Fiat Wants To Rebadge Dodges as Alfa Romeos?

Is it just me, or are automakers on a no-common sense streak lately? Fiat has succeeded in it's goal of a partnership (really, takeover) of the Chrysler Group, LLC. The deal has given them access to the United States market in a way that would have taken Fiat years and billions of dollars to achieve. They didn't get Opel, Saab or GM Latin America but they did get Chrysler. 

Now, what are they going to do with it? They've instituted some reforms that coupled with the leaner post-bankruptcy Chrysler, should have helped the two to be successful.

Then I hear this idea and I think they don't really have any idea what they are talking about. Take Dodge, a brand that has suffered from mismanagement and lack of a clear focus of what it wants to be. Now take Alfa Romeo. A company that succeeded for years in international markets and that is now debuting a beautiful Italian design language that started with the 8C Competizione . You and I see totally different brands with totally different histories. Fiat sees rebadging. 

“Dodge is the American muscle car, while Alfa Romeo is the European muscle car. How we dovetail these two brands is very important,” Fiat's CEO Sergio Marchionne told Autocar.

“The level of competition between these two brands is tremendous because they are both going after the same customer.”

Huh - American muscle is equivalent to European "muscle? The Grand Caravan, Nitro and Journey are going after the same customer as the MiTo? Apparently Fiat think so, and wants to bring Alfa Romeo models over to the United States as Dodge branded vehicles and vice versa. This isn't pure speculation either because we have a quote direct from the CEO. To me this is showing no understanding of the image and history of the two brands. Use Dodge's dealerships but please, don't bring great product like the MiTo over as a Dodge. Imagine the crosshair grille on the MiTo? I shudder at the thought.