DETROIT -- During General Motors' daylong investor conference last week, CEO Mary Barra devoted just three words to the nagging topic of Sergio Marchionne's merger fixation.

"No I haven't," Barra answered when asked whether she had heard from the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles chief lately.

But in a sense, her executive team's pitch to about 180 analysts and investors could be viewed as one long commercial for why GM doesn't need FCA.

GM execs tried hard to convince their influential audience not only that GM is thinking about the big-picture strategic topics on the industry's mind -- autonomous driving, alternative powertrains, mobility services that promise to transform the ownership model -- but that it's positioned to lead the transformation.

While "FCA" and "Sergio" didn't come up, the subtext seemed to be that a tie-up with FCA would be a bet on a 20th-century automotive model.