The Cerebus axe starts chopping at Chrysler

[6670charger]

You're right, Ghoste.  The Challenger is already only slated for a single styilng run.   It will go away around 2015.   Who knows, maybe the Cuda will take it's place if the retro thing is still in by then, but I'd guess not.  By that time, Mustang will have already moved on to a totally new non-retro design, and Chrysler will have to race to catch up to that.

The company does need to make some major product changes.   They need to move toward better fuel economy, and they also need to move back into mainstream car production.   The Caliber IS a piiece of crap, and so are its Jeep Cousins.  I test drove a Jeep Compass when it first came out, and I couldn't believe how noisy, slow and cheap it was.   No way I'd buy any of them.  I also can't believe that they completely dropped anything even resembling a small passenger car.  There is no product in this segment at all, and it's one of the biggest market segments for cars today.  Somewhere along the line, the Germans decided that the only thing we Americans like is trucks, sedans and hatchbacks.   

The Avenger/Sebring need total redesigns........yesterday!   Instead of trying to make them "baby whatevers" they need to just make decent looking, and decent quality mid-size cars with their own identies.   That was always part of the Dakota's problem since 1997.........it's been the "almost Ram."  Who wants to drive an "almost" anything?   

I've finally warmed up to the Magnum somewhat, but I'm not sorry to see it go.   It could have been a great station wagon (yes, I used the words "Station Wagon"), but instead they tried to make it a full-size five-door hatchback.   I'm so #^*@! tired of hatchbacks and crossovers I could scream!!!!  Also, IMO the Ram pickup front end never did anything for the car either.  The headlights and grille on that car were always way too big.

The Pacifica was an interesting concept that all the other manufacturers copied and then perfected, while Chrysler let theirs languish.   They started out making nothing but the ultra-expensive ones that most people shy'ed away from, and by the time the affordable ones came out, nobody wanted them.   They are a decent car.  I own one and am very happy with it.  It has about 60K miles on it and is as tight today as when it was fiirst new.  It does have some design flaws, though.  Primarily it's the big hatchback shape.  The rear of the roof tapers so much that the rear opening isn't as big as the rest of the interior of the car.  The back Captain's chairs don't fold flat to the floor, but rather angle upward toward the front seats, which causes less ceiling clearance the farther forward you go.  It was also underpowered from the start, especially the AWD models.   They eventually solved the powerplant problem after two years, but never addressed any of the others.   The full-size crossovers made by every other manufacturer since then have been much better cars, and sell quite well.   

The Durango just needs a redesign.   The current design was an attempt to capture part of their Powerwagon concept from around 2000, but it didn't go off well.  Instead, it just looks awkward.   The previous version, even with its Caravan-like rear end still looked far better.  The thing just needs a total makeover.    Even the big-rig look of the ram has been lost somewhere.   They need to find a simple, but nice design and focus on making it the best it can be.

I never did quite get the "poor mans SLK"   The Crossfire is an OK looking car, but the real SLK is so much better looking.  The Crossfire also got all the old parts.   It basically screamed, "look at me!  I'm inferior!!!"   The other thing that really frosted my a$$ about the car was that it was introduced around the same time as the Charger sedan.  Remember?  At the same time that Trevor Creed was telling us that the Charger was being built as a sedan because there wasn't a market for two-door cars in the U.S., Chrysler gives us the Crossfire........ a two-door, TWO-SEAT car that has absolutely no practicality to it at all!!!!   At least I could fit my kids into the back seat of a two-door Charger, and have a decent sized trunk to put our stuff into, but Noooooooo!!!!!

Chrysler needed to make these changes, and probably a whole lot more.   Unfortunately, Cerberus was handed a massive mess by the Germans, and the only way to make it work right now is to make some major changes to product, and unfortunately that also means it's going to effect jobs in order to pay for it all.   There are two choices:   Let everyone keep their jobs and have the Company go down in flames, or have the Company survive at the expense of some jobs.   If I were handed a Company in that bad of shape and wanted to make it work, I'd have to let some people go too.   It's just too bad that the idiots at the top who are making all the big bucks and all the crappy decisions aren't being effected by all this.

[Mike DC]

Automobiles are just overdeveloped as a whole now. 

We HAVE to all use cars that get 30 mpg, barely pollute the environment, remain safe in 80-mph wrecks (while people won't even wear decent seatbelting for the given speed), the interiors are better climate-controlled & ergonomic than our houses, the vehicles are styled for our appearance whims, we don't even want to do any real servicing for 100,000+ miles . . . no wonder cars all cost $30,000 a pop. 

Not one of these things would be nearly so necessary for an automobile that we only drove a few miles a week.  It all becomes necessary because we insist on building a society where we drive literally more than we walk.