Chrysler's Bling King

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To chart that direction, Chrysler handed the sketches for the 300 to Gilles, a maverick designer who as a teenager was inspired by race cars and dreamed of designing for Chrysler. Born in New York City into a Haitian immigrant family and raised in Montreal, Gilles was drawing cars at age 8. In the early 1980s, his sketches caught the attention of an aunt, who wrote to Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca for advice. A few weeks later, a letter urging Gilles to attend design school arrived from K. Neil Walling, then Chrysler's design chief. Following a stint at an engineering college in Montreal, where Gilles says he spent too much time "drawing cars in class," he eventually enrolled in Detroit's College for Creative Studies.

After graduating in '92, Gilles landed at Chrysler, where he rose fast. At 31 he was appointed one of just seven studio chiefs. What got him noticed? "Probably my mouth," he says. "I've been pretty outspoken from Day One." While designing the interior of the Jeep Liberty, his first production vehicle, he got in a fight over chrome ornamentation, which other executives were convinced was too pricey. He recalls a meeting that wasn't going his way. "I got really emotional," he says. "For the first time in my life I made an impassioned plea to the marketing guys that this is something you have to pay for. If you don't, you're really screwing up the car." He won, and chrome is now a design element in several Chrysler models, notably the 300C.

The billion-dollar question is whether Chrysler can sustain the momentum on the 300 and its sister cars. The company is the king of one-hit wonders; its PT Cruiser won critical accolades, but Chrysler failed to capitalize with related models. The firm's loss of its innovation lead in minivans to Honda and Toyota is a legendary tale of Detroit arrogance. Chrysler's operating results have fluctuated sharply in recent years, leaving Wall Street skeptical that the firm's latest plan to introduce 25 new vehicles over three years will generate consistent profit growth. Chrysler executives say revenues from pricier vehicles, such as new Town & Country minivans equipped with seats that fold into the floor, are driving its revival. The company also has high hopes for a new Dodge Dakota and Jeep Grand Cherokee, due later this year.

What concerns analysts like Prudential's Michael Bruynesteyn is that Chrysler's mix of all-new or redesigned vehicles will be meager next year compared with that of rising rivals such as Honda and Nissan. And Chrysler has shown a penchant for resorting to costly incentives at the first whiff of sagging sales. Looking ahead, Zetsche says, "profitability is our No. 1 guiding principle," even if that means accepting a smaller share of the market. As for Gilles, he's hard at work on the next generation of Chrysler minivans. He won't breathe a word about their design. You can assume, though, that dubs will be sold separately.