From the mid 1990s automobile producers strove to improve engineering and quality of vehicles as a route to competitive advantage or, in many cases, to catch up with competitors, but ten years later there was very little to differentiate automobiles produced by many of the major companies. Therefore, in the first few years of the 21st century, players in the automobile industry as a whole stepped up price competition. A hefty overcapacity of around 30 per cent in the overall industry meant that `a lot of metal chased little money', making low prices or incentives - mostly in the form of free insurance, zero per cent interest on hire purchase - the prevalent means to displace market share from competitors. However managers were fully aware that competing on price was not beneficial to anyone in the medium term, as it depressed the profitability of the whole industry: customers' expectations would become a very powerful barrier to increasing prices later. The result was that, as well as selling few cars, car companies sold them at a lower price; the consequent depression of profitability was likely to affect negatively their credit rating, thus increasing the cost of borrowing: a nightmare scenario. This was true especially with regard to the USA's `big three', Ford, GM and DaimlerChrysler.

But the larger European car companies had also suffered from depressed demand and oversupply, with Volkswagen's profit falling by 49 per cent in the second quarter of 2003. Fiat was also trying hard to get out of a serious crisis by restructuring the company and renewing the dull model range under the guidance of the CEO who had turned around the fortunes of Pirelli, the tyre maker. In 2003, the jury was still out on Fiat's chances of comeback.

по смыслу: благодаря действиям этого СЕО положение Пирелли изменилось радикальным образом (скорее всего - в сторону улучшения).

jury's still out = пока не ясно, вопрос остается открытым.

здесь -- "в 2003 г. все еще существовали сомнения..."

.... таким вот макаром