Paladin06

Chrysler's Nardelli vows to keep brands, maybe cut vehicles
Filed under: Chrysler


Bob Nardelli, Chrysler LLC's new chief-exec and chairman, made it clear today in his first public speech that Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep are safe, but some of the products in the automaker's lineup may face the axe in the near future. Addressing the Automotive Press Association today, Nardelli talked about the future of Chrysler, its brands and the recent high-profile hires of Jim Press and Phil Murtaugh. Restructuring the ailing automaker will involve some tough decisions on the product front, and Nardelli made it clear that, "We have to look very hard at some of the product within those brands." We're hoping that the Jeep Compass is euthanized first. What say you?



Sounds like they are finally going to identify and focus on their "core values"!!

RoswellGrey

From the Associated Press story on this:

In one of his first public appearances since becoming chairman last month, Nardelli wouldn't say which vehicles might go. Among those struggling are the Dodge Magnum wagon, which saw sales drop 35 percent in the first eight months of this year, and the aging PT Cruiser, which saw a 25 percent decline.

Actually, Chrysler outta get into the resurrection business totally and forget modern cars all together. First, the return of the Challenger. Next, the Duster (yeah, bring Plymouth back, too) ....

RLSH700

Talks like this make me nervous as they might cut the wrong cars. I think they need to first make some offerings in segments that they are currently ignoring such as economy cars.

RoswellGrey

My point exactly, RLSH700. Remember the 36-miles per gallon (highway...24mpg city, 4-speed manual transmission w/overdrive) Feather Duster in 1976? Amazing a car could get that good gas mileage back then WITHOUT onboard computers to regulate the fuel/air mixture.
What Chrysler needs to produce is an automobile like the original Duster that could either be a performance car (ie, the Duster 340, one of the baddest cars on the streets in the 1970s) or an economy car (ie, the Feather Duster) that's good looking and can be had at a reasonable price. Hopefully, they still have the Duster blueprints on file somewhere in Auburn Hills.

RLSH700

Precisely, their problem is they began to recreate the problem that GM and Ford made for themselves only they made a worse mistake than either Ford or GM. They dropped their economy car in the middle of an era of high fuel prices. They not only loose a lot of sales, make it more difficult to make the 2020 CAFE standards due to this, and depend on a dying segment for success, but they also loose their grasp on the youth market. The Neon was failing due to the reliability issues they encountered with the 1st Generation models, although it appears they resolved these problems for the most part for the second generation, the damage was already done. Also the fuel efficiency was no longer equal to that of the Civic and Corolla. The engine's had not received a real update when they switched to the 2nd Generation which helped to make the second generation more dull. By the time the SRT-4 model came out, the Neon had already been associated with dull for too long. The SRT-4 would have been more effective if they would have offered it to kick off the 2nd Generation model. Doing it towards the end of the run proved why the magazine editors mentioned how SRT-4 was emphasized and Neon was not on that model. Perhaps being able to match the Evo for a lower price would have helped the image more, but still it was no slouch.

The Caliber, Compass, and Patriot are aimed at the youth, but the problem is more than just the fuel mileage. Some people just don't like wagons plain and simple. Beyond the looks, it takes a lot of power to get those models to move because they are so darn heavy (the CVTs can't be helping either for that matter). The Patriot isn't a bad idea for a vehicle in my eyes, its just the wrong idea for Jeep. If Eagle was still in production, it would be an excellent vehicle for them but it is not a Jeep in my eyes. As far as the Compass is concerned, I put that in the same category as the Aztek (ugly, impactical, pointless). Although I do not like the Caliber personally it does have its purpose. They just need to drop the CVTs and replace them with six speed units, and offer the SRT-4 already. They should also consider a medium choice turbo for something between the NA 2.4L and turbo 2.4L.

In a nutshell, a compact economy car should be made to compete against not only the Civic and Corolla in terms of fuel economy, but they should also offer models that could give the Evo a budget competitor. Also to gain the attention of the youth, they should make the Demon concept. They need to regain the youth market and that is their weakness because too many of their models are too expensive, too impractical, and too dull for the youth market.