• Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, August 24, 2010 10:35 AM

Chrysler and partner/parent Fiat hope the subcompact Fiat 500 becomes a sales and pop-culture hit along the lines of the Mini Cooper, Jeff Bennett reports, but they are certainly driving against the traffic in thinking about establishing a new brand in the U.S. Its chief rivals, General Motors and Ford, are axing brands.

But Sergio Marchionne, CEO of both Chrysler and Fiat, says that Chrysler's brands do not overlap the way that Ford and GM's did. "Jeep is unique, Dodge is a widely popular brand and Ram is about trucks," he says.

In addition, dealers are balking at the expense of building separate showrooms for the Fiat. "They are going to have to present a compelling story and product to back me investing at least $1 million to build a new showroom," says one. Other dealers, however, say they are intrigued and plan to attend a presentation in Detroit next week to learn more.

Marchionne, meanwhile, says he will shop the idea around outside the Chrysler dealer network if he doesn't get sufficient numbers from within.

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