Better buy that new Charger or Challenger NOW.

[Kevin68N71]

Disturbing news folks.  The chief engineer at Fiat stated:

Rinolfi doesn't expect Fiat technology will be applied to Chrysler's biggest engines, including 6-liter ones, which he said are destined to disappear "the way the dinosaurs did."

So, my hope that the BEST of both worlds--Dodge high performance cars and good trucks and (hopefully) decent quality small cars and the really cool Fiat 500 would make for a nice array of choices--is not what is going to happen.

The good stuff Chrysler makes, the Charger, Challenger, and large engined trucks, will be discontinued. They will simply use the facilities and machinery that they got at a bargain price and churn out Americanized Puntos and other crap. They won't have the perceived quality of Toyotas or Hondas, so I don't know how well they will do.  Mopar as we know it--new Super Bees, Chargers, Challengers, are on their way out--at least how it apparently sits now.

Nice news to hear. The good stuff goes away, replaced with crap--not because the stuff is no good or not selling, but because our government says we don't "need" it.

Mark my words.  The "New GM" will shelve the Corvette, the new Camaro (because the "Administration" says we don't need it) and your choice from GM will be nice re-badged Chinese cars.  Oh, some of those new Indian trucks I hear coming.

Maybe my next car is a Shelby Mustang.

[Khyron]

agreed, Mustangs for everyone!

that 2010 one is swett

[Hemidoug]

Come on...you didn't see THAT coming with that Nazi buying up every important corporation in sight? I guess you have had your eyes opened......

[Mike DC]

   
Gas prices remaining at a reasonable level?  Or the soccer moms all driving 9mpg trucks?   

Take your pick.

[bull]

Bummer. No more new "Chargers" eh?

[GN]

Just likr Diamler did to Chrysler.

[Mike DC]

It sucks, but we could see this coming years ago.

Challengers & Camaros & Mustangs are definitely something to buy right now if you want one.  They will not survive this gas crisis very long in their current form.

[Forza]

Bummer. No more new "Chargers" eh?

lol, Ahh shucks

[Rustymuscle]

A little bit of homework rendered these very interesting and contradicting results:

[All blue notes are mine]

All quotes taken from the following article found at www.time.com
Is Chrysler Too Big a Mess for Fiat's Turnaround Artista?
By Peter Gumbel

Below you will find a quote not from Italian-Canandian Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat, but the author himself:

"If [Sergio] Marchionne is to succeed, he needs above all to reposition Chrysler from maker of clunky, overpowered gas guzzlers to purveyor of must-own, energy-efficient vehicles. "The challenge for Fiat Chrysler is to move away from popular products and into 'pop' products, full of cool environmental technology and on the right side of history," says Carlo Alberto Carnevale, a professor of strategic management at Bocconi University's business school in Milan and a close watcher of Fiat."

In reality, Marchionne has a far more progressive and - more importantly - harmonious view of how the merger and ultimate reorganization of Chrysler and its product line should go:

"On June 10, the day Fiat sealed the deal, he announced a thorough organizational revamp. From now on, each of the four individual brands--Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Mopar (which makes parts)--will be distinct business units responsible for profit and loss. [bold added by me] He also reached deep into the ranks, bypassing the engineers and putting a younger, energetic generation of managers with marketing experience in charge of the brands. "That's a mirror image of what he did at Fiat," says a longtime Fiat executive. Next up: installing Fiat production platforms at Chrysler plants and using Fiat's sales network to sell Jeeps and other Chrysler models around the world."

"He encourages Fiat managers to take a close look at Apple's branding prowess and even asks them to benchmark their activities against the company. For at Chrysler, he's moving, just as he did at Fiat, to restructure the organization, overhaul production, revamp the lineup, motivate a beaten-down workforce and deal with prickly shareholders--this time including the U.S. government. [Marchionne wrote,] "My job as CEO is not to make decisions about the business but to set stretch objectives and help our managers work out how to reach them."

The reality is that Marchionne is directly opposed to how Daimler's Dieter Zetsche ruled the reorganized Daimler-Chrysler. Contrary to Zetsche's complete reconstruction of the brand, its appeal and product line, Machionne is interested in banking on Chrysler's existing popular interest and appeal to create a brand familiarity as strong as Apple. As a once professional automotive journalist, I can safely predict that this implies less "revolution" and more "evolution" in Chrysler.

Chrysler has already announced and presented EV electric vehicles, bio-fuel friendly diesel vehicles and other alternative fuel powerplants. Will the SRT's vanish? Doubtful, especially as Marchionne has more interest in crossbreeding more Chrysler influence into Fiat's other brand, Alfa Romeo.

All following quotes are pulled from the www.freep.com
Reborn Chrysler gets a European makeover
By Greg Gardner

"Led by Sergio Craver in Turin, Italy, Alfa Romeo will be the brand under which Fiat returns to the U.S. market. The need for a more competitive midsize car - probably Chrysler's weakest segment - has dogged the company for at least two years."

"The most likely choice appears to be a rear-wheel drive car that will share the basic dimensions of the 2011 Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger. Fiat has looked at designing an Alfa Romeo 169 off the same structure."

[68charger383]

Looks like 1974 is coming all over again 

[1969chargerrtse]

I don't see why GM would stop the Camaro?  They had said themselves that that car is on a waiting list and one of the few things bringing money for them.

[Kevin68N71]

I don't see why GM would stop the Camaro?  They had said themselves that that car is on a waiting list and one of the few things bringing money for them.

Here's the reasons:

1) Our President
2) The administration dictating what kinds of cars to make if you take government money
3) Listening to the environmentalists
4) The prevailing wisdom in some parts that ugly Toyota Pruises and Hondas are exciting and good looking cars
5) To be blunt, the "pussification" of males generally speaking who think comparing their MPG is an exciting course of conversation and a drive in a 440 powered car would scar them for life
6) Price of gas and the knee jerk reactions of alot of people
7) The ongoing misinformation, disinformation and outright bias that American cars are completely inferior to European/Japanese cars, and the justification to ape eurasian cars rather than be creative, bright and take risks on distinctly American products
Continued management by gutless wonders like Rick Wagonner (gone now) and guys who happily admit to "knowing nothing about cars"

Rusty is pointing out some good information, we can only keep our fingers crossed.

Heck, the Corvette was "on its way out" how many times?  And who would have thought we would have the fastest, most brutal Shelby Mustangs EVER in 2010?

[Landonsrt]

Plain and simple and to not get too political, we will all drive the same little smartfortwo type POS cars. Work different hard labor jobs, or sit on our asses and make the same amount of money and let the government take everything they can from us while or society turns into a communist controlled (democracy) where everyone has the right to do as they are told!!!


Goodbye ZR1, Viper, Challenger, Camaro, Mustang, Silverado, Ram, F150, Charger, 300C, Impala SS(never impressed anyway), anything sport or V8 oriented!!

[Armudster]

Plain and simple and to not get too political, we will all drive the same little smartfortwo type POS cars. Work different hard labor jobs, or sit on our asses and make the same amount of money and let the government take everything they can from us while or society turns into a communist controlled (democracy) where everyone has the right to do as they are told!!!


Goodbye ZR1, Viper, Challenger, Camaro, Mustang, Silverado, Ram, F150, Charger, 300C, Impala SS(never impressed anyway), anything sport or V8 oriented!!

That's exactly what's happening, the government will take more and more control of our lifes, muscle cars are over now, it's in times like this that I begin wondering if the whole recession was purposely created, just my 
  If you had trouble accepting the 4 door Charger just imagine if Fiat wanted to make their own version and bring back the name with a piece of crap economic 4 banger? 

Sorry if I appear too political, but I'm only saying what is in front of my eyes

[bull]

A little bit of homework rendered these very interesting and contradicting results:

[All blue notes are mine]

All quotes taken from the following article found at www.time.com
Is Chrysler Too Big a Mess for Fiat's Turnaround Artista?
By Peter Gumbel

Below you will find a quote not from Italian-Canandian Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat, but the author himself:

"If [Sergio] Marchionne is to succeed, he needs above all to reposition Chrysler from maker of clunky, overpowered gas guzzlers to purveyor of must-own, energy-efficient vehicles."

I wonder what the author would say about clunky, overpowered gas-guzzlers made in Italy? Is there more room in the world for Ferraris that get 9 mpg if we eliminate SRT8 Challengers that get 13? What an idiot.

[Kevin68N71]

A little bit of homework rendered these very interesting and contradicting results:

[All blue notes are mine]

All quotes taken from the following article found at www.time.com
Is Chrysler Too Big a Mess for Fiat's Turnaround Artista?
By Peter Gumbel

Below you will find a quote not from Italian-Canandian Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat, but the author himself:

"If [Sergio] Marchionne is to succeed, he needs above all to reposition Chrysler from maker of clunky, overpowered gas guzzlers to purveyor of must-own, energy-efficient vehicles."

I wonder what the author would say about clunky, overpowered gas-guzzlers made in Italy? Is there more room in the world for Ferraris that get 9 mpg if we eliminate SRT8 Challengers that get 13? What an idiot.

Good point.  The guy is writing for Time, so that's about their speed.

[Red Ram]

I have my old Charger, that's what I care about...most new cars (that I can afford) are just transportation anyway. If the market is there for muscle cars they'll build them.

Something has to change from the way things were going...I have a positive outlook for the future...wouldn't mind if they were to ban Dukes of Hazzard re-runs!  

[Nitrox]

Speaking to ALL of America...

If you had bought American, you wouldnt have to bail America out. To Hell with foreigners. Support yourselves for once.

[Magnumcharger]

Speaking to ALL of America...

If you had bought American, you wouldnt have to bail America out. To Hell with foreigners. Support yourselves for once.

[Tilar]

Speaking to ALL of America...

If you had bought American, you wouldnt have to bail America out. To Hell with foreigners. Support yourselves for once.

I don't totally agree with that. Close but not totally. I used to buy and sell cars for a little extra income, and still do on a lot smaller scale. Down to a couple a year now. I've done this for the last 30 years. One thing I very rarely did is buy something foreign. It had to be a real bargain. Buying used foreign cars still creates a market for a new one. If they can't sell the old ones they wont buy new ones.

Starting somewhere between the end of the 70's or early 80's and up until the mid 90's, Our country put out some real crap for cars. Not because they didn't know how to build cars, But because our government put such restrictions on them for fuel mileage and the EPA with emissions that they skimped on quality to keep up their profit margin because they still had to sell them and pay the union wages. I'm not so sure the foreign cars were required to do the same.  Plus by this time American automakers had the reputation that they were putting out crap cars compared to foreign. A bad reputation is hard to get rid of. Sometimes it stays with you forever even if/when you do change your ways.


Somewhere along this time the trade regulations stopped. The government used to add import taxes that sort of kept the prices in line between foreign and domestic cars keeping jobs at home and keeping everything sort of competative.

The way I see it, If our government were to implement a system where everything we imported had to have a matching export, all of our jobs would return to the states. Maybe not a dollar for dollar trade but it has to be measured someway and it has to be fair for both sides.  Maybe someway it could be regulated per capita. We buy so much from you, you have to buy X amount from us to match your population.

[451-74Charger]

Speaking to ALL of America...

To Hell with foreigners. Support yourselves for once.

Hey, im a Foreigner, and I bought American...
I have 2 Jeep Grand Cherokees (1 hemi, the other not), and 2 Pontiac Transams, and a Charger.
I pay the same for my gas that the Prius owner does, i just use more (a hell of a lot more).
My wife and Son are Americans, so I think you statement is a little out of place here on this board.
I dont want the topic locked or removed, but comments like that arent welcome here !!!!!

PS. my VERY first car (in England, was ........ A General Lee (not a copy or some Eurotrash Fartbox).

[elanmars]

Speaking to ALL of America...

If you had bought American, you wouldnt have to bail America out. To Hell with foreigners. Support yourselves for once.

that's pretty offensive, ignorant and xenophobic.

[Tilar]

I don't think he meant that in a way you two are taking it. Don't take it personal unless you own honda or toyota or other foreign car company.

[Landonsrt]

Yeah, I think he just meant foreign trash cars. Not so much people. I have never owned a foreign auto, NEVER WILL!!!! Ive had nothing but GM, Dodge and one Ford... My wife has a new Maxima, but my name aint on it!!

[451-74Charger]

So that Mitsubishi...sory Dodge neon you driving is American?


Nearly all late model US cars are based on or are rebadged Foreign cars. (heck the Jeep GC uses the Mercedes floorplan)