The end of Chrysler?

Aaron_King said:

In reply to aircooled :

The only thing I can think of is that the GMC versions of stuff usually looks better than the Chevy version.

This for sure. 

What will the limo companies do without Chrysler?  Use Cadillacs?  Psh...

So maybe I won't be buying a new Giulia in a couple years.  Damn.

aircooled said:

Can we get rid of GMC now.  Nobody knows what the point of that is...

The point of GMC is to print money for GM. They're GM's version of Jeep

When I think Alfa I think massively unreliable cars.  Unfortunately that's been backed up by the magazines experiences with the new Guilia.  I'd love to buy a quadrafoglio, but for nearly $90k, it better damn work all the time!  Which, since its an Alfa, it most certainly will not.

docwyte said:

When I think Alfa I think massively unreliable cars.  Unfortunately that's been backed up by the magazines experiences with the new Guilia.  I'd love to buy a quadrafoglio, but for nearly $90k, it better damn work all the time!  Which, since its an Alfa, it most certainly will not.

While that's no longer true, other than +500hp, I don't find the car's that compelling to look at.  Maybe they handle well, but compared to how Alfa cars stood out in a crowd more, the Giula and Stelvia are pretty ordinary other than the grill.  I'm not going to shell out huge money for a car you have to see close to tell it's different.  I've had the same complaint for many Lincolns for over a decade.

Meanwhile, at Dodge, the marketing people are throwing both fingers in the air yelling YOLO and while telling engineering the Hellcat engine needs to go in everything.

I'm still waiting for someone there to "find" 25 or so Viper chassis so they can try to stuff the engine into them followed by a run of Wranglers. I'm not sure which would be more horrifying to drive.

On topic: No one is going to miss the current Chrysler. It's time to streamline things a bit or actually try to make it a luxury brand.

The0retical said:

Meanwhile, at Dodge, the marketing people are throwing both fingers in the air yelling YOLO and while telling engineering the Hellcat engine needs to go in everything.

I'm still waiting for someone there to "find" 25 or so Viper chassis so they can try to stuff the engine into them followed by a run of Wranglers. I'm not sure which would be more horrifying to drive.

On topic: No one is going to miss the current Chrysler. It's time to streamline things a bit or actually try to make it a luxury brand.

Doesn't the current Gen V10 in the Viper already make close to those numbers?

What's an extra 50hp/50tq going to do as far as making it that much scarier?

docwyte said:

When I think Alfa I think massively unreliable cars.  Unfortunately that's been backed up by the magazines experiences with the new Guilia.  I'd love to buy a quadrafoglio, but for nearly $90k, it better damn work all the time!  Which, since its an Alfa, it most certainly will not.

Around here you could probably pick up one for $60K to $65k.  Still expensive though.  The 2 liter versions are quite reasonable however.  I looked at one and could have left with it for $35k,maybe cheaper.  It actually drove pretty well, easily on par with most of the Germans, and better than most of the Audi's I've driven, S3 excepted.

I looked at a Guilia with a friend a month ago. The dealer had four of the fancy ones on the lot. They wouldn't allow test drives. As in, no driving the car AT ALL until after paperwork and money. It was very strange. 

While another old as dirt US company getting killed makes me sad, I can't say I'm surprised.

0 effort on FCAs part to make Chryslers people wanted to buy, same with the small cars and decent midsizes. 


They might have managed to eke out a few more years with tarted up versions of the Journey and Durango but not enough to save them.
 

z31maniac said:

The0retical said:

Meanwhile, at Dodge, the marketing people are throwing both fingers in the air yelling YOLO and while telling engineering the Hellcat engine needs to go in everything.

I'm still waiting for someone there to "find" 25 or so Viper chassis so they can try to stuff the engine into them followed by a run of Wranglers. I'm not sure which would be more horrifying to drive.

On topic: No one is going to miss the current Chrysler. It's time to streamline things a bit or actually try to make it a luxury brand.

Doesn't the current Gen V10 in the Viper already make close to those numbers?

What's an extra 50hp/50tq going to do as far as making it that much scarier?

No idea, but since the Hellcat motor, and ECU, is already setup with forced induction in mind, it would probably be a short trip to Venom 800/Venom 1000 territory.

I remember when they canceled the Chrysler 200 and the official company statement was something along the lines of "American's don't want sedans anymore". 

While that may reflect the current trend, I think that it would have been more accurate to say, "Sedan buyers don't want to buy Chrysler 200s."

In my family, I grew up with Plymouths and Mercurys. While I have fond memories of both brands, I don't miss either one in its final form.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

I looked at a Guilia with a friend a month ago. The dealer had four of the fancy ones on the lot. They wouldn't allow test drives. As in, no driving the car AT ALL until after paperwork and money. It was very strange. 

Mitsubishi wouldn't let me drive an Evo X back in '08 when they were new.  Totally idiotic.  I'm not buying any car I can't drive first.

racerdave600, even for $60k I"m not interested.  They're just not reliable and don't really offer anything I can't get from a BMW, which has a far better dealer network and a car that won't leave me stranded all the time.

docwyte said:

mazdeuce - Seth said:

I looked at a Guilia with a friend a month ago. The dealer had four of the fancy ones on the lot. They wouldn't allow test drives. As in, no driving the car AT ALL until after paperwork and money. It was very strange. 

Mitsubishi wouldn't let me drive an Evo X back in '08 when they were new.  Totally idiotic.  I'm not buying any car I can't drive first.

racerdave600, even for $60k I"m not interested.  They're just not reliable and don't really offer anything I can't get from a BMW, which has a far better dealer network and a car that won't leave me stranded all the time.

Same with the Focus RS. I was REALLY interested in one. Went to drive one the day I went and test drove an STi and an SS 1LE. Had no problem getting a drive in the latter two, even though a higher MSRP.

The guy at Ford dealer told me, I could take it around the block after the paperwork was signed. 

Sorry, bromontana, I'm not dropping $40k on a car you won't at least let me get up on the highway and see how it drives.

In reply to z31maniac :

That wasn't up to the dealers, that was a directive from Ford.  Even the sales people couldn't drive them.

I'm not saying it was right or that it made sense, especially from a sales perspective considering the GT's and Mustangs they also sell.

Then again a friend just had his in for service on the HVAC controls and found his wheel curbed to E36 M3 and his dashcam shows that its been hooned by the lot monkey's pretty hard.

docwyte said:

Mitsubishi wouldn't let me drive an Evo X back in '08 when they were new.  Totally idiotic.  I'm not buying any car I can't drive first.

 

Mitsubishi wouldn't let me drive an Evo VII. I bought a new WRX a few hours later.

The Jaguar dealer let me take a car for an entire afternoon.

Woody said:

docwyte said:

Mitsubishi wouldn't let me drive an Evo X back in '08 when they were new.  Totally idiotic.  I'm not buying any car I can't drive first.

 

Mitsubishi wouldn't let me drive an Evo VII. I bought a new WRX a few hours later.

The Jaguar dealer let me take a car for an entire afternoon.

 

Mazda let me leave with a brand new mazdaspeed3 weeks after us delivery without so much as running my insurance. In the middle of winter. My reply upon return was "lemme get one in black". 

On the subject of the viper, they've already said it's coming back..again...and will be v8 motivated they'd be dumb to use anything other than a hellcat