By Frank Williams
May 13, 2008 -
Chrysler's finally seen the light. After years of building versions of everything they build to sell under every brand they sell, they've canceled the Chrysler version of the Dodge Journey CUV. Co-prez Jim Press stopped by the passive construction site to explain that "resources have been deployed to basically support" development of the small car to be manufactured by Nissan. "It's a segment we are not competing in now." (What was his first clue?) Bloomberg reports that this move means Chrysler will only be introducing three new models for the 2009 model year: the Journey, the Challenger and a redesigned Ram. That leaves Chrysler looking toward the magic year 2010, when they hope to have their new compact ready to go along with new versions of the Grand Cherokee and Durango (no mention of the Aspen, though) and a redesigned Charger and 300. Will it be a case of too little, too late? We'll have to wait a couple of years to find out — if Chrysler lasts that long.
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POWERED
May 13th, 2008 at 10:45 am
This sort of reminds me of the Germans with their last ditch weapons developement in WW2. They had jets under developement for many years but only in the end did they cancel many of their weapon programs to concentrate on jets. Probably not enough time left. Too little too late indeed.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Geeze, it’s about time! Now one has to ask the question: What is Chrysler’s mission and how does that differ from Dodge’s position? Personally, I would have made the Journey a Chrysler. It should be noted that the pre-production model at the LA Auto Show looked and felt better than the production Journey, way to go Cerberus!
May 13th, 2008 at 10:51 am
I thought this was canceled some time ago. So they shifted the badge engineers to a different program? How many people does it take to do fascias?
It’s clear to me at least that Cerberus isn’t trying to make Chrysler into an independently viable entity. Instead, they’ll try to fix it up enough that some other automaker will want to buy it. Which is a matter of cutting costs more than boosting revenues.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Michael:
What did you expect when a bunch of fund managers bought a car company? They got in this to make a profit, and the only way they can do that, besides from making good cars, is to cut Chrysler down to the bare minimum and unload it on some suckers(ie. Nissan or Tata) Over/Under on the Big 3 becoming the Big1 is 2.5 years (Just enough time for the Volt to become unplugged and Chrysler to be sold off)
May 13th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I’m in a good situtation for the 2010 rebirth of everything automotive. Right now I’m selling dodge chrysler jeeps.. or at least I sit in a show room every day. I’m going full time national guard getting ready for a deployment in june so i’ll be out of the picture pretty much until the 2010 models come out. So when I get back i’ll either be getting back just as chrysler will be offering a car people really want or i’ll be looking for another job cause they’ll be gone.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:14 am
HOW CAN THEY POSSIBLY SURVIVE UNTIL 2010??????????????
May 13th, 2008 at 11:15 am
This move is consistent with Chrysler Group’s plans to sell cars as Chryslers, trucks as Dodges and 4WD’s as Jeeps.
That’s not a bad plan. It rids it of badge engineering, allows a more tightly focused brand message for each, and is compatible with the dealer consolidation effort.
What’s missing, of course, is the product. I still believe that their goal is to outsource as much production as possible, in order to allocate costs to their foreign partners. But they’ll underinvest in the effort and fail, so they’ll end up selling out at a loss.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Basically a good looking rear-end. I hope they are working on their quality. That is basically the reoccurring reason I won’t consider Chryslers.
On the otherhand my life with a low-rated VW hasn’t been hell so maybe it’s time to consider Chrysler, Ford and GM next time. Maybe this proves the quality surveys need to be taken with a spoonful of salt.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:42 am
A good decision by Chrysler to not badge engineer a Journey twin.
Journey has had solid sales numbers thus far. I sat in one the other day, what it looks like to me is that most of the pre-production work happened under the DCX regime, and then when Press came in the interior was upgraded wherever possible.
So the result is a marked improvement over the DCX interiors, but limited in scope because there was only so much they could do. Similar situation in the Challenger.
The 2009 Ram had more time for improvements and the pics prove it. It is an encouraging trend. If they can get their interiors right, cut dead weight models, and get their dual clutch trannies and phoenix engines out there starting in 2010 with some improved models, it bodes well for the future of Chrysler, sarcasm non-withstanding.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Segment choices aside, I’m just glad to see a retreat from the badge engineering.