Revitalized Detroit makes bold bets on new models

Sergio Marchionne strode around the cavernous design studio at Chrysler Group LLC last month inspecting a soon-to-launch new compact car, the Dodge Dart, and offered a bold idea. "We are going to try to grab some share" in the small-car segment, he said, puffing on a Marlboro. Not so long ago, a Chrysler chief saying that might have been laughed out of the room. For a generation, the company and its two Detroit rivals, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co., all but conceded leadership of the passenger car business to Japanese rivals. While making pickups and sport-utility vehicles that Americans liked, Detroit produced cars that were often uninspiring and sometimes years behind on technology and quality.

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