In a interview session Marchionne said: "I want to pay back the shyster loans first". At the present moment Chrysler Group owes $5.8 billion to the U.S. Treasury and $2.3 billion to the Canadian government. The loans, handed to Chrysler when it needed a cash lifeline to stay afloat, accrue interest at an average rate of around 11 percent.

That comment, which reverberated throughout the North American media yesterday, forced Marchionne to issue a hurried written apology: "Yesterday, in responding to a question about Chrysler's government loans, I used a term in reference to the interest rate being charged on our government loans that has raised concern," said the Italo-American. "I regret the remark which I consider inappropriate.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a shyster is "a dishonest person, especially a lawyer" with the term originating from the German word Scheuster (lawyer).

"I have repeated on numerous occasions, on behalf of all the people at Chrysler, our gratitude to the U.S. and Canadian governments for the financial assistance that was critical to the recovery of our Group," the statement posted on Chrysler Group's website continued. "As the only parties willing to underwrite the risk associated with Chrysler’s recovery plan, the two governments levied interest rates that, although appropriate at the time, are above current market conditions. This was done with the full support and understanding of the members of Chrysler Group LLC. Because of these changed market conditions as well as the improvements in our performance and outlook made possible through the support of the U.S. and Canadian governments, Chrysler intends to repay these loans in full at the earliest opportunity."

The "shyster" comment wasn't the only controversy to stem from the JD Power conference on Friday evening, as for the first time Marchionne intimated publically that Chrysler and Fiat could merge within the next two or three years and that the resulting entity's headquarters could well be in Detroit. Those comments, although widely seen as a logical progression for Fiat and Chrysler by many in the auto industry, caused a storm of protest yesterday in Italy where Marchionne's overall view of the bigger global automotive industry picture is less well understood.