With Sergio Marchionne at its helm, Chrysler repaid the U.S. and Canadian governments the $5.9 billion and $1.6 billion, respectively, they loaned to help keep the company afloat two years ago.

The bottom line: "Detroit is not the dead industry that we thought just two years ago," says Paul Eisenstein, publisher of TheDetroitBureau.com, a web site that tracks the auto industry.