How to fix Chrysler (if there was still a chance)

Let’s put on our imagination caps and think of a world where the impatient Cerberus group wasn’t desperately trying to regurgitate the remains of Chrysler on to anyone willing to spare a few pieces of pocket lint and pennies.  In this imaginary wonderland Cerberus wasn’t going to dissolve the remains of Chrysler, but instead invest the time and money in a long term plan to save the irrelevant Chrysler brand, strengthen Jeep, and trim Dodge to a lean and competent brand.

I have always been a fan of the upstart underdog that Chrysler has been through the years.  Always small enough that they were willing to take risks, but not quite enough money to keep up with the bigger bullies from across town – Ford and GM.  Now they have been sucked dry by Mercedes, and left to rot with Cerberus.  This analysis will be in same vein as our earlier Ford break-down, just this time we have to suspend disbelief for a little bit and assume Chrysler will stick around long enough to be fixed.

Now to start the roast of the Chrysler lineup.

Chrysler’s Current Lineup

Cars	Everything Else
300C	Town and Country
Crossfire	Pacifica
PT Cruiser	Aspen (incl. Hybrid)
Sebring

I must say, to me, Chrysler has always been the “engineer’s” luxury car. They were understated, powerful, had a touch of refinement, and great features that made the left brained among us go ooohhh, that’s a good idea. I would love to see the whole lineup work its way back to that. They don’t have the prestige of heritage to compete directly with other luxury brands, or pretend luxury brands (I’m looking at you Lincoln), but definitely should be able to revive this old cachet.

Starting with the cars, I have to say I quite like the 300C, it brings big, RWD, land barges back to the American blacktop with a bit of modern flair and aggressiveness. It is quite the keeper it just needs to be freshened up in the next design cycle.

The Crossfire, though quirky isn’t a bad car for Chrysler, its style just needs to be brought into the family fold. Give it a proper V8, take more Mercedes out of it, and kill that horrendous windshield surround, and we might have a winner.

Given that I have past experience with the PT Cruiser, I am biased in that I quite like the car – but it really does not fit in the Chrysler lineup. It made a great addition to the Plymouth line, but sticks out oddly in the Chrysler line.

Finally, the Sebring should be killed. Badge engineering that reigned for so many years has to end, and this dual copy of the Dodge Caliber should be an easy piece to make an example of. The only way I can see to keep the Sebring around is to throw the name tags on a four door version of an updated Crossfire. This way Chrysler has a full size RWD sedan, compact RWD sedan, and RWD slant back coupe.

Now, for the rest. The Town and country, yes I know not two lines ago I said badge engineering has to end, and it does, but the T&C makes a good addition to the Chrysler lineup. They have to differentiate the sheet metal, interior, ride, handling, and overall feel from it’s Dodge brother, but that’s all surface changes that “should” be easy to make. If they aren’t willing or able to do that, then it should be dropped and the upscale options added to the Dodge option sheet.

To replace or stand alongside the minivan is the Pacifica, which holds it’s own as an upscale cute-ute to transition between full-size SUV’s and “pedestrian” minivans and wagons.

Finally the Aspen should be axed along with all other upscale SUV’s, whether or not they sell well to the public, they are vehicles that realistically should not exist.

The biggest thing I would like to see from Chrysler is a better family resemblance between all the cars. Make that start and focus on a few good vehicles and they might be able to make it.

I like the 300c too, although I think it’s due for a bit of a facelift.

The Sebring as it currently exists is a rolling box of bad design and misdirected management. It needs to die and be reincarnated on a new RWD platform sharing the same design language as the 300c. The Crossfire, quirky though it may be, can continue on as the two door/fastback version of this new Sebring; basically blending the current concept with a new style. I’d also like to see a potential AWD variant of the Sebring in the future as well. The current Sebring convertible is such a design disaster that the idea shouldn’t be allowed for a good decade, but the idea of making the Crossfire a folding hardtop is appealing. (Even mentioning a Sebring convertible during this blackout period should be punished by death in a 2008 Sebring road trip.)

The only thing remaining should be the Town and Country. At this point it is so ingrained in the Chrysler lineup that it just can’t be eliminated. It too needs an update and a look that fits with its siblings though. I think the Town and Country could move more towards a big wagon style with four regular doors while still maintaining the stow-and-go interior. Whether it should be renamed the Pacifica or whether the Pacifica name should just die is a decision for another day.

Dodge’s Current Lineup

Cars	SUVs, Minivans & Crossovers	Trucks
Avenger	Durango (all types)	Dakota
Caliber	Nitro	RAM
Challenger	Grand Caravan	Sprinter
Charger	Journey
Magnum
Viper

Aside from the Challenger, all the Dodge cars actually work. Everything has a place and a purpose and follows a unified design language. The Challenger obviously strays on design but that’s OK, it’s playing to its heritage. One thing though: don’t kill the Magnum… pleeeeaaasssseeeee!
Everything in the “SUVs, Minivans and Crossovers” category should be eliminated (Redneck will cover the replacement for the Durangos later) except for one thing. The Caravan minivan line shall continue to thrive as it always has, although would somebody please bang on the sheet metal a bit? The current design is awful.

I have no useful input on trucks except they’re big and noisy.

I basically agree with refined on the car, crossover, and tall wagon categories and just have to reiterate: keep the Magnum, and add: give it a manual and optional AWD. With that said… on to the trucks!!!

Durango, Dakota, and all these midsize, might as well be fullsize, abominations should be killed. They will be replaced later when I go over Jeep. Beyond that, I really can’t fault their fullsize truck lineup. The new 1500 rear suspension and box designs are industry leaders that quite differentiate them from the competition. They have the only manual transmission option in the heavy duty trucks, and the Cummins is a world renowned engine. Keep it and run with it.

As sad as it is, I can’t even touch the Sprinter vans since they are just a contract holdover and still belong to Mercedes, they might as well not exist in the lineup.

Jeep’s Current Lineup

SUV’s	Jeeps
Commander	Wrangler (all types)
Compass
Grand Cherokee
Liberty
Patriot

Jeeps are solid front axle, off road capable, four wheel drive trucks. With that in mind, and to paraphrase Refined: as the categories show Jeeps are Jeeps and the rest are not, thus they should not exist.

So with everything else dead we deal with the Wranglers. The current lineup should be kept and expanded. On the short wheelbase platform there should be the 2-door as it exists. On the long wheelbase platform there should be the current 4-door, a LWB 2-door, and a 2-door pickup a-la the AEV Brute concept/kit not the J8 that is currently being paraded around.

From there they should offer upgraded hardware to bring at least the LWB models up to “1 ton” specification: dana 44 front, dana 60 rear, and leaf springs out back to locate it all. Drivetrain wise they should keep the Rubicon package across the board, and add a real diesel option. None of this euro VM Motori refined mess, but a clattery, loud, and torquey 4-cyl Cummins (okay that last might be a pipe dream).

With that, for the more refined among us who still like to venture off the beaten path, or over the curbs in the mall parking lot as it more often is, they should bring back an updated version of the original Cherokee. Lightweight, all unibody, solid front axle, capable off-roader, that is fairly comfortable for day to day tasks. Then base a Grand Cherokee off a similar platform if they still must have something upscale.

With this lineup, Dodge won’t need failing midsize suv’s and pickups while Chrysler Corp as a whole will still have the niche filled.

*chews on straw* yerp

Special Mention: Plymouth

At this point I would like to touch on reviving the old Plymouth brand. I don’t see it working as a mainstream high volume player, but they could be used as a testbed for experimental technology. Much like the turbine cars or yore, the new Plymouth could bring out anywhere from 50 to 50 thousand copies of a concept to see how it is received by the public. Examples of this technology would be hybrids, fuel cells, turbine range extenders, forced induction, alternative fuels, even fusion if they could ever get that far.

They should also push the envelope of styling, continuing and broadening the tradition of the Prowler and PT Cruiser. Maybe even reviving some of the dead concepts from all of Ma Mopar’s history, such as the ME412 (yeah right), Chrysler Atlantic, Dodge EV, and Dodge Demon to name a few. Obviously these cars would not have a common design style as I have been pushing for all the other brands…. but they’re not supposed to. This marque would be experimenting and having fun, but still getting things to market.

I’m not sure what there is to add to this, he stole my comments and posted them as his own anyway. I definitely like the idea of Plymouth existing under a stable Chrysler parent, but at this time there’s just no way they could pull this off.

Snap Judgment

Chrylser has big problems, Cerberus being among them. When Cerberus took Chrysler over it seems they thought they could make a quick fix and start raking in the money. This shortsighted plan has obviously backfired now their plan seems to have become sell off whatever is left as a bunch of little pieces. Fixing a car company as far gone as Chrysler was (and is), is a multi-year project. The gestation period for a new model is usually at least two or three years, and Chrysler really needs that kind of overhaul to survive.

I wish I could say he just stole that from me…. but there’s too many big words and coherent thoughts, I had issues reading it.

:redneckbig: