Future uncertain for Belvidere Chrysler plant

The Chrysler assembly plant in Belvidere is profitable and centrally located.

Will that be enough to sustain the plant’s operations and keep its 1,700 employees punching the time clock for years to come? No one knows.

Mayor Fred Brereton was among city officials from the Midwest invited to Chrysler Group’s Auburn Hills, Mich., headquarters to hear a seven-hour sales pitch Wednesday from CEO Sergio Marchionne and other top executives on how they will reinvigorate the Chrysler brand.

“They’re getting back to quality,” Brereton said Thursday, when he returned home. “They realize they have to improve on the quality of the product, design of the product and service.”

As part of the company’s five-year plan, the Dodge Caliber, Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot lines will be discontinued in 2012.

But this year, the Caliber will receive a new interior, colors and wheels to make it more competitive in the short term; the Patriot and Compass are scheduled for major modifications in 2010.

Brereton, who met with the media in the City Hall council chambers, took the presenters to be “sincere” and called “aggressive” their five-year plan to improve the quality of Chrysler products and the automaker’s image, and repay the government’s $15.2 billion loan.

But the fate of the plant and of Chrysler also lie with the consumer, he said: “If people believe what they are telling us, they buy the product. Then we’ll be successful.”

Chrysler seemingly is on the right track. The automaker had $5.7 billion in cash at the end of September, up more than $1 billion since the company emerged from bankruptcy protection in June.

Mark Williams, executive director of Growth Dimensions, a nonprofit economic development corporation serving Belvidere and Boone County, accompanied the mayor to Auburn Hills.

He, too, could offer no promises about the future of the Belvidere plant, but “I heard from several different people while we were there that we are in a good position.”

Chris Green can be reached at (815) 987-1241 or cgreen@rrstar.com.