RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And we go now to Detroit, to the big international auto show. With all the carmakers vying for attention, the most beleaguered U.S. carmaker pulled off perhaps the most eye-catching spectacle. Chrysler paraded a herd of longhorn steer into downtown Detroit to get publicity for its new Dodge Ram pickup truck.
We called Chrysler's president and vice chairman Jim Press at the auto show to talk about that and more.
Mr. JIM PRESS (Chrysler): We wanted to show our new truck really is going to separate itself from the herd, but still it's just like a cowboy needs a really dependable horse, and they got a lot of publicity out of it as well.
MONTAGNE: Let me ask you, how much can you push this pickup truck knowing, as you know better than anybody, oil's hitting $100 a barrel, the U.S. pickup truck sales generally are down, trends pointing away from gas-guzzling vehicles to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars?
Mr. PRESS: You have to have a full portfolio of products, from small, very fuel-efficient vehicles, all the way up to large trucks that people use in their work. The full-size truck market, the SUV market, is still the largest single market of automotives sold in North America. And it's gotten more competitive.
MONTAGNE: Are these big pickups all about people who need them for business - contractors, farmers? I mean, how much of the pickup truck market is actually city people, teenagers, women with kids?
Mr. PRESS: You know, there are people who bought trucks that didn't need them. They bought them for - it's a cool thing to have. Those are the customers that are electing not to. And that's where the market is contracted. They're selecting other types of vehicles, crossover SUVs, or something else that might better fit their needs in a more efficient package.
MONTAGNE: Mr. Press, we spoke to you last year and you were in a different incarnation, president of Toyota Motors, U.S.A. Not only did you jump to an American company, but the most struggling of all the U.S. carmakers, also the first major American car company to be privately owned in about half a century.
Mr. PRESS: Well, first of all, it's not the most struggling. You know, I came and took a look at the company, and I found the reality is the bones of the company are stronger than the perception. We've made a lot of great changes, a lot of new products coming.
You know, we got the Journey this year, our all-new SUV. We've got the new Ram you've seen, our Challenger. We're coming out with it, it's already sold out. There's a lot of good things going on. In some way, the establishment doesn't want us to win.
MONTAGNE: One thing, of course, is that even last year at one point, Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli called Chrysler operationally bankrupt.
Mr. PRESS: That's true. He did say that. But what he was trying to do is to tell the associates in the company a sense of urgency. And that is that operationally, we weren't making money. And so we need to make sure that the company's expenditures and overhead are in line with the business that we're doing today, not the business that someday we would want to do in the future.
MONTAGNE: Back to Chrysler being a major American car company that's privately owned - could you give us an example of what it means on a day-to-day basis to be freed from the pressures of Wall Street?
Mr. PRESS: Yeah.
MONTAGNE: You're not necessarily freed from the pressures of public opinion, though.
Mr. PRESS: No.
MONTAGNE: Or the need to make money.
Mr. PRESS: No, we need public opinion. You need money. But what we can do now is we can move very quickly and be responsive to the needs of the market. We took a hundred thousand units out of our dealer inventory this last year. It's a big hit to cash flow. It resulted from about a seven-minute discussion between Bob Nardelli and Tom LaSorda and I.
MONTAGNE: Tom LaSorda, former CEO.
Mr. PRESS: Former CEO. He was with Chrysler, a longtime Chrysler guy. In any other company, that would be a three- or four-month project. Lot of resources, lot of trips across the ocean. Best result is fast and right.
MONTAGNE: What will Chrysler look like five years from now?
Mr. PRESS: It'll be efficient, international, global in scope. My goal is to stabilize the company, get a firm financial footing, and begin to grow the company.
MONTAGNE: You're looking to grow the company. This is not - your job is not to oversee...
Mr. PRESS: No.
MONTAGNE: ...the shrinking of Chrysler.
Mr. PRESS: No. This is the growing of it.
MONTAGNE: Thank you very much for joining us.
Mr. PRESS: Okay. Thank you.
MONTAGNE: Jim Press is president and vice chairman of Chrysler, speaking to us from the International Auto Show in Detroit.