ORIGINAL: Justinec101
I think you meant autoblog. Anyway, I guess you're point is that you don't want GM to kill chrysler models based on what that article said? In some ways I agree with your points and in others it comes across just as biased as GM would be in the situation.
I did not agree with their choice of the G8 staying over the charger which I think is your main point. Now I would take a G8 over a charger personally, but keeping it and killing the charger would be a poor decision for a lot of reasons. One is simply the Charger name. Ok, it's not the Charger of the 70s but there's recognition there, especially because it's had 5 years to build a reputation. The G8 came in to the market at the wrong time. Had both cars come out in 2005 the G8 might have a better chance. However, it's still more expensive. Even with the V6 option it's around 28k. You can get a Charger with the 3.5 for around 22k. GM could look at this as a situation to eliminate the G8s main competition but I doubt sales would improve much either way.
As far as the Camaro win, I think they got that one right. The Camaro has many of the same benefits as the Charger does vs. the G8. Name recognition for one. And just general recognition, it's been in Transformers(and soon transformers 2) and just overall has been hyped to hell. People know the name Camaro. People think the challenger is the new camaro. And if they know it's not, they think "Charger". Eliminating the challenger also gets rid of some of the Camaro's competition.
So while I think the Charger would be the clear winner on one hand, and the Camaro on the other, that decision doesn't make sense because of platform sharing. It doesn't make sense to stop producing the challenger if it's built at the same plant as the Charger. And it doesn't make sense to kill the G8 since it's on the same platform as the Camaro.
That article wasn't necessarily based on any sort of business sense though, they were just comparing vehicles in direct competition with eachother. I mean what are the chances of Chevy ditching the colorado for the ram. It's not happening. I can't say for sure what GM wants out of this deal, but it's probably just Chrysler's cash. Of course they need 10 billion from the government to merge with Chrysler so they can get their 11billion, so why don't they just exist on their own and ask the goverment for an extra 11b? I'm guessing it all ties into GMAC and cerberus forcing chrysler on GM.
All I know is I need to get a challenger quick.
Well, the issue is they are not the only ones who have been saying this. Autoblog can say whatever they want and I honestly don't care, the only thing that worries me is GM might listen to advice like that.
The Charger began in 2006 so it is actually in its third year of production. Having a new model is actually an advantage if it is a good offering which I will agree that the G8 is because the older model can become stale and people want something different. The truth is the G8 hasn't done anywhere near as well as it should. The price tag depends on where you are located. From what I have compared, the price difference isn't all that big. Something else to think about was the name recognition that the Bonneville had, yet the LH cars that all had brand new names took the market from it and it had many advantages over the LH cars by the numbers which magazines make their judgment calls.
The truth is I see room for both the Challenger and Camaro for sure as they do have some distinguishing differences and benefits. The G8 on the other hand, just doesn't seem like it is really needed other than to help the Camaro in the category of economies of scale.
Justin being that I am human and imperfect I'm likely to have biases just like EVERY human being on earth is when they look at something. Explain to me why you perceive my points and what points to be bias so then I can understand what you are getting at. I have given GM credit where it was deserved and criticized them when there were reasons to criticize them with the explanation. I have also done this with Chrysler.