Chrysler puts its hope in its new models

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JEREMY HOBSON: Chrysler says it lost $84 million in the third quarter — about half what it lost in the second quarter. The company’s raising its outlook this morning saying it’ll have an operating profit for the year overall.

Marketplace’s Alisa Roth reports.

ALISA ROTH: Chrysler did post a net loss, but it had an operating profit of $239 million. What happened is its having to pay very high interest rate on loans from the U.S. and Canadian governments which is pushing its numbers into loss territory. What’s really driving the success though is vehicle sale. Worldwide, they were down a bit during this quarter, but in the U.S. they were up 20 percent. Bill Visnic is Senior Editor at Edmond’s autoobserver.com. He says a few vehicles have really helped.

BILL VISNIC: Chrysler’s stalwart models right now are starting to come through for the new Grand Cherokee — completely redesigned — has really helped them increase their profits.

Chrysler is supposed to be rolling out a whole new line of new or refreshed models over the next few months. But Visnic may not be new or different enough to really turn the company around once and for all.

I’m Alisa Roth, for Marketplace.