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Even for an auto executive, Mike Manley has strong views about how a car should look and feel.
Around 2009, the car was a Jeep Grand Cherokee, the first big product launch since Chrysler LLC had been cast off by Daimler AG after their ill-fated merger. Manley, who had been in charge of product planning, took a test vehicle to the company’s proving grounds near Ann Arbor, Michigan, with Jim Press, then co-president of Chrysler, and a couple of engineers.