As often happens in FCA financial presentations , the Q&A session following Richard Palmer's walk-through of the charts was the most interesting part. This time, FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne said that smaller cars will remain in the product mix, but won't be built in the U.S.

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Mr. Marchionne said that he expects the U.S. to be "de-carred" by the end of the first quarter of 2017, but said that, contrary to recent reports, FCA had progressed in its quest for an outside automaker to produce new compact and midsize cars.   "We’re making every effort to replace both the Dodge Dart and the Chrysler 200 with equivalent products on a basis which is much more economical to us than it is today.”

The conversion of U.S. manufacturing to all utilities and trucks won't have a negative impact on FCA activities in America, Mr. Marchionne noted, but it could marginalize some brands (presumably Chrysler and Dodge).

Mr. Marchionne said that it is important for the company to remain a player in passenger cars; while the car market has shrunk, they were still over 40% of total light vehicle sales in the US for the first half of the year.

Mr. Marchionne also said that FCA is controlling its sales to daily rental fleets, which dropped from 80% to 75% of fleet sales in the second quarter of 2016.