Dodge Dart Platform Will Underpin Chrysler 200, Jeep Compass Replacement
A USA Today interview with Sergio Marchionne revealed some interesting details about Chrysler’s future product plans – among them, a wider adoption of the Dodge Dart/Alfa Romeo Giulietta platform, a possible small hatch dubbed the “Chrysler 100” and Alfa Romeos built on American soil.
A compact hatchback, dubbed the Chrysler 100 is being considered, and if approved, the car would be badged as a Lancia in Europe. Alfa Romeo’s on-and-off plans to come to America are still in motion with a planned 2013 debut, with American built Alfas being exported to Europe eventually. Marchionne also talked of new, lightweight vehicles and a 1.8L 4-cylinder motor with a turbocharger than can produce as much as 300 horsepower.
More by Derek Kreindler
Comments
Join the conversation
Could Chrysler make a snazzy version called an Arrow?
”It’s gonna be a trail-rated, full-blooded Jeep that has its origins in the architecture of a sports car.” Contradiction. "Trail-rated" has become more or less of a euphemism, the same way an Evoque is an off road Land Rover in comparison to the foreign market Defender. I lament the bizarre transformations and sex changes Jeep has undergone since it was sold by AMC to Chrysler and so forth. I shudder to think what the man from La Mancha will do to the Rubicon (the only remaining off road Jeep).
The domestic market is only so big. Growing markets, like China, are largely closed. So with some firms on-the-rise (Ford, GM, Hyundai, Kia, Audi, VW) in our market, much of that is coming out of others' hides. Chrysler is demonstrably the weakest player with any serious volume... they're behind in product, dealer-quality, and somewhat shakey financially. It will be their hide. To me they look a lot like American Motors looked in 1975... not so much a question of if, but when.
Build the 200 and the Compass out of a small car platform, same as the Caliber, except they went one step further and the Journey was born, so this is the NEW Chrysler?