Chrysler's Doug Betts Leaves Company After Another Bad Quality Showing

Oct 28, 2014 05:00 PM EDT | Matt Mercuro

Fiat Chrysler's longtime quality chief Doug Betts abruptly left the company on Tuesday, just one day after its brands performed poorly in Consumer Reports magazine's annual reliability rankings.

Fiat Chrysler confirmed in a statement that Betts, who was with Chrysler the last seven years, exited the company to "pursue other interests, according to the Associated Press. He has been replaced by Mark Chernoby, who will head quality for the global company, and Matthew Liddane, who will lead Chrysler Group quality in North America.

Betts, 51, joined the company in November of 2007 after more than 21 years of quality experience at General Motors, Nissan, Toyota and Michelin. He did have trouble fixing the company's longstanding quality problems however, and it constantly fared poorly in the Consumer Reports rankings.

The Dodge, Ram, Jeep and Fiat brands were ranked in the bottom four spots of 28 brands ranked by the magazine. Chrysler was the company's highest-ranked brand at No. 22.

Consumer Report's survey is considered an important factor in influencing car buyers in the U.S. Chrysler's brands have been at or near the bottom of the survey since 2009.

Company CEO Sergio Marchionne has shown very little patience when it comes to executives whose performances fall short of expectations. He has often changed his top managers since taking control of the company.

Toyota and its Lexus luxury brand finished one-and-two for the second year in a row in Consumer Reports' quality survey of the U.S. new-vehicle market.

Back in June, Jeep and Fiat were ranked at the bottom of J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study. In that study, the Chrysler brand ranked above average at No. 12, while Dodge ranked 21st, well below average.

Fiat owners reported 206 problems in 100 vehicles during the first 90 days of ownership, which is almost three times as many as Porsche, the industry leader. 

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