Quote Of The Day: Halo Comparo Edition

by Edward Niedermeyer

Published: December 1st, 2010

Now that Bob Lutz is lounging on the beach and catching early-bird specials (between Lotus board meetings and GM dog-and-pony shows), it’s good to know that there are still a few good men left to sprinkle The Detroit News with a few double-take-inspiring quotes. Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics is a reliable source of controversial gems, and thanks to one particularly context-free quotation, he’s provided the perfect place to kick off an age-old debate: Vette or Viper. But Hall wasn’t talking about either car’s performance, instead forwarding the thesis that:

Dodge used the Viper better as a halo vehicle for the brand than Chevy ever did with the CorvetteWhich is an interesting assertion indeed, given that the ‘vette is bathed in pedigree and sells 10k-30k more units each year. And though the Viper makes sense as a halo for the Ram pickup line, Dodge’s second-best-seller is the Caravan… and the Viper helps minivan sales how exactly? But the debate doesn’t end there…The DetN implies that Hall meantThe lack of stability control and a powerful engine made the Viper a unique American sports car… The Viper also was the genesis of the performance SRT lineup that boosted Dodge’s image Which is the extent of the DetN’s editorial comment on an equally provocative quote from Dodge brand boss Ralph GilesWe will use their expertise to open the performance envelope in the Viper. Fiat has an awesome ability to tune cars. I want the new Viper to be a more forgiving car to drive and accessible to more people. We’ve never had stability control on a high-performance car, which is about to happen on the new car.What’s not explained is that Giles didn’t just up and decide to throw the Viper’s traction control-free (and traction-free) heritage on the bonfire of Fiat’s engineering vanity. The government made him do it.So where does this leave the Viper? If Dodge’s V10 brute was a better halo vehicle than the Corvette, will it lose its power when it submits to governmental and Italian refinement? Or is Hall exaggerating its impact on the Dodge brand?

#Branding #Enthusiasm #QOTD #Sales

Edward Niedermeyer

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Obbop on Dec 01, 2010

Ooooooo...neato.... slot cars!!!! The YMCA in downtown San Diego not far from the Broadway pier had a BIG multi-lane slot car track in the basketball court. Pert-near filled the entire space. A free-standing booth-like open part-time shacklet contained a variety of slot car related goodies; from entire cars to hand controllers to super-powerful high-cost electrical motors to a bunch of other nifty keen goodies. We feed the quarter-eating power allowers regularly as up to eight racers zoomed at what one math-able driver determined to be upwards of 60 real mph on the longest straight-away. The real pros even placed a glue-like sticky speed-eating substance upon the track immediately before curves to allow last-second slow-downs and full speed until the last possible moment. Quite scientific in its way and lots of fun. This was the post-1960s slot care craze era so the huge crowds of the past were gone. Doubt if the track is still there but it would be groovy and really boss if it still existed. What was this article about? UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Found a pic of the track!!!!!!! http://www.rogueriver.tzo.com/Gallery/USS_Thomaston/images/YMCASlotCarTrack.jpg

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Zykotec on Dec 01, 2010

I just feel it would be appropriate to mention that the Viper has for the last 15 years been too Dodge the same as what the Corvette was to Chevrolet in the 50's and 60's. Give it 30 years more of development end evolution, and then we can see if it gets as good as the Corvette (and as 'normal' and 'mainstream' as the Corvette ) None of them will ever be the Halo car the Mustang is anyway ;)

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