One Bob Nardelli, several viewpoints

You get slightly different views on the world according to Bob Nardelli, depending on which account you read of the new Chrysler chief's interview at the American Magazine Conference yesterday with Dennis Kneale of Forbes. (Strangely, I looked at Forbes.com and couldn't find its take on the interview.) Mediapost's write-up does a good job of pointing out that the interview was quite broad, including commentary about everything from Chrylser's dealer relations to overproduction problems. Ad Age focused on the main issue at hand for the audience: the ad budget, which Nardelli indicated wasn't exactly going to spike through the roof, even if he "said" this using hand gestures, which Kneale than interpreted for the assembled multitudes You can read Ad Age's story about Nardelli, and see video excerpts from the speech here. In talking about the breadth of his prior career, he compares himself to Walter P. Chrysler, because he, too, once worked in the locomotive industry. He says, "I'm still trying to get my chief engineer to get one of those 600 horsepower locomotive engines into one of these Vipers."