According To Bailey, by 2012 model year we wil have lighter cars due to advanced materials. He hinted that Mazda may be out with a Miata which weighs similarly as the original with the same higher-power engine it has now.
With new mileage requirments coming on line, manufacturers will have little choice but to reduce weight.
I'd want to know a little on plans to balance quality, price points and style. They seem to hit 2 out of 3 - any plans to tweak which 2 they can manage.
I'm done with Dodge. I have 3 Dodge trucks in my driveway and the most reliable one is a '88 Dakota with 249,000 miles. My 06 CTD Mega Cab 3500 is a POS. It has starting issues and the tailshaft seal failed a week after the warranty expired (for time, not mileage) and the dealer wanted $320.00 to replace it. 22,000 miles and a seal fails ?? Do the right thing Chrysler ! I've been loyal to Dodge since 1984 buying new every five years...not anymore. Tell him I said bye.
Mazda does seem to be leaning towards the smaller, lighter, more efficient option for the next Miata. Different engine though, not a MZR but a small turbo engine. That's based on conversations with Derek Jenkins, the new chief of design at Mazda. He's a big Lotus fan, by the way. 99% of what you read online about the next Miata is just pure speculation however, keep that in mind.
I think the Demon was the little Dodge I was thinking of. There might have been another, sexier one.
Maybe ask about what Chrysler is going to do to expand their export market. Unlike Ford and GM, Chrysler has a very small export market. Will the link up with Fiat provide a platform for Chrysler to import their vehicles into Europe and other countries or is the focus in importing Fiats into the US?
Dodge needs a new Neon, the caliber isn't going to cut it. When you sell so many vehicles to rental agencies you undercut the price of new vehicles. It has come to the point when I see any Chrysler product, minus the charger/300 that I think "rental car."
Wow, how true on the topic of rental car dumping.
I would bet that damn near 100% of all Dodge Journey's are rental dumps.
kpm wrote: I'm done with Dodge. I have 3 Dodge trucks in my driveway and the most reliable one is a '88 Dakota with 249,000 miles. My 06 CTD Mega Cab 3500 is a POS. It has starting issues and the tailshaft seal failed a week after the warranty expired (for time, not mileage) and the dealer wanted $320.00 to replace it. 22,000 miles and a seal fails ?? Do the right thing Chrysler ! I've been loyal to Dodge since 1984 buying new every five years...not anymore. Tell him I said bye.
I currently own a 1984 Charger, 1999 Neon, 1989 Shelby Dakota, 2007 Caliber R/T and a 2007 Dakota Quad Cab and have had no problems with any. The mos recent were purchased new. Prior cars baught new were a 2004 Jeep Wrangler Willys and a 2004 Dakota Quad. No problems with them either.
This is the one that I really wanted.
Ask him to build something the size of an E30 or AE86, rwd, 4 cylinder, manual tranmission, cloth interior, and manual windows for under $20k that gets 30 mpg.
More manual transmissions?
Replacement plans for the Sprinter? One stop-gap I thought of would be a cargo-version of the Caravan.
Dear Sir,
Please re-engineer the truck automatic transitions to last. Ford and Chevy can do it, so can MoPar. Invoke the spirit of the 727.
Badge engineering is lame. Make one brand of mini-van, with options for everyone. Things like the Compass are silly. Jeeps go off road. Know your demographic.
What are the proposed pricing of the 500? How about the Abarth? We want to like this car. Please don't price it out of reach.
generally i like the design of the dodge cars better than the comparable chevys, but i think ford is kicking both of their deriers. that hard to say as a dodge and chevy owner...... but rthe trend at dodge seems to be to make the cars edgier than they need to be in the appearance department. specifically as it relates to wheels and wheel wells. are they going to make any cars and trucks that dont require 22 inch wheels to fill the wheel wells? even the 2 "small" cars shown here seem to be disproportionately large compared to other smaller vehicles.
RossD wrote: Ask him to build something the size of an E30 or AE86, rwd, 4 cylinder, manual tranmission, cloth interior, and manual windows for under $20k that gets 30 mpg.
They had a prototype and it was in the post above yours.
The Razor.
http://www.allpar.com/model/concepts/dodge-razor.html
Actually, ask him to look back into the Razor concept. It was supposed to be cheap ($20k in 2008), used mostly off the shelf parts and I think, especially if they offered an SRT-4 variant would probably be a competitor between Miata to Genesis.
Remain true to your roots while addressing today's issues. Many truly iconic vehicles have emerged from MaMopar over the decades. Its easy to focus on boring lumps like the Caliber, but those with any perspective fondly recall Superbirds, Imperials( the real ones), Cuda's, Roadrunners(Beep! Beep!), the invention of the minivan, the original letter cars, the Cunningham Lemans racers, the inspiration for the most powerful passenger based race engine ever built(Hemis of all types), PowerWagons, Dusters, Demons, SixPacks, flip open hood scoops, lift off hoods, Pistol Grips, Danas, TorqueFlites, log rams, crossrams, Stage motors, AAR Cudas, the engineering staff that was the envy of the world for decades, the moxy to produce truly memorable cars, Vipers- chasing Porsches out of the GT catagory, records at the 'Ring, the new Challenger(I really want one-please do a smaller scale version when its time for a redesign), jump starting performance with the irreverent Shelby GLHS's and CSX's, being banned from Nascar(when it was cool) for being too damned fast-twice!, building engines so impressive that anything in the NHRA whether covered with a Camry or Mustang body, runs the Hemi, the Slant Six, push button transmissions, in-car record players, torsion bars, Vanishing Point Challenger, Bullitt Charger, Superbees, The Rapid Transit System, Turbine cars-dammit! Bring back the spirit of Mopar. I'm pulling for you and will be first in line to pony up with a check(just like I was for a '69 Roadrunner, an '86 GLHS and a Viper GTS)
forzav12 wrote: Remain true to your roots while addressing today's issues.
Quoted for truth!
+eleventybillion
Tim Suddard wrote: Anyway, I am also going to interview Ralph Gilles, new president of Dodge....Anything you want to know?
Tata's going to eat the low end of the car market unless other companies can produce stripped down, cheap cars.
Is Dodge going to try to play in that market? If so, can the cheap, featureless car come with a mechanical throttle linkage, manual transmission, RWD, etc. (i.e., can it become something GRM readers will adore.)
thinking about it some more on the way home i think the real question i want to know (in addition to the answer to lizard question) is how does he see the future of the car industry going with regard to automated controls? does dodge anticipate that they will pursue overides like mercedes' crash anticipation braking, lane awareness, stability control and drive by wire as the basis of a safe car? will they be installing touchscreen conttrols that require the driver to lok away from the road to operate, or has toyotas drive by wire disaster and a growing nonchalance towards attention while driving/ texting helped them to see that the best solution to accident issues is aware drivers?
lizard wrote: Can they produce a fun, RWD, sub 3000lb, sub $25k, over 300hp, vehicle with a manual tranny? If the answer is "Yes" then ask "Does anybody with decision making ability have a brain?" We don't all want a vehicle that needs 500hp to drag it's 6500lb @ss around and some of us like to use our left leg so it doesn't fall asleep when we drive...
fixed 
And please make it reliable for 200k miles, with average maintanence.
Please ask him when we can expect to see a 300hp 5speed turbo AWD minivan?
(a guy can dream right?)
Marty! wrote: Please ask him when we can expect to see a 300hp 5speed turbo AWD minivan? (a guy can dream right?)
then ask about the turbo mini-van that he has tracked. the van is pretty awesome.
Ask him if he can learn from the past. When the Neon was introduced, had Chrysler spent an extra $500 or so on each car- head gaskets made out of something likely to retain fluid, pistons sturdy enough you can't hear them from 6 blocks away on a cold morning, primer that paint sticks to, and a slightly higher quality of interior plastic- they could have raised the selling price by the same amount, they would have sold the same amount of cars initially, and they would not have reinforced the knowledge (or perception, you choose) that Honda builds a better car than Dodge.
And I own a 02 Accord and a 03 RT Neon, so I know of whence I speak. A couple more bucks of content- and real content, not bells and whistles, and the Neon would be a better car than the Accord.
Welcome to SW Michigan. Lucky for you, I hear Gingerman lengthened the front straight
As to your initial question. Ask him why they don't simply take apart a 1990 CRX, figure out how to substitute enough lightweight parts to meet current crash standards and still keep the weight close to the original. Then change it up enough to make it their own and sell about 500,000 of them. (What other car will hippies, college kids AND motorheads buy?) The Fiat 500 is a start, but its looks as if it gonna end up bloated, "over-featured" and unnecessarily complicated. If you get the chance, ask Honda the same question. They don't even have to change the look.
Streetwiseguy wrote: Ask him if he can learn from the past. When the Neon was introduced, had Chrysler spent an extra $500 or so on each car- head gaskets made out of something likely to retain fluid, pistons sturdy enough you can't hear them from 6 blocks away on a cold morning, primer that paint sticks to, and a slightly higher quality of interior plastic- they could have raised the selling price by the same amount, they would have sold the same amount of cars initially, and they would not have reinforced the knowledge (or perception, you choose) that Honda builds a better car than Dodge. And I own a 02 Accord and a 03 RT Neon, so I know of whence I speak. A couple more bucks of content- and real content, not bells and whistles, and the Neon would be a better car than the Accord.
I agree about the original head gaskets, but the were fixed in 1997. Pistons were quite good, at least on the DOHC cars. They were made by Mahle. I built a DOHC using JE pistons and they wee much noisier than the OEM Mahle. I never heard a stock Neon that sounded noisy.
Moparman wrote:Streetwiseguy wrote: Ask him if he can learn from the past. When the Neon was introduced, had Chrysler spent an extra $500 or so on each car- head gaskets made out of something likely to retain fluid, pistons sturdy enough you can't hear them from 6 blocks away on a cold morning, primer that paint sticks to, and a slightly higher quality of interior plastic- they could have raised the selling price by the same amount, they would have sold the same amount of cars initially, and they would not have reinforced the knowledge (or perception, you choose) that Honda builds a better car than Dodge. And I own a 02 Accord and a 03 RT Neon, so I know of whence I speak. A couple more bucks of content- and real content, not bells and whistles, and the Neon would be a better car than the Accord.I agree about the original head gaskets, but the were fixed in 1997. Pistons were quite good, at least on the DOHC cars. They were made by Mahle. I built a DOHC using JE pistons and they wee much noisier than the OEM Mahle. I never heard a stock Neon that sounded noisy.
If you want to hear a noisy Neon, come to the great white north. In mother mopars defense, its a very common situation up here with modern short skirt pistons.
Run the hooha out of them once they are warmed up and all the parts are stretched and friendly, but when its -25, drive like granny till she's heat soaked or you'll collapse the skirts for sure.
And yes, the head gaskets were fixed, and the vast majority of them were covered under warranty well past the expiry date. There was ample evidence by 95 that they should do something- not wait till 97.
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