[KellyMP]

Detroit Free Press: http://www.freep.com/article/2011052...vernment-loans

At 10:13 a.m. today, Chrysler fully repaid the $7.6 billion in loans it owed the U.S. and Canadian governments.

The repayment comes more than six years sooner than required under an agreement reached in June 2009.

Chrysler and Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, in a speech to nearly 1,100 employees at the company’s Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, said the automaker made payments of $5.9 billion to the U.S. Treasury and $1.7 billion to the governments of Canada and Ontario.

“It happens rarely in life that we are given a second chance,” Marchionne said with members of the Obama administration present. “We are still very grateful to President Obama and his administration and to the automotive task force.”

The Auburn Hills automaker, which few thought could rebound after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 30, 2009, received a total $12.5 billion in aid from the U.S. government under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to the U.S. Treasury.

With today’s transaction, the U.S. government has recovered more than $10.6 billion of that amount through Chrysler’s payments of and payments made Chrysler’s predecessor.