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Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep will look radically different by 2013 — if they can last that long.

Though the company emerged from bankruptcy just months ago, analysts are already wondering if it might suffer a fatal relapse. Last month, notes, “Its sales fell an alarming 30 percent…by far the biggest decline of any major car company active in the U.S. market.” Chrysler suffered its sales decline while watching cross-town rivals Ford and General Motors post sales increases, in a market that increasingly shows signs of recovery. MarketWatch writes, “Chrysler has been damaged on so many fronts it’s getting hard to see how it can be salvaged.”

Italian automaker Fiat, which took control of Chrysler and its three brands under an agreement with the Obama administration, plans to try to salvage the company. Fiat officials yesterday unveiled a five-year plan to remake all three brands’ product portfolios – and while industry observers seem to think the ideas are solid, many aren’t sure that Fiat will have enough time to make it work.

reports, “After five months of near silence, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne finally delivered his plan to fix the struggling automaker. It’s a bold one.” Fiat will “double what the company spends, per car, on marketing,” and also “jack up Chrysler’s capital budget to add new models.” Fiat plans to double the amount of money Chrysler spends on developing new models within three years. Virtually all Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler vehicles will gain more fuel-efficient engines, ten models will be dropped entirely, and as many as 21 new designs may arrive from Europe. They’ll need the new designs. Each of the company’s three brands will receive a major makeover.

reports, reports, “Under Fiat’s controlling hand, Chrysler plans to rebuild Dodge over the next few years as a car-only brand with a sharper focus on younger buyers.” In the short term, several existing models “including the Caravan, the Journey and the Avenger…will be face-lifted in late 2010.” The Charger will be completely redesigned for the 2011 model year. The famous, but long-in-the-tooth Dodge Viper will be dropped from the lineup, and the Dodge Nitro SUV may be as well. By 2013, Fiat will introduce a number of smaller, more fuel-efficient cars under the Dodge name, and spin off the Ram truck line into a separate brand.

The iconic Jeep Wrangler will be the centerpiece of that brand’s future identity.

reports, “Just as Ram is being leveraged as a separate brand from Dodge, now Chrysler hopes to follow a similar path with Wrangler, which will be expanded into a full range of Jeep vehicles.” Fiat plans to replace the Jeep Compass, Liberty and Patriot with Fiat designs by 2012, keeping the Grand Cherokee. The brand’s “trail rated” image may not carry over into new designs – Inside Line reports that Jeep President Michael Manley “implied some future Jeep models won’t display the brand’s traditional ruggedness and off-road capability.” The Wrangler, meanwhile, will expand into a range of vehicles.

Chrysler will lose its aging PT cruiser by the end of 2010,

reports, and receive an all-new 300 full-size sedan next year. The Town & Country minivan will soldier on without a major overhaul, but future small and midsize cars will be supplied by Fiat. They may not arrive until the 2012 or 2013 model year. The Fiat 500, a compact Mini Cooper rival that has been successful in Europe, will arrive in Chrysler dealerships as early as 2010, to be sold its own separate area carved out of the sales floor as if it were a separate brand.

One long-rumored move is apparently not in the plans.

notes, “There was absolutely no mention of Alfa Romeo being sold again in the U.S.”

Analysts are still digesting the plan, but some are hopeful. The

reports that members of the Obama administration’s auto industry take force “praised Chrysler Group LLC’s turnaround presentation as a ‘bold restructuring plan,’” but the task force “said it had no role in developing” the strategy.

Investors appear hopeful.

notes that Fiat’s stock “outperformed the auto sector” in early trading today, “as a five-year plan for Chrysler was seen by analysts as aggressive and potentially risky but potentially value enhancing.”

Still, some worry that the plan won’t take effect quickly enough. The

notes, “Based on the five-year plan the automaker revealed at its Auburn Hills headquarters Wednesday, Chrysler will have to struggle on largely with mildly reworked versions of its current vehicles until a flood of new Fiat-based models and technologies begin to arrive in 2012 and 2013.”

With Chrysler suffering a sales drop while much of the industry recovered in October, the company may not be able to wait three years for the new models to arrive.

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