Fiat Chrysler Spends $1.5 Billion on Next-Generation Ram; Hands Chrysler 200 December Death Notice

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles knows what models bring home the bacon, so there won’t be many corporate tears shed over its decision to axe the Chrysler 200.

Yesterday, the automaker announced $1.48 billion in funding to retool its Sterling Heights, Michigan assembly plant, paving the way for the next generation of Ram trucks. To free up space for lucrative pickup production, FCA just sent the 200 on the long walk to the gallows.

Ram production will move to Sterling Heights from the Warren assembly plant to beef up Ram production. (A Warren announcement will come later, FCA says.) Next-generation models arrive for 2018, and FCA can’t have a problem product stemming the flow of vehicles from its surging truck brand.

So, the automaker will pull the plug on the 200 in December. With its sales in the gutter, the 200 is that guy on the life raft who doesn’t do anything useful, but drinks a lot of water. FCA plans to bash the similarly underperforming Dodge Dart with an oar in September, making room at its Belvidere, Illinois plant for Jeep Cherokee production.

FCA just sank more than $1 billion into its golden child, the staggeringly hot Jeep brand. Who can blame them? If it sells like happy promises at election time, an automaker would be stupid not to throw cash at it.

By Christmas, FCA won’t have a compact or midsize car in its stable — a first for the company, and something that would have been unthinkable just a couple of decades ago.

CEO Sergio Marchionne’s plan to outsource small car production to another automaker hit a brick wall when no one showed up to dance. With no partner announced, FCA’s non-truck/crossover/SUV lineup will consist of the aging LX platform full-sizers and the Fiat 500.

Just our two cents: TTAC writers agree that Sergio should court Mazda for the honor of building his castoffs. (Feast your eyes on our concept of a Mazda3-based Dart replacement.)