The Big Picture: Serious Thinking
Challenger and Imperial: Will DCX build 'em?
By Angus MacKenzie
Motor Trend, February 2006

In truth, the 300C was probably a Hail Mary play for DaimlerChrysler. The company had nothing to lose by gambling on a rear-drive sedan with swaggering style and a Hemi under the hood. That it's turned out to be a huge hit probably continues to surprise a few folks in the quieter offices at DaimlerChrysler's Auburn Hills headquarters. It shouldn't. They need only look at the sales of pickup trucks over the past 20 years to realize Americans never really lost their love affair with V-8s, rear drive, and expansive sheetmetal.


Surprised or not, DaimlerChrysler has now realized it's onto something here. While GM dithers over the Zeta platform and Ford consigns DEW98 to the dumpster (the Lincoln LS goes out of production this year), DCX product planners are looking at ways of leveraging the company's RWD architecture across more models. The two concepts on this month's cover--the retro-cool Dodge Challenger and the imposing Chrysler Imperial--show some of their thinking. Both are based on the platform architecture that underpins the 300C, Magnum, and Charger, which means both are feasible as production cars. But will DCX build 'em?

You'd think the Challenger would be a no-brainer: iconic musclecar looks and a powertrain package that would naturally include the SRT-massaged 425-horsepower Hemi. But nothing in the auto business is ever quite that simple.


One of the sticking points with the Challenger program, according to whispers out of Auburn Hills, is DCX product planners aren't entirely convinced they have a business case for the car. Part of the problem is that the Challenger's platform, with its independent rear suspension, is more expensive than the live axle platform Ford uses for the Mustang, and every time the beancounters crunch the numbers, the Dodge ends up with a higher sticker than its Ford rival's. Having seen how GM struggled with the Pontiac GTO, that makes them nervous, especially since no one is sure how big the market is for a new Challenger. Reinventing the Mustang, a car seared into America's pop-culture psyche as the seminal ponycar, is one thing; bringing back a relatively modest-selling 1970 Dodge (what makes original Hemi Challengers so highly sought now is their rarity) is another issue altogether.


The Imperial poses a different problem: namely, how far upmarket should the Chrysler brand be pushed? Riding on a 123-inch wheelbase that matches the Lincoln Town Car L's, the Imperial concept is a big, lavish car--


the photographs don't give you the right sense of scale. But there are people inside Daimler Chrysler who argue passionately that the company already has a division that can handle that line of business quite nicely, thank you. It's called Mercedes-Benz.


They're right, of course, but that doesn't mean the Imperial concept is a dead end. Far from it: With GM's largest sedan the front-drive Cadillac DTS (which has a wheelbase of less than 116 inches) and Ford planning to pension off the Town Car (its replacement, due in 2008, will reportedly be built on a stretched version of the same front-drive/AWD architecture that'll underpin the next-generation Lincoln LS and Volvo S80), the market will be wide open for an American luxury sedan that offers the space of a long-wheelbase S-Class, without the fancy price tag.


So, will DaimlerChrysler build these cars? The hardware--engines, suspensions, transmissions, electronics, etc.--is basically all there. The software--exterior styling, interior design, image--is mostly there. Just about the only thing stopping DaimlerChrysler giving either car the green light is...you. So here's the deal. Log onto our Web site (motortrend.com), let us know what you think, and we'll pass the information on to the DaimlerChrysler brass. Me? I want a Challenger with the SRT works.