand focused. how does that manifest itself in the design studio? >> it creates a fantastic opportunity for the designer because you have multiple brands to let your different ego-s come out. jeep is jeep. it's like coke in the soda industry. there is one brand, everyone knows that. we'll have fun with it. dodge, easy. we have separated from ram. we can have fun with it, show

attitude. it doesn't have to live up to its big brother, the ram truck. there is fantastic product coming out too. chrysler, a lot of people see the biggest challenge. for me, it's the biggest opportunity. it's fun to work on it. chrysler, from my perspective coming from a different continent on the outside, it's an aspirational brand. i grew up with the 300 looking on it. that's why i came to chrysler. all of this looking to europe for interior quality. that's not the right thing for us. there is a rich wealth of american craftsmanship in this country. there is such a wealth of high-end american product we can look at it. it has a different product than european craftsmanship.

then we have high end product like airport and so end. if you look at what this country has to offer and condense that into one product, it's chrysler. >> i imagine you have to bring your suppliers along too. iit's not just chrysler. you have to deliver that. what are you doing to make that happen? >> we have trained suppliers to live to the same expectations that are delivered to premium oem's. not so much as in the past. the key is to get the know how internally. supplier executes for us. the know how, how we get that, what are the play books? what are the gaps, we are dependent on that supplier. >> another thing, we are bringing players in earlier,

aallowing them to look at the design early on. they can introduce it and where to do the gating and tool and the party loons and where to optimize the gaps, versus in the past, we are done. here you go. we are engaging them to say, this is what we want to the design to look like. they may say, klaus, can you change this radius here, that will help to get the product better. >> i imagine the virtual world has changed the way you do cars today. >> it has. we use that as a tool. it will probably never replace real world testing, but it has helped us as a tool to get our designs up to speed. plus it allows us to look at multiple themes for our executives and product committee

so they can have a wealth of material to look at and not just look at one or two themes, but three or four virtually and pair them down to make 3d models for them. >> can you talk to each other virtually? >> yes. we have -- i know i have at least three video conferences a week on the same subject matter that.'s been happening from day one, basically. >> from a hard core engineering standpoint too, do companies match up? once you get into the computer world of things? >> yes, there is full flow of exchange. to that point, it doesn't have to be face to face. you don't have to take the trip. you can use virtual tools without having to make the trip to europe from america and back. >> what is the next step in chrysler?

i know you can't give away future product, but what is your gut where you go from here? >> from our point of view, we are about to complete the first step bringing back high-quality materials, great execution and establishing ourselves as someone having great interior and quality. now that we set the foundation, we can have fun with technology and fun with the interiors. that's all i can say now. as excited as i was two years ago, i am equally excite today get to next year and the year after to show the next line of products. >> that's a great line to end up on. thanks for being here to talk with me. i'll be back in a moment with closing thoughts. some people wrote chrysler off

for dead. i always thought the company could stage another come back. last year they managed to increase sale, boost market share and have an operating profit. this despite it had essentially no new product in the showroom. that tells me the fundamentals are strong. if it could do that with a product line not very competitive, imagine what could happen with the new 16 products this year? you can be sure we'll follow chrysler's progress all yearlong. that brings us to the end of this program. for all of us here at "autoline," thanks for watching. we'll see you next week.ó(ww