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The Chrysler Sebring (top), and its sister model the Dodge Avenger (bottom), occupy two key market positions in the ranges of their respective brands as they span the “mid-size” D-segment, one the best selling in the market.

Details of Fiat’s plans for Chrysler are beginning to emerge, with news feeding out that an array of ageing models, including the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger, will be given facelifts to keep them fresh, as Fiat struggle to keep the U.S. automaker’s sales from collapsing before a swage of new Fiat-based models can be introduced. In the huge push to turnaround Chrysler that is now swinging into gear, Fiat has also revealed that its first in-house-developed products for the Pentastar brands will be introduced in late 2011, well ahead of projections so far that would have seen new Fiat-based models kicking off in the showrooms in 2012, meaning that a huge all-round push will be required to get new models through the development cycle as far as possible.

The new Chrysler Group board met last Friday to discuss a five-year product plan that will be unveiled in early November, with the key issue facing Chrysler being how to boost sales of its current older and uncompetitive models during the lengthy period it will take to develop and bring a comprehensive range of new models into the showrooms. Marchionne is also set to brief the U.S Transport Department's Auto Task Force with his plans.

The Chrysler Sebring, and its sister model the Dodge Avenger, occupy two key market positions in the ranges of their respective brands as they span the “mid-size” D-segment, one the best selling in the market. Neither model has made much impact since their introduction in 2006 and 2007 respectively and they have both seen an alarming tailing off of their sales over the last year. Last month, the two models combined achieved just 40k sales during the “cash-for-clunkers” bonanza which was one-sixth of what the U.S. D-segment leader, Toyota's Camry, managed during the same period.

Replacement models will be based on Fiat’s forthcoming ‘LWB C-Evo’ architecture, also known as ‘D-Evo’, which will underpin the replacement for the Alfa 159 sedan and Sportwagon, due in 2012. D-Evo is effectively a stretched version of the new C-Evo platform which will debut on Alfa Romeo’s 147-replacing ‘Progetto 940’ next spring. C-Evo is itself a comprehensive development of, and replacement for, the ‘Compact’ platform now used by the Fiat Bravo and Lancia Delta, although the only carry-over section is the pedalbox, as C-Evo features all-new suspension, floor and crash structures.

To try to keep the Sebring and Avenger relevant until the new models arrive in 2012, they will get an unscheduled makeover. The two cars were slated by previous owners, Cerberus Capital Management, to end their production this year after being replaced by new models without a planned mid-lift facelift, and the factory while they are built, Sterling Heights in Michigan, is earmarked for closure. With Cerberus getting way out of its depth after the private equity house house bought an 80.1 percent stake from Daimler, the replacement models were canned before leaving the drawing board. According to ANE this week both models will now get a mid-life facelift with the much-criticised Sebring getting a comprehensive makeover in 2011, while a milder re-styling for the Avenger could arrive much earlier.

Other models slated to get a makeover before replacements arrive, according to a “company document” that ANE has seen, include a mid-life facelift for the Chrysler Town & Country minivan at the end of 2010 and a new interior for the Dodge Journey crossover in 2011. Meanwhile the Detroit Free Press says that Fiat intends to facelift several further models by the middle of 2011 with these set to include Dodge's Grand Caravan and Caliber, Jeep's Compass and Patriot SUVs, and Chrysler's decade-old PT Cruiser – the latter already given a stay of execution by Fiat.