After months on life support, Chrysler is now pinning its hopes on a restructure with three new principal owners: the US Government which says it will keep its nose out of day to day operations, the United Auto Workers union and Italian car company Fiat.

The question is whether it will work. On one hand, when you have the President of the United States pushing for something, stuff tends to happen.

But as David Sanger in the New York Times points out, there are some real hurdles here. This shot-gun marriage with the Italians might go nowhere. True, Fiat has real expertise in turning out fuel-efficient engines and economical small cars but will that work in the American market? As Sanger points out, history might suggest otherwise given that Chrysler went nowhere when it was controlled by Daimler-Benz, one of Europe's most successful luxury car makers.

Writing in Fortune, , automobile analyst Robert Glantz says Fiat won't have much to offer. He points out that Fiat is a marginal player in the auto industry outside Italy and that in any case, the only cars it manufactures that can get 40 mpg would have to be modified to meet US safety and emission standards and that will cost a mint.

More to the point, the change is banking on an unprecedented shift in the US car buyer market. First, the deal is banking on Americans buying small cars and they have never done that in any volume. And secondly, small cars have never been hugely profitable in the US market.

Still, if it's a matter of survival for Chrysler, it might well pull things off. But that will be a minor miracle.