Chrysler....BOLD? or SUICIDAL?

I just read an online article that lays out Chrysler's future marketting / model plans. I can't figure out if they are very bold...or if the company will be out of business by 2016.

Chrysler has been quietly consolidating it's dealers...if you haven't noticed. 90% of the Chrysler Group dealers sell all four of their brands: Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram. For those of you who aren't aware, RAM has become the brand of the trucks, there no longer is a Dodge Truck brand / division. Because of this consolidation, it's thought that it would be wise to no longer offer "badge-engineered" versions of Chryslers and Dodges. SOOO, one of the first brands / vehicles to "bite the dust"? The Grand Caravan. Even tho the GC OUTSELLS the Town and Country (by a narrow margin of TWELVE PER CENT), Chrysler has decided to drop the "value" edition of the vehicle that pretty much "invented" the minivan market. Except for the Koreans, all the other minivan purveyors sell at the same price point as the Town and Country, so Chrysler feels that chasing value customers is not worth the effort in a corner of the market that is / was? shrinking.

What will replace the Grand Caravan? WHY, the ever popular "CROSSOVER". This CROSSOVER will also take the place of the Dodge Avenger SEDAN (didn't know they still built / sold these...when is the last time you saw one? Even at an airport rent-a-car-counter?). Since the Journey is supposedly built on the Avenger's platform, I don't quite understand why ANOTHER crossover (albeit, SMALLER) is also planned as a replacement for the Journey. Dodge? Ram? WILL get small vans based on Fiat designs...no word on whether these will be Commercial vans or passenger vans. The Fiats they will be based on are used as commercial / cargo vans in Europe.

Dodge will (FINALLY?) replace the Caliber, with another 4 door sedan. This sedan is scheduled to make it's debut in Detroit at the Auto Show in January. Chrysler will get a HATCHBACK version of this car (who says Americans think hatchbacks are synonymous with "cheap"?). Guess the folks responsible for this car didn't get the memo about badge-engineering...or it doesn't count if one car is a sedan and the other is a hatchback?

Chrysler is NOT working on a Fiesta sized car to be sold by Dodge OR Chrysler dealers. Apparently, any smaller cars will be sold by the TINY number of Fiat dealers. 150 as of this time.

Dropping the Grand Caravan will be like shooting themselves in their Italian foots.

Sounds pretty silly on the face of it to can a bestseller. Next thing you know they'll be unveiling the new dodge (vista) colt.

This doesn't affect me at all (as i've never considered buying a Chrysler product, I hated driving the 4 or so that I tried), but I think Chrysler needed something bold. Did it need this? I don't know, but I don't know anything about running a car company. I hope it works.

As a side note, I drove a Fiat 500 sport at the local mall (they were doing a thing). Not bad at all, but not for me. My complaints will probobly be fixed in the Abarth (except I didn't think it needed more power. can't hurt, though). My wife, though, had problems getting the seat far enough forward to push the clutch to the floor... odd they'd make a small car that small people can't drive (and at 5'2" she's not super short, either)

No big deal. You can always get yourself a Routan instead.

What I suspect is that the Grand Caravan will die only by losing its name. I would imagine they would still offer the cheaper trim level, but sell it as the lowest trim level of the T&C. Thats just my guess though. Still, its not hard to confuse buyers by doing something like this.

It all kind of depends on what makes money for them. If the GC is a money looser, then it's a good idea to drop it. And if a CUV replacement of the same makes more onwers satisfied, and makes more money, well that's easy.

Chrysler needs to get out of the "volume" mentaltiy, and get into the "profit" mentality. You may see a lot fewer "bottom end" products from them.

And if Fiat can make more money selling 10,000 500's vs. 30,000 chrysler badged products- that seems like a smart thing to do. That being said, I don't see the 500 being a MINI. Maybe, but it's just not the same icon as the 500/600's were.

We'll see.

So they're axing the Caravan and keeping the Town and Country. I don't see why that's a bad thing, as long as they offer something. Funny though, I just spend 1k miles in a Caravan rental, and while I'm not a minvan guy, its the first Chrysler I've driven in years that I actually enjoyed.

I get freaked out when people arbitrarily capitalize words. I am just reading along, and all of a sudden dude yells "SEDAN" in the middle of a sentence. It is like Tourette's for typing.

bravenrace wrote: So they're axing the Caravan and keeping the Town and Country. I don't see why that's a bad thing, as long as they offer something. Funny though, I just spend 1k miles in a Caravan rental, and while I'm not a minvan guy, its the first Chrysler I've driven in years that I actually enjoyed.

Well, I just bought a loaded (just about everything but leather) GC a year ago for almost $5k less than the cheapest T&C... With both they were competing against Kia and Honda/Toyota, if they don't change the price point, they're losing the lower half of the market...

// On a side note, it's the car that convinced me to never buy a Chrysler again, from the "randomly turns off" to "dealer, regional rep, and corporate all treat you like E36 M3 when you explain the problem", all the way to "parts 6 months after the recall is announced, in the meantime "drive carefully"", screw Chrylser.

Do you know they aren't changing the pricing or trim levels? To eliminate "duplicate" offerings wouldn't mean to eliminate a unique offering, so if I had to guess, I'd say they'll do something so that the T&C covers all the bases.

Otto Maddox wrote: I get freaked out when people arbitrarily capitalize words. I am just reading along, and all of a sudden dude yells "SEDAN" in the middle of a sentence. It is like Tourette's for typing.

There ARE a lot of volume changes in that post....

I think what needs to be realized is the Grand Caravan IS the same model as the Town and Country and costs the same. They both have leather interiors and all the gadgets. It would make sense to drop one of them. There will still be a Caravan, just not a GC. The price of them alone makes sense as a Chrysler, but it just may not make sense as one in the long run.

My wife is 5'2" and has very short legs and she had no issues with the clutch.

I'm 6' and I had no issues with the roofline or seat placement. Not every car works for both of us, but if she doesn't remember to move the seat when she gets out I can't even get into most cars.

She wants the Abarth version for a more sporty look.

I was surprised to see the large number of exterior colors and interior colors and interior fabrics you could choose. It was like we were in the 60's again. I seem to remember someone right here on the forum complaining about the lack of choices in cars nowadays. Well Fiat was listening.

If Chrysler isn't going to produce any small cars then why are they toting around a cutaway version of their new Firefly motor? It's extremely small and at 1400ccs isnt' going into a big car.

Take a look at chryslers UK offerings

http://www.chrysler.co.uk/

Rebadged Lancias. They didn't even bother to change the model names. Minivan, mid sized and small car. Covers all the bases they needed to I suppose.

I wonder if the new Chrysler hatch will be one of these?

I will never buy a Chrysler product, though I do admire the company for selling vehicles that are styled more (shall we say) interestingly than the other major players.

Why can't we have the diesel caravan? Also why can't we have a 965kg car that can tow 750kg? America sucks for car selection... In Europe the Mazda 2 can probably tow 2000lbs...

In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:

No, the SWB Caravan was axed on the last redesign.

In reply to nocones: IIRC, the vehicles are no different, it is a matter of how the US Gov goes about tow ratings.

On my honeymoon back in March I had spent time in both a T&C and a GC. I preferred the T&C hands down if only because of the shifter. The shifter on the GC was staggered, PITA. On the T&C it was strait up and down. Based on my time in it I wouldn't hesitate to get a T&C if I had the money.

In reply to neon4891:

They are still gonna build that RAM Cargo though aren't they?

My guess is, they will realize they need a sub $30K minivan...at least temporarily (as that is the price point Dodge currently occupies with the Grand Caravan) but it isn't likely to stick around. It "appears" that Chrysler's thinking is, that the market is moving towards vans that are stickering for MORE than $30K...so why bother with the sub $30k market slice. It won't be long, the way the prices are moving on Korean vehicles, that Kia and Hyundai will have a sub $30K minivan.

Chrysler is planning to use Lancias platforms for 1 or 2 small sedans...maybe even selling them in the U.S. One is already being sold in Europe. It "could" be the first car sold by Chrysler in nearly 100 years to feature a 2 cylinder engine. (The "Euro" Chrysler/Lancia has an optional FFiat 500-sourced 2 cylinder engine.)

Sorry for all the random looking caps...I needed someway to draw attention to the particular words.

I once worked with someone who had Tourettes...his major sysmtom was a heavy bit of head jerking, tho no uncontrolled swearing.

integraguy wrote: My guess is, they will realize they need a sub $30K minivan...at least temporarily (as that is the price point Dodge currently occupies with the Grand Caravan) but it isn't likely to stick around. It "appears" that Chrysler's thinking is, that the market is moving towards vans that are stickering for MORE than $30K...so why bother with the sub $30k market slice. It won't be long, the way the prices are moving on Korean vehicles, that Kia and Hyundai will have a sub $30K minivan.

Huh? According to Edmunds, the 2012 Kia Sedona starts at $24,900.

Mazda5 is probably the key sub-$30k minivan. Heck, I think you can get one with a sticker under twenty.

I thought chrysler was shooting itself in the head when my friend was telling me about the ones he worked on. He'd get overflow work from a tiny dealership, and they'd come in with only a few thousand miles on them with bad suspension parts. Or they were ok, just not tightened down all the way. Basically the cars weren't screwed together completely. I figured they gave up then and were just free wheeling...

~Alex

Some of this may have to do with the CAFE standards. I'm not up on the inventory counting, but it may be to their advantage to drop a line or two, in order to boost the overall MPG numbers.

Crossovers sell. That move makes sense. I don't like them, but if I were an auto manufacturer I'd build as many as possible.

SEDAN!!!

I want an updated version of the Dart. Front/rear. Straight Six, maybe with DOHC. 5 of 6 speed manual or auto. One base version, stripped with no frills for commuting and one high end hotrod version to try and compete with BMW.

Gimme, gimme, gimme.