Don't laugh at this prospect. Back in the 70s there was a company pitching Chrysler their high performance diesel line. They had turbo 4 and 6 cylinder models and I believe they also had a V8. I had the opportunity to drive the 4 cyl CJ and the 6 cyl Cherokee several times and they were absolute screamers. They came off the line like my old Dodge Super Bee with about 425 hp. I was certain that Chrysler was destined to own the biggest of the big three title by 1980.
Their financial issues at the time , as well as several other factors , made them walk away from the deal. That also pretty much crushed the company that was producing the diesel engines. I'm not sure if they went belly up or if someone bought them, but they had a monster of a product and it just may have really changed Chryslers future way back then.
In any event , I wish them , GM and Ford the best of luck. They all spent several years doing some serious screwing up, but I (a Detroit boy) believe their products today can compete with the imports if the American public will give them a chance 
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Rick
With all due respect, I'm a little confused here. Chrysler did not acquire Jeep until 1987, when it purchased AMC for $2 billion. If you drove a pair of diesel Jeep prototypes in the 1970s, they would have been under the American Motors banner, not Chrysler.
With regard to Fiat, this isn't the first time Chrysler has partnered with a foreign manufacturer (Renault, Simca, Rootes-Hillman, Mitsubishi, and that awful Daimler thing). If this 35% deal enables Mother Mopar to build the stuff that's currently in the conceptual stages, I'm all for it. OTOH, Fiat hard starting was only the beginning - once it got going, a gem like the X1/9 would be plagued by rust, overheating, poor wet weather handling, and a propensity to not want to go in reverse. Let us not forget that the Fiat 128 was the basis for the Yugo as well.
