Myth # 1: The United States car industry is failing, because Americans are demanding small cars and not buying big cars.

Look at the sales data for April 2009:

609,024 SUV’s and Pickups sold

vs.

149,822 small cars sold

That’s a factor of 4x more SUV’s and pickups sold than small cars.

(by the way, the Toyota Prius, which is often used as the gold standard example for what American car companies are missing… isn’t even among the top 20 vehicles sold in the United States.)

Myth # 2:  Fiat has “small engine technology,” according to Obama, that Chrysler does not have, and needs in order to turn things around. (and, therefore, this justifies just giving away an American car company to a foreign company.)

In reality, Chrysler already has hybrid technology, and also has the capabilities to develop a compact car.

Chrysler is failing, because it is losing market share, and the company has no hits (and no hits in the pipeline).

The Chrysler brand does not have a single vehicle in the top 20 vehicles sold.

And, even in the SUV and pickup truck segments, the competition is killing them.

For example, The Chevy Silverado and Ford F series each outsell Dodge Ram by nearly a factor of 2x.

Chrysler lost the pulse of the American consumer, and focused on numbers (Cerberus is a hedge fund, after all), rather than on passion and design.

Fixing that focus will turn things around — not Fiat’s “small engine technology!”

Sales data source here (WSJ).