The Chrysler story is starting to look like a stunningly wise taxpayer-funded rescue and that’s no spin.

Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne is now suggesting that Chrysler's operating profit in 2012 could exceed its $3 billion (U.S.) target, reports Reuters. If the June and year-to-date sales numbers in Canada and the United States are any indication, that level of profitability seems a foregone conclusion -- barring a complete global economic meltdown.

Chrysler sold 1.23 million cars in the first half, which is over half of our target," Marchionne said at a press conference. "The objective of $3 billion is close at hand. We could overshoot it."

What a shocker and the sales numbers tell much of the story.

In Canada, Chrysler/Fiat is now the solid No. 2 auto maker (129,463 in sales/15 per cent market share), trailing only Ford of Canada (142,129/16.4 per cent market share), according to figures compiled by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants. Chrysler Canada has enjoyed 31 consecutive months of year-over-year sales increases, two of the Top 5 best-selling vehicles in the country are the Ram pickup and Dodge Grand Caravan minivan, and sales on the year overall are up 7.0 per cent. In the U.S., Chrysler’s sales are up more than 20 per cent on the year.

Chrysler is sizzling and so much so, notes Reuters, that Marchionne is suggesting the Chrysler-Fiat alliance might use Fiat plants in Italy to build cars for export to North America. Fiat, by the way, now owns 61.8 per cent of Chrysler. More importantly, Chrysler long ago paid off the bailout loans from the Canadian and U.S. taxpayer.

Fiat was initially given a small stake in Chrysler as part of a technology and management deal designed to help Chrysler emerge successfully from bankruptcy in 2009. Since then, Fiat has steadily increased its stake in Chrysler while also paying off the taxpayer. Talk about a success story in the making…

We might even call this one a miracle. I recently considered that as I tucked behind the wheel of the 2013 Dodge Dart. The Dart is tangible evidence that somehow the shotgun marriage of a Mid-American car company to a Northern Italian auto maker is working. Marchionne himself just suggested to that press conference that he plans to further accelerate the integration of the two. The goal: a single car company with global sales in the five million-plus range and revenue of $120,000 billion-plus (U.S.).

The Dart? The basics here come from the Alfa Romeo Giulietta. Using the modular architecture of the Alfa, the Chrysler people made the car their own by lengthening and widening the Giulietta. The idea was to retain the road-holding agility of the Italian car while also making the Dart big enough to satisfy wide-body North Americans who equate size with value – and do all of it while making a tidy profit.

“The geometry of that car (the Dart) is the best I've ever seen,” Marchionne modestly told Automotive News, though it’s hard to argue the point. “The quality level is on par or even better than we've done with the Jeep Grand Cherokee.”

The Grand Cherokee, the way was tied for second in its class in the recent J.D. Power and Associates 2012 Initial Quality Study. Consumer Reports has also noted the quality improvements at Chrysler. “What they’ve introduced new — the (Chrysler) 300, (Dodge) Charger, (Dodge) Durango and Grand Cherokee — all have been impressive,” said CR’s auto testing director David Champion to the New York Times.

That Jeep model is based on an architecture carried over from the dark days when Daimler ran Chrysler. Now the platform is not only the basis for the Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango SUV, but also the latest Mercedes-Benz M-Class SUV and the coming Mercedes GL SUV. Talk about a cross-continent connection.

The Dart, meanwhile, is just now arriving in showrooms at a base price of $17,495, shipping included. It’s a critical measure of how far Chrysler and Fiat have come, and how fast. The 2013 Dart may be the first Chrysler Group vehicle built on a Fiat Group architecture, but it won’t be the last.

Truth is, the car looks good, has the best seats of any small car starting for less than $16,000 (base price $15,995 plus freight) and before the end of the summer you’ll be able to get your Dart with three engine choices, three transmission offerings, five trim levels, seven wheel choices, 12 exterior colours and 14 interior colour and trim options. The Chrysler people want to make a splash with this car and my prediction is they will.

What this means is that the looming post-bankruptcy liquidation of Chrysler in 2009 – a potential nightmare scenario involving tens of thousands of lost jobs in the teeth of a global depression – is turning into a turnaround case study for business schools around the world. Marchionne, the Canadian-educated CEO, recently told The Detroit News that in 2009 he was confident Chrysler and Fiat would make for a successful marriage. Three years after the fact all signs point to a successful post-honeymoon merger.

"If there was a way to get this done, Americans would do it," he told the News. "The brand histories were great. There was a lot of pride in this house at one time. We had to find a way to get to it."

And next year might be even better. Chrysler’s product pipeline is stocked with other new models to join the 2013 Dart.  

"We're not afraid of competition any longer. We don't have to apologize for what we do,” he told The News. “We don't need to feel ashamed or embarrassed about quality levels or what we make. We just can't lose that edge — that hunger — and we've got to stay humble.”