The leader Chrysler's "Project D" effort to develop a Camccord fighter has resigned after "clashes with senior management. The Wall Street Journal calls Mike Donoughe "a star engineer," and there's no doubt that the project he was heading was a top priority. The Sebring/Avenger combo is dead in the water for Chrysler, and Donoughe had some of the best product development credentials in the company, having headed truck and SUV development. So how does a 24-year Chrysler veteran in charge of a premier development project find himself on the outside of Auburn Hills looking in? The WSJ won't quote anyone, but over at Autoextremist there's a rumor On The Table that "Acting Chief Innovation Officer" Peter Arnell was behind the drama. As long as everyone has plenty of room to swing their egos around, maybe Chrysler could get back to building competitive vehicles?
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Actually, I’m surprised at how many of those Sh!tboxes I see on the road.
Case #4,285,199 of Management thinking they know better than the engineers. “Project D” now stands for “Done”.
So HE quit Chrysler? Rather than dubbing him their star engineer and allowing him the honor of quitting they should have fired him for producing those abominations. Or maybe they should have hauled him out back and had him shot.
“Project D” is the (much needed) Avengbring replacement project, as I understand it.
Cerberus caught a falling knife that was on still its way down when it took over Chrysler.
The choice of Bob Nardelli to lead the company speaks volumes of where Chrysler is headed.
Employee give backs and chiseling suppliers won’t be enough if the PRODUCT end doesn’t shape up.
I’m surprised at how many of those Sh!tboxes I see on the road.
Me too, actually. Not too many Avengers, but quite a few Sebrings. Mystery to me.
Anyway, it’s hard not to find these piece of news to be very discouraging, as if discouraging news is something Chrysler needs more of.
All I can say is I hope that the Challenger makes an at least somewhat sustained splash. If it lands with a thud, Chryslers got nothing left in their bag of tricks.
This guy wasn’t responsible for the current turds on the street – he was in charge of fixing them. That’s why he was so important. I hope Ford or GM pick him up if he’s as good as advertised.
I’m surprised at how many of those Sh!tboxes I see on the road.
Same here, they are all over. You could add up all the G6s, Auras, and every Buick I see & I’d still say they are ahead
I’m surprised at how many of those Sh!tboxes I see on the road.
Here in So Cal the majority of them are rentals. It would be interesting to see the retail vs fleet sales breakdown in California. I’m guessing it’s like 95 / 5 rentals to retail.
I’m surprised at how many of those Sh!tboxes I see on the road.
I see ’em too here in Florida, most with rental barcodes on the window. When I see one that isn’s a rental, I think to myself “you poor sucker.”
Wait a minute. This guy had the “some of the best product development credentials” because he headed Chrysler’s truck and SUV development? So he’s responsible for Chrysler’s current trucks and SUVs? You know, the ones that aren’t selling because they’re complete piles of crap like the new Dodge Durango that was just reviewed here.
If this is the case, it wouldn’t seem too hard to figure out why he got booted off the Project D Sebring/Avenger and is now on the outside looking in.
I’ve been seeing a million Sebrings on the road lately too. FAR more than new Accords. I think the Sebring has gotten a bum rap. Calling it a sh**box is completely unfair.
There’s nothing seriously wrong with the Sebring. Save for its 4sp auto, it is fully competitive with the Accord/Camry. It’s probably $4k less too, with a much better warranty. I mostly see women driving them. Perhaps it’s the same women who drove Neons in high school….
If the Sebring offered a stick, it’d be high on my list of “my next car.”
Sebring/Avenger “dead in the water”? Hardly that!! As always, the truth is in the numbers.
Where do you live, limmin? I do’nt see them much in New England.
limmin :
March 27th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
I’ve been seeing a million Sebrings on the road lately too. FAR more than new Accords. I think the Sebring has gotten a bum rap. Calling it a sh**box is completely unfair.
There’s nothing seriously wrong with the Sebring. Save for its 4sp auto, it is fully competitive with the Accord/Camry. It’s probably $4k less too, with a much better warranty. I mostly see women driving them. Perhaps it’s the same women who drove Neons in high school….
If the Sebring offered a stick, it’d be high on my list of “my next car.”
Sebring/Avenger “dead in the water”? Hardly that!! As always, the truth is in the numbers.
The truth is in the numbers, you’re correct about that. The Sebring and Avenger both sell more than 70% (actually, nearly 80%) of their production to we’ll-buy-it-if-it-has-four-wheels-and-is-cheap fleets.
I see ’em all the time – I work at Hertz, right next to Avis and Enterprise counters. And I drive by a Chrysler-Dodge dealer every morning on my way to work. 90% of both model lines I see are on the dealer lot (not selling) or in a fleet.
I still maintain that the Sebring has gotten a bad rap. It has ALWAYS been a staple of the rental car fleet, which has tinged its rep.
Steve Carrell’s smarmy character in ‘The Office’ drove one. I heard Chrysler was unhappy about it. I think his character sold the Sebring and he now drives his fiancee’s Porsche.
I live near Boston. Boston is a college town–70 percent of the cars here are imports. BUT I’m seeing more and more Sebrings and Fusions; and fewer and fewer Accords/Camrys.
For many decades, Chrysler has always been about high style and low price. That’s Sebring/Avenger, totally.
For many decades, Chrysler has always been about high style and low price. That’s Sebring/Avenger, totally.
There’s nothing ‘high style’ about the Sebring/Avenger. They are heinously ugly cars with awful interiors and rough engines. To say these cars are “fully competitive” with the Camccords of the world is laughable. They are worlds apart.
Every one of the Chryco twins I see on the road up here has a green “E” sticker on the back. Rentals.
rudiger:
“Wait a minute. This guy had the “some of the best product development credentials” because he headed Chrysler’s truck and SUV development? So he’s responsible for Chrysler’s current trucks and SUVs? You know, the ones that aren’t selling because they’re complete piles of crap like the new Dodge Durango that was just reviewed here.”
Rudiger,
The Durango is not new. It came out in fall 2003 as a 2004 model. So it’s like 5 years old. Yes, believe it or not TTAC does not review only the newest models. Also I would like to point out that when it was new one of the big 3 (magazines that is – CD, MT, RT) rated it in a comparison with the Ford Expedition, Chevy Tahoe, and Toytoa Sequoia. (I don’t know if the Nissan Armada was out yet, if it was they compared it too). And guess what? The Durango was rated the best. Now since then a new Tahoe, Expedition, and Sequoia have come out, so you can’t go by that rating anymore, for nothing stands still in this business.
So if it has been passed by it’s competition, well, that’s normal for something that’s getting long in the tooth, but not because it’s a “complete pile of crap”. You may not like the writers/editors fo those magazines but I think they know more about cars and trucks than you or I. I also would point you to any of the online web forums for the Durango. Funny thing, they seem to like the truck a lot. And the are the ones that have to live with them everyday.
Also the reason that ANY SUV/Trucks aren’t selling like the used to is the price of gas.
“I’m surprised at how many of those Sh!tboxes I see on the road.”
Saw one today on my way to work. Not a rental. It was the convertible with the soft top. It doesn’t look that bad in drop top form. Limmin is right, calling it a sh**box is completely unfair. The Yugo was sh**box. This is just an uncompetive car in it’s class, developed under the Daimler overlords and bean counted to death. Sad when you compare it to the 1st generation Stratus/Cirrus that came out in 95.
salhany :
March 28th, 2008 at 9:21 am
For many decades, Chrysler has always been about high style and low price. That’s Sebring/Avenger, totally.
There’s nothing ‘high style’ about the Sebring/Avenger. They are heinously ugly cars with awful interiors and rough engines. To say these cars are “fully competitive” with the Camccords of the world is laughable. They are worlds apart.
This isn’t the first time a domestic marque has tried and failed to come up with a camcord fighter. Ford thought it’s Fusion was the answer it needed and wasn’t. Chevy thought the last and current Malibu was the answer it needed and hasn’t worked for them yet. Chrysler is just the latest in a long list of companies (both domestic and import) that have tried to crack the camcord secret DNA code and failed. They will try again and again and continue to come up with flops or failures (call it what you want) when it comes to camcord fighters. You do GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! And the camcord cars are JUST better! Period!
“It’s much better than the Yugo!” is hardly a resounding endorsement for a 2008 vehicle.
“It’s much better than the Yugo!” is hardly a resounding endorsement for a 2008 vehicle.
True, but that’s not what I said. I said the Yugo was a sh**box. That’s all. Have you driven a Sebring or Avenger? Have you driven a Yugo? Or do you make proclamations based on what others have posted?
windswords: “True, but that’s not what I said.”What, exactly, did you say, then? Someone says that the Sebring/Avenger is a sh!tbox. You reply that the Yugo was a sh!tbox. Are you saying the Sebring/Avenger isn’t better than the Yugo? Yikes.
“Limmin is right, calling it [Sebring/Avenger] a sh**box is completely unfair. The Yugo was a sh**box. This is just an uncompetitive car in it’s class,…”
I think that speaks for itself.
I can’t imagine how anyone could defend these vehicles.
I rented an Avenger when they first came out. (Actually, I didn’t, but they didn’t reserve the vehicle I wanted then tried to ‘upsell’ me on a ‘larger, more comfortable vehicle’ that also happened to be the only car in the lot. I said ‘the Avenger? You better give me a discount’). Anyway, I expected it to suck, and still I was disappointed.
Everything I asked it to do, everything I looked at, everything I touched, was disappointing and frustrating. Not one thing was up to 2007 standards for any segment, let alone an intended Camcord fighter. And it is horribly ugly to boot.
I will say that the auto shifter was kinda nice. Not the shift action, not the movement of the lever, nothing else, just the actual shifter. That’s all. I just remember trying to come up with something positive about the car and that was the best I could do.
Then a guy with an identical car parked behind us on the ferry, but it wasn’t a rental. I laughed at him silently for quite a while.
P.S. I see almost none of the Sebring/Avenger in BC that aren’t rentals.