General Motors management, investment banks Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, and the U.S. Treasury practically raced GM's initial public offering to market this week.
But up in Auburn Hills, Mich., CEO Sergio Marchionne and Team Chrysler have taken a more patient approach.
It's clear that Chrysler is feeling scrappy again.
U.S. market share is up. Morale is, too. The new vehicles are promising.
Meanwhile, Chrysler management -- led by Marchionne and a team of seasoned Chrysler veterans -- is confident in its patient strategy to re-prove its products and finances to the world, long before it asks investors to buy its stock again in late 2011.
Sales of the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee -- the first new vehicle out of the post-bankruptcy, Fiat-controlled Chrysler -- are up 77 percent since its July launch.
Sixteen other new and upgraded models, test-driven by journalists in San Francisco this month, have put back on display Chrysler's design and engineering prowess. Radically more attractive interiors, nimble engines and well-selected exterior modifications are coming.
"This is just the beginning," said Ralph Gilles, Dodge president and CEO.
Both GM and Chrysler, which took quick trips through government-backed bankruptcies last year, may be making the best decision for themselves because they face fundamentally different circumstances.
For example, the federal government took more equity, or stock, in GM (60.8 percent) than in Chrysler (less than 10 percent).
The largest portion of Chrysler's aid came in the form of about $8.2 billion in loans from the U.S. and Canada that carry interest rates of more than 10 percent.
"It's going to be years before the government gets completely out of GM, but when they do launch Chrysler's IPO, they will want to sell off all of it," said Sheldon Stone, a managing director of restructuring adviser Amherst Partners in Birmingham, Mich.
And Chrysler plans to be ready for that day -- with proven products, a proven management team and proven earnings.
Chrysler earned a $239 million operating profit in the third quarter, an amount that narrowed its net loss of $84 million after interest paid on the loans from the U.S. and Canadian governments. Its U.S. market share rose to 9.6 percent, from 9.4 percent.
Marchionne has said repeatedly that he wants to show a full year of profitability before trying to shed government ownership. He also wants to renegotiate some of the costly debt because it's preventing Chrysler from showing even larger profits.
The attention generated by GM's IPO has given Chrysler time to focus on its most important need: building better products.
"Chrysler has really flown underneath the radar," said Wayne State University law professor Peter Henning, an expert on securities law.
But now it's ready to bring the fruits of its labor to market.
This month, dozens of journalists are driving 16 all-new or redesigned Dodge and Chrysler brand models. Their impressions will create a positive or negative buzz that will then influence consumer choices.
Early next month, an all-new Dodge Durango and Charger go on sale. The Durango shares its underbody with the Jeep Grand Cherokee and is assembled at Chrysler's Jefferson North plant on Detroit's east side.
The Charger is a more solid and ambitious performance sedan that may be able to take sales from competitors.
Also arriving in showrooms next month is a Chrysler 200 midsize sedan, replacing the underperforming Chrysler Sebring.
Klaus Busse, a Mercedes-Benz expatriate who chose to stay with Chrysler's ship through its darkest storm, led a sweeping transformation in the 200's interior. The exterior design is better, but the car will sell itself from the inside. Materials with a richer look and feel, along with tasteful use of chrome, have replaced a hodgepodge of plastic and cheap-looking elements in the old Sebring.
Initial feedback on redesigns under the Fiat-controlled Chrysler have been promising.
Sales of the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee, Chrysler's first all-new post-bankruptcy vehicle, jumped 77 percent since it launched in July. In October, sales surged 291 percent, to 12,721.
It's important for Chrysler's potential investors because each Grand Cherokee generates, on average, a profit margin of $8,000-$10,000, according to Joseph Phillippi, principal of AutoTrends, a Short Hills, N.J., consulting firm.
The Durango has similar profit expectations.
Management is considered a strength at Chrysler.
While GM has had four CEOs in the past 20 months, Marchionne, who chose to lead Chrysler and Fiat himself rather than install another Chrysler CEO, has been an unwavering constant.
That's especially important after the change at Chrysler in the past decade or so.
After joining with Daimler-Benz AG in 1998, Chrysler was sold to Cerberus Capital Management in 2007 and rescued from its deathbed by the federal government last year.
What's more, at age 58, Marchionne's still young enough to stick around. And large investors know he turned around Fiat, which in 2004 was in nearly as much trouble as Chrysler.
The company now must compress the inevitable lag time between making better vehicles and when consumers give them credit for doing it. And convincing the automotive press won't automatically convince heavyweight investors to jump on board.
"The smaller government role will help," said Linda Killian, principal of Renaissance Capital, an IPO research firm in Greenwich, Conn. "The fact another auto company (GM) was willing to do it first will help. But they have to establish these new products."
Longtime Chrysler watchers don't doubt the company can make yet another comeback, as it always has before.
"Chrysler has always been the gritty little fighter," Henning said.
