This year, Chrysler plans to introduce three new vehicles that are acknowledged leaders in their segments and one new model that gets it into a growing and potentially lucrative new market.

The first Fiat model, the 500, will also arrive, giving Chrysler dealers a sophisticated and chic little car that's smaller and considerably less expensive than the Mini Cooper.

That's the formula for a dynamite year for a car company. If we hadn't fixated on what Chrysler lacks, rather than what it has, we might be talking about the flood of new models coming from Auburn Hills.

Chrysler's deficiencies drove the company into bankruptcy and an alliance with Fiat. The new vehicles coming this year, though, are a useful reminder of what Chrysler does well, and why Fiat wanted control of Chrysler.

First comes an all-new Jeep Grand Cherokee, hitting the road in about two months. SUVs became emblematic of Detroit's dysfunction, but there's still a market for them, and the new Grand Cherokee looks like a winner. Its elegant looks sheath a classy interior and the go-anywhere ability that make Jeep one of the auto industry's strongest brands.

A brand-new seven-seat crossover SUV for Dodge — the brand's first vehicle in the popular segment dominated by models like the Toyota Highlander and Chevrolet Traverse — is to follow the Grand Cherokee out of Chrysler's plant off Jefferson Avenue in Detroit in the third or fourth quarter of this year.

At about the same time, dynamic new versions of the exciting Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger sedans are to arrive in dealerships.

There's a built-in audience for those cars, as there is for the new Grand Cherokee. All three are examples of what Chrysler does best. Few, if any, automakers on Earth do it better. They will also be the first models to feature Chrysler's new Pentastar V6 engine, which should improve performance and fuel economy.

Also late this year, 11 of Chrysler's existing models — vehicles like the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans and Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger midsize sedans — will get what Chrysler design chief and Dodge brand boss Ralph Gilles called "an intervention" when we spoke at the Chicago auto show this week.

The mild changes the carryover vehicles already received earlier this year — new trim levels and equipment packages, interior upgrades for the Dodge Caliber, etc. — are merely a bridge to substantial improvements coming late this year and early in 2011, Gilles said.

"We have intensely looked at every source of angst in our existing products," he said, promising changes of the same magnitude the award-winning Ford Fusion got last year — new powertrains, interiors, some exterior design changes.

"We're taking the platforms to new levels" to keep business flowing at Chrysler dealerships until the much-talked-about Fiat-based compacts and subcompacts begin arriving in 2012, Gilles said.

There's no question Chrysler needs Fiat technology and engineering to produce world-class compact and smaller cars, but don't delude yourself into thinking Fiat is providing them out of charity. Fiat expects to benefit greatly from Chrysler's expertise in developing vehicles like the 300, Grand Cherokee, minivans and pickups.

The future of Fiat's foray into America — and of Chrysler itself — depends on the success of cars and trucks designed and engineered in Auburn Hills as well as in Italy. Chrysler, its faults and failings notwithstanding, is very good at developing those vehicles.

Some of the best will hit the road this year.