How Chrysler's Dodge Dart Missed the Mark

In an appearance on 60 Minutes last March, Chrysler Group Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne left little doubt about how much was riding on the success of the automaker’s new Dodge Dart. The vehicle, the first Chrysler product based on a model made by its Italian majority owner Fiat, was supposed to free the U.S. company from its longtime reliance on trucks and sport-utility vehicles by giving it a small car Americans would covet. Any serious carmaker unable to succeed in the compact-car segment is “doomed,” Marchionne told the show’s viewers. Nearly a year later, after a disappointing debut that saw Dart sales of just 25,303 in 2012, according to researcher Autodata, chastened Chrysler executives say it will take more time to prove their mettle in small cars.