QOTD: How Would You Fix Stellantis?
In this week's podcast, I laid out my plan for how to fix Stellantis.
You'll have to listen to hear my thoughts -- that's a tease -- but I want to hear yours.
How would you strengthen the company? How would you arrange the brands? Would you cut one?
Would you bring back the Viper? Cut the Gladiator? Optimize platform sharing?
You know what to do -- go ahead and sound off below.
[Image: Stellantis/Dodge]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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The x factor here is what's in the pipeline, but hear me out. Think of the number of times an automaker has had a mainstream-news worthy hit. The kind that's on the morning news shows for a little profile story. It's rarely if ever some high-dollar low-volume thing. More often that not a Home Run gets hit with something that's at a good price point for everyday transport, but had the charisma for someone wealthier to think "for that price, I could pick one up just for goofs."
The latest such example is the Maverick, but look through history. The Suzuki Samurai, the original Miata, the return of the Mini Cooper, the New Beetle, the PT Cruiser. Yes, there have been whiffs - the Smart, the Fiat 500.
I don't think anything like the new Charger is going to save the day. They need a "Jeep" Jeep slotted below the Wrangler, a no BS mini-truck, or take a cue from that electric retro-Civic Honda's teasing and do a new Omni - it's been long enough that people will have forgotten the worst of it. But they need something with a sticker price that starts with a 2 and even well-optioned (not loaded) barely tops a 3.
I would consolidate how many brands they make. I could write an essay on this. Even if they did make a small pickup, a small, medium, and large SUV that had all of the features wanted by todays consumer, if they're not reliable, it won't won't work.
They need better engineering, modernized lineup, the Durano for example is fundamentally un changed with only a minor facelift in 2021.
Mite attention to R&D, better materials, electrical systems that work... Most of this is from cost cutting, complacency and laziness especially with Chrysler. Also for America, where I live, trying to push the Hornet, which is an Alpha Romeo, on a public that believes Alphas to be junk, was a horrible idea!
Whether Alphas are reliable or not, Perception is reality.
Make reliable cars and they will come.