Confession #36: Bueller? Bueller? Bueller's selling a Honda?

Car commercials were always kind of a "who's-who" of famous actors doing voiceovers. Did you know James Spader's been the voice of Acura commercials for years? Jeff Bridges has been lending his to Hyundai ads too. And the voice of Mercedes-Benz? That's Jon Hamm, or, as most people might recognize him, Don Draper from "Mad Men." And Draper's partner on the show Roger Sterling (John Slattery) spent the early part of last year posing in Lincoln ads. 

That's all been topped this Super Bowl season by Ferris Bueller. Err ... Matthew Broderick, as Ferris Bueller, playing Matthew Broderick. It's kind of confusing really. Broderick is the star in a Honda CR-V commercial, but he's acting like his character from the fantastic 1986 film "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." Only this time, Broderick is a middle-aged actor who plays hooky from work to drive around LA in his CR-V. Is that sad? Well, yes. It is.

Confession #32: You’d never feel the same way about a microwave as you do about a Swiss Army knife

2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland
(Chrysler Group LLC photo)

I met someone the other day who described his perils in car shopping. It didn’t start well, as he went out, hungover and somewhere in the Boston suburbs where the accents get thick, on a windy Saturday morning. He wandered into some dealerships, looking at some lightly used cars and then questioning their smells. Then he tried some new cars and came away unimpressed by just about everything he drove. But coming from his Porsche Cayman into something large and with four-wheel drive, I’d probably feel similarly. He did, however, like the Jeep Grand Cherokee, but came away feeling a little cold about it, perhaps like it was a little too sensible despite its go-anywhere capabilities.

The Grand Cherokee was a founding member of the ’90s suburban grocery getter, the SUV, and perennial also-ran to the Ford Explorer. Both kind of lost their way and popularity in the 2000s, but recently reinvented themselves. Jeep took the Grand Cherokee back to its roots and made something that was just as good on-road as it was off. Yes, you have to select a few option packages to get the Grand Cherokee “trail rated” these days, but it’s still as capable as any Jeep before. What’s more, it finally has the quality of materials befitting of a $40-50,000 car, which is what the upmarket Overland models cost now.

Confession #7: The Italians are coming

The badge may say Chrysler or Dodge, but in five years the car you rent from Thrifty or Dollar or whatever will be American on the outside and Italian on the inside.

Fiat may own just 20 percent of the Chrysler Group, but it's already going to have a profound effect on the future lineup of the smallest of Detroit's Big Three.

The highlights are this: the brightest points of the Chrysler product line are staying in place. That means Jeeps like the Grand Cherokee and Wrangler, the LX cars (300C, Charger and Challenger) and the minivans (Grand Caravan and Town & Country) aren't going anywhere. In fact, Fiat's rumored to be exploiting them, like their rumored plans to put a future Maserati or Alfa Romeo on the LX chassis and a future JGC-based Alfa SUV (pray that doesn't happen).

But the sore points of Chrysler -- basically everything else -- is going under Fiat rule. That eventually will mean smaller and more fuel-efficient cars with better build quality.

Autocar's Hilton Holloway has a point. There's a reason to be skeptical about the plan because it's going up against what GM and Ford have going in the American market. And now that the General has denied Magna the chance to share custody of Opel, that means the Germans will play more of a role in making sure there are world-competitive in the small car arena.

The only real distinction to Chrysler's new five-year plan is the Fiat 500. The car that made the new Mini look mundane will be saving the bacon of selected Pentastar dealers late next year and could prove to boost sales traffic like the British icon did to BMW centers. If anything, it could suddenly attract a whole new market to Chrysler dealers and maybe some more people will consider products such as Jeeps again.

Frankly, I still have a secret admiration for some Chrysler cars, like the Challenger and Jeeps, and a respect for more mainstream ones like the Charger and minivans. But there's no cachet to the Chrysler or Dodge brands that will make me lose my affection for Subaru, VW, or anything else European for that matter. If Fiat can't do what Daimler ultimately refused to do, there won't be anything left of Chrysler.