Did you Hear they Changed the Name of the Neo-Charger to the Mopar 11?...

[Brock Samson]

 This should please you Bull,... Oh, Wait..   


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-smykD6RxwU&feature=share

[472 R/T SE]

That's a kick ass lookin' ride!   

I wonder if you could get a black stripe? 

[440]

I'm still not terribly fussed with it, although it is cheap.....

I'd still take a new Challenger over the new Charger any day

[TK73]

Where is the name change?

[bull]

So it's a 2011 Dodge Mopar that still sports the name Charger here and there? I don't get it.

[Brock Samson]

 Well,.. so near as i can figure out -  "Mopar" is like the old Mopar "Direct Connection" supplying old and new Mopars with the licenced performance and aftermarket parts, they have two cars out not under the DODGE or Chrysler or Ram brands simply called the "Mopar 10" last years Chally, and this years' "MOPAR 11", They showed a Fiat 500, modified by MOPAR at the Detroit Auto show. I don't know it that's destined to become the MOPAR 12 next year. I've been reading about it, but it's still none too clear, kind of a Tuner Operation, yet seperate from the SRT Series of cars which are still branded under their respective divisions DODGE/CHRYSLER/JEEP. I'm not sure if it is what that T/3 guy was going on about last Yr. He called it a "Heritage" division,.. but i've yet to dig up his old posts to see if his discription fits. They did change the video from the inital one I posted that never mentioned Dodge or Charger with the lady to a new one that says Charger... Perhaps their still wrinkleing, I mean ironing out the bugs... 
Maybe someone around here knows what it's about and can explain it.

[Ghoste]

So basically another European company bought Chrysler and has absolutely no clue whatsoever how to market it so they just change things for the sake of change and stick names on them from the past assuming the dumb Americans will fall all over themselves to buy American nostalgia like the rest of the world?

[Brock Samson]

 Ghoste without more research i think that's a rather simplistic and antogonistic reading.   I'm sure there's a marketing aspect - for folks who want a Shelby type limited edition model that's already "After market Tuned" and distinctive from the garden variety R//Ts and SRTs. I'll post the info but i don't think these "MOPAR"s are for do it your selfers, more like the Corp. wanting some of the Action that might otherwise go to Hurst or Henessey or "whomever". looks to me like the emphisis is on cosmetics and handeling rather then pure straight line performance like the real 392 Challenger that isn't street legal and only sold to race teams. I read the rearend ratio is optimised for quick launches but the pistol grip handle is on a Slushbox, Didn't Ford take over all the Shelby work in '69?..
BTW: Fiat is doing a lot to re-content and bring the MOPAR product line at least as high as they were before the Germans raped the Co. The Cerberus Group was not nearly as concerned with product quality as FIAT seems to be, they've already held at the factory the 300s that were due to be delivered a couple weeks back, and are just now making their way to dealers. And Sergio had told the designers of the next batch of new products (Avenger/200) replacements to go back to the drawing boards further delaying their supposed 2013 launch.
  So it's not looking like your off handed assessment is correct.

[Ghoste]

Meant to sound less antagonistic than jaded.  I just feel a bit overwhelmed by the amount of heritage name dredging that has come from the various Chrysler overseers the last few years.  It's as though they can't or won't (or maybe aren't comfortable with?) work on product and instead prefer to keep sticking new names on things in the hope they will find the magic one that makes us all buy buy buy.  The Charger Daytona RT with Road and Track package comes to mind.  RT everything?
Yes, it reads antangonistic and simplistic but it really is coming from a position of frustration and puzzlement.

[Brock Samson]

 I feel your pain,.. 14 Mos. ago I wrote I had "given up on The Corp.", this was a couple Mos. after FIAT assumed the reigns. Since then they have made considerable strides to return the Corp. to "respectability".

[Ghoste]

I have to agree that they certainly seem to want to avoid some of the mistakes Daimler made (neocharger styling for example) but they still seem confused about the whole branding part. 

[Mike DC]

           
GM and Ford do their share of nostalgia cash-ins too.  Mopar is by no means alone in this trend. 

[Ghoste]

Probably, but I've noticed it much less with them.

[Brock Samson]

 I saw my first '11 charger today from behind at a stop light, i wasn't sure but the tail light LEDs really were quite distinctive,.. sure looks a lot better than the earlier version!   And say what you like about the extra doors but it's nice to know it's a rear wheel drive v-8 full size...

have you seen this commercial with the Robot yet?..  

http://youtu.be/Qw7_UTk0d6Y

[Ghoste]

I can't help but wonder if there had been more of this version and less of Trevor Creed's comments the first time around that maybe the uproar among enthusiasts would have been less.

[Mike DC]

         

Probably, but I've noticed it much less with them.

http://www.camaro5.com/report-limited-edition-camaro-models-to-be-introduced-every-6-months

[Ghoste]

Sorry but I don't see the same kind of name whoring going on there at all.  They are bringing out a Camaro Pace Car which they have done before.  The other two have no connection to the past, the XM and Synergy editions?  I don't see it with things like a Shelby Mustang or Boss either.  Those packages were typically available on the Mustang.  Now if they introduced a Boss F150 with optional Talladega striping that would be more the kind of thing I see Chrysler doing.  Did we really need a Nitro RT?  Is it Mopar Performance or Direct Connection or just Mopar with Direct Connection parts by Mopar Performance?  And maybe we did need a Nitro RT but I still find more confusion from Chrysler when it comes to naming and badging of vehicles and packages.  Perhaps if they introduce a Challenger with optional Cuda stripe kit or a Road Runner Charger it will be the point when we are all as puzzled as I am I guess.
It isn't that they use names from the past that troubles me, in fact I like it.  It's that they seem very unsure of how and where to use them so they just put them all over the place.

[doctor4766]

Yeah like how Mitsubishi called an SUV a Challenger lol (well at least here in Oz anyway)
Think they're known as a Montero on your side of the ditch.
Hardly an appropriate vehicle to wear that name.

[Ghoste]

We did have a Mitsu Challenger in the late 70's but it was a compact hatchback sort of thing.

[Brock Samson]

 In the interview with Ralph Gilles, i posted a couple days ago,

here...

http://www.autolinedetroit.tv/show/1516?play

he too lamented the use of "R/T" on everything i believe he said that's why they used the name "Man Van" on the Sporty Caravan instead of R/T,.. He is now directly responsible for the Dodge brand and understands that under the Germans and Cerberus the products were gutted and R/Ts slathered on everything to maximise shareholder return. On the subject of names which could be it's own thread, oh wait, it is...  
Some of these optional packages are downright ridiculous. but on the other hand at least for the most part the cars still have names rather than numbers, with exceptions of course, 300?.. 200?.. 500? the Taurus went from Taurus to 500 and back to Taurus in less than three years... I like and am used to the older designations as most of us here are, some things are universal S.E. for special edition,.. LX for,..... I, I dunno...   Anyhow, the names that came out on the various trim levels on the Corps cars are pretty much absurd... Breeze?.. Wave?.. City?... Urban?... White Hat Special?..   That's all left over from the yr. or so Cerberus was calling the shots, i suspect that'll all be gone next Yr. So yeah, I agree the waters all got muddied in the last ten years...

[Ghoste]

Maybe it will unmuddy.  I whine about it a lot but I still remain secretly optimistic.

[bull]

         
GM and Ford do their share of nostalgia cash-ins too.  Mopar is by no means alone in this trend.  

I honestly don't have any problem whatsoever with nostalgia cash-ins when it comes to the auto industry because it's part of the creation/promotion of brand-loyalty and I'm all for brand loyalty. I'm a nostalgic person and a loyal person and I want to believe the decisions about where I put my money are good ones. What's more iconic and nostalgic than the automobile, especially here in the US? But these companies have to believe in it to sell it. Any good salesman will tell you that. It has to be a part of the fabric of who they are and GM and Ford have done it more convincingly and with a lot more class than Mopar during the past 20-some-odd years. The way Mopar has been passed around like a $10 whore the past couple decades they've lost much of their base and many previous customers no longer believe that the company believes. I, for one, don't believe many Chrysler employees really believe in Chrysler's heritage. They might acknowledge it on a superficial level in a passive attempt to cash in but until they really believe in what made the company great, long before they were born, it's going to come off as a facade of cheesy window dressing. It really seems to me at least Ford and GM seem to believe in what they're selling. This is the whole crux of the issue with this so-called "Charger" they built in 06 and are just now trying to mold into some facsimile of its namesake. To me it's smoke and mirrors. They're telling us what they think we want to hear instead of actually giving us what we really want. And what I think guys like us really want from Chrysler is symbiosis - a mutually beneficial relationship. That begins and ends with staying true to your roots, not just revisiting them when you think you can score some quick cash. Chrysler is like the a-hole brother-in-law who drops by, drinks your beer, soils your bathroom, borrows $50 and then disappears.