Chrysler's Death Spiral Continues

March was a boffo month for car manufacturers. Toyota's sales rebounded to a robust 41 percent over a year ago, while sales of General Motors brand that it will continue to make jumped 43 percent. Ford's sales were up 40 percent and Hyundai's 15 percent. And then there was Chrysler, where sales were down 8 percent.

Which begs a question or two.

First, why on earth did Fiat buy Chrysler? And second, is there any hope for an automaker whose fleet is anything but cutting edge, has no interesting products in the pipeline and taken as a whole is plain butt ugly?