You know the territory when the boss opens his speech by telling you about ”the recovery plan,” and how it’s all on schedule; and it’s clear that a central plank of the Chrysler plan is to keep plugging away at Europe, where they have managed to grow over the past year.

But compared to the old days when there was a real buzz about Chrysler over here, there’s more of a feeling now of treading water until the rescue boat comes—but at least they are still afloat, and Geneva had debuts of one level or another right across the brand lines.

Chrysler’s own came first, with the new Sebring Cabrio, possibly with an uphill struggle ahead. The tin-top Sebring has never really punched its weight in Europe, and on home ground it is the motoring equivalent of the straight-to-rental movie, with large numbers going to airport rental lots rather than home garages.

But looked at another way, at least they are all sales. And with its Geneva launch, the four-seat Sebring Cabrio does add new purchase incentives—most obviously the retractable hardtop, but also the options of both a 2.0-liter turbodiesel alongside the 2.7-liter V6 gasoline engine, and right-hand drive. So it might not be much more exciting, but it does offer some real choice—it’s just a very tough market.

Dodge Avenger and Demon Concept

Meanwhile at Dodge, we have two ends of the design chain, the production-ready Avenger and the Demon Concept roadster, both making their European debuts. The Avenger is described as “a D-segment car with attitude, value, and power.”

They say it’s fun to drive, fun to ride in and has plenty of American-style equipment, including a “chilled beverage cooler”—exactly the sort of thing to help make the breakthrough in Europe…It’s fairly lumpy looking, but they push the retro muscle-car associations and offer gasoline and diesel options, left- or right-hand drive, and SE and SXT models.

And while the Avenger is the brand’s first D-segment car for Europe, their other unveiling, the Demon Roadster Concept proposes another new segment-entry for Europe with a design for smaller, affordable sports car that would sit pretty much in Mazda MX-5 territory if it makes it to production—which it probably will.

But if the nose would maybe look happier on a truck, the rest is neat enough, and the suggested 172-hp 2.4-liter gasoline engine would put it roughly in the ballpark performance-wise.

Jeep Patriot

Jeep, too, has rather lost its European novelty, and although they are generally good cars for what they’re meant to do, having gone from two models in 2005 to six by the end of 2006, they’re not so much of a look-at-me brand anymore—a situation that today’s seventh model unveiling aims to address.

This time it’s the all-new Jeep Patriot, which comes in as a good-looking entry-level model, with SUV-like flexibility as well as traditional Jeep 4X4 abilities (now with the full-time active Freedom Drive 1), and clearly aimed at getting the numbers up. For Europe its offers 2.4-liter gasoline or 2.0-liter turbodiesel power, and safety features including Electronic Roll Mitigation, which gives it more car-like on-road manners. And it has to be said, it looks very much like a Jeep that a European could happily live with.