The last time we heard from Chrysler's Camcord-fighting "Project D" development team, we learned that Chrysler "star engineer" and Project D leader Mike Donoghue had bailed, amid rumors of an Acting Chief Innovation Officer ego-trip. To assure themselves as much as anyone else, Cerberus rolled out a little hype information to the Detroit News on its midsize do-over. There's little talk of the actual cars themselves in the story, as most of the ink is spilled on the importance of the segment to Chrysler and how miserably its efforts have failed to capitalize on demand. "The problem is everyone is getting really, really good in that segment," says Todd Turner of consulting firm Car Concepts. "Chrysler's current entries are probably the weakest in the marketplace, not just in terms of sales, but in customer satisfaction." Ouch. But fear not, because Chrysler gets it... just don't ask for any specifics. Without revealing any details of the actual products which will make it to market (besides the fact that there will be sedan and crossover body styles… shocking!), Project D's new leader Mike Chernoby wants everyone to know that the new D-segment offering will totally rule. "We will manage the time line accordingly to always make sure we have a product that will satisfy the market place," says Chernoby. "You can take that to the bank." Sounds great, as long as Cerberus foots the overdraft charges.
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Project-D huh.
The “D” should stand for dump. As in…please for God’s sake dump that tired “cross-hair” truck grill they slap on every Dodge (except Challenger).
A fresh design theme is needed ASAP.
DT
I think the Chrysler Sebring will be known as “the car that killed Chrysler”. I test-drove one shortly after they came out, and I immediately sold my Chrysler stock. It was inferior in every way to the cheaper Hyundai Sonata that I drove shortly before that. I think Daimler took stock of the Sebring, realized that they had starved Chrysler of the resources it needed to develop new products, saw nothing in the pipeline that would turn things around, then bailed out while they could still find a sucker (Cerberus) to take on the debt.
I think one reason Chrysler has flirted with disaster so many times in its history is because they are always looking for the “next big thing” while ignoring the current market realities. Back in the 80s and early 90s when Ford and GM were each selling a million F150s and Silverados per year, Mopar was moving maybe a cuppla hunnert grand of their ancient Ram pickups. They weren’t even contenders. Most of those were sold to governments and fleets. Someone in Auburn Hills finally realized they were missing out, and the macho 94 Ram was the result. Don’t think they ever sold a million in any one year, but certainly more than they had before.
Then we have the Camcord fighters, the Cirrus/Stratus/Breeze triplets. Do you remember those? I don’t either. The point is, when you are going after the market leaders, you benchmark them and then try to exceed them with your new entry (the problem for Detroit in doing this is that they are always benchmarking the current Toyota/Honda market leaders, but end up competing in the marketplace with Japan’s next generation cars. The current Sebring/Avenger are not just bad, they are abysmally bad. Unless they fire everyone involved with these turkeys, what will prevent them from repeating the same mistakes?
Those Asian models outsell the automaker’s Dodge Avenger and the Chrysler Sebring by as much as four-to-one.
They sold as many as that ? As much as it seems you’d need a frontal lobotomy to consider buying a Camry or Accord, you’d need to have a whole hemisphere (or two) removed before even looking at Chrysler’s offerings. That means one in five people thought the Sebring or Avenger was better than an Accord or Camry, unbelievable !
Succeeding in the midsize market is easier said than done, analysts said. Chrysler crosstown rivals, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., have had mixed results
And Ford and GM have the advantage of European operations who specialize in that market segment, even if they fail to leverage them fully.
While Chrysler is aiming for global sales, any successful midsize car must also be a hit in North America, which accounted for 91 percent of Chrysler’s 2007 sales.
The sooner all three of Detroit’s carmakers start to design and build for global markets, the sooner they’ll pull themselves out of their death spirals. The self re-enforcing “American’s don’t want …” marketing strategy of the past few decades has led them down the path to oblivion, while the Asians just dance around globally in a sea of profits.
Credit to Jim Press for not waiting for standard life cycle on these vehicles. He knows they are not competitive and is overhauling them 1 year into their run.
Early indications are that they will have 6 speed as base tranny with the new dual clutch for premium models. New Phoenix V-6’s will also fill the engine bays on the upscale stuff, not sure what they are going to do about their 4 banger, due to budget constraints most likely are going to tweak the World engine for max MPG and reduced harshness. Look for the CVT to get dumped as well.
sitting@home…I don’t think 1 in 5 thought the Chrysler rejects were as good as a Camcord…I think 1 in 5 got suckered by the $3k rebates on a car sold at invoice and fleet sales are included – so I’d think maybe 1 in 100 thought the Chrysler cars were better (but those people are Chrysler lifers who never look at any other cars).
Jaje has it right, some people buy based on either price or the deal and not the car.
I saw the “Project D” and got my hopes up that Chrysler was working on something lightweight and RWD, ideally suited for setting course records on various mountain passes…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_D#Fourth_Stage
When I saw the “Project D,” I thought that Chrysler was working on a Japanese lightweight RWD car ideally suited to setting course records on mountain passes.
With their increasing collaboration with Nissan, I suppose all they need to do rebody the Altima and be done with it. That shouldn’t take more than a couple of years, but I’m going to guess that Not Invented Here is going to rule the day and we won’t be seeing Project Doomed for 4 more years.
How hard do you think the Chrysler engineers responsible for the debacle known as SebrAvenger work to remain anonymous? I’ve said this repeatedly, I’d love to get people like that on the record for a question and answer session.
“I think one reason Chrysler has flirted with disaster so many times in its history is because they are always looking for the “next big thing” while ignoring the current market realities. Back in the 80s and early 90s when Ford and GM were each selling a million F150s and Silverados per year, Mopar was moving maybe a cuppla hunnert grand of their ancient Ram pickups. They weren’t even contenders. Most of those were sold to governments and fleets. Someone in Auburn Hills finally realized they were missing out, and the macho 94 Ram was the result.”
Being the smallest of the big three Chrylser has never had the resources to have a competitive iron in the fire in all market segments at the same time. If they had not bought AMC/Jeep and Gulfstream and Lambhorgini (!) with the minivan profits they could have had enough money but then they would not have had Jeep. And in the 90’s they had the $10 billion for product development but along came Jurgen Schremp and wunderbar! it was gone. So historically Chrysler has had to pick it’s battles when it comes to product development. So in the late 80’s they were well aware that they were deficient in pickup trucks, but they had to wait as the development money was being spent elsewhere. The actual sales numbers were worse thean you stated – in 1993 sales of the Ram were about 100,000 units. They were roughly equal to the GMC division. When the new ram came out they went from ‘nowhere’ to 400,000 units.
The Cirrus/Stratus/Breeze triplets were very competitive with the camcord (Actually the the Accord more than the Camry at that time) when they were introduced. My wifes grandmother who was a Honda devotee and purchased TWO (one for her and one for my monther-in-law) every time a new generation was introduced could not believe how nice my Dodge Stratus rode and handled, and the functionality of the interior layout. She had at that time the 94 Accord. When the next gen Accord came out it was better but that’s what you would expect. When the next gen Stratus came out I rented one. By that time Daimler had taken over and mucked up Chrysler’s design processes and the car wasn’t as good as my first gen. I didn’t like it at all.
“With their increasing collaboration with Nissan, I suppose all they need to do rebody the Altima and be done with it.”
They have reasons not to take that easy route. For one thing the are thinking about creating a “lifestyle” light duty AWD/FWD pickup truck from this platform. And they aren’t the only ones considering this. The thought is that people who need a full size truck will buy one but those who need to ocasionally haul stuff or transport the cycle/ATV/tow the bass boat will buy this kinda of vehicle.
They might as well just strike a deal to import the Roewe 750 (derived from the last English Rovers). It can’t be any worse that a Sebring and should be something they could sell at bargain prices. The only reason anyone goes to Chrysler for a mid-sized car is for the price, and the only way to beat Hyundai/Kia at that game is unfortunately to import from China.
You can see photos here:
http://www.racewaynews.net/galleria.php?a_id=1169&photo=1
Slap a Chrysler grill on it and start pilling ’em high and selling them cheap. That is the Nardelli/Home Depot way, yes?
“It can’t be any worse that a Sebring and should be something they could sell at bargain prices.”
Yes it could (or is to be exact). I don’t know for sure but I suspect it does not meet US emissions regulations, and it sure as hell doesn’t meet safety standards. At least the Sebring/Avenger scored pretty good on the IIHS crash tests – I believe on one test (rear impact?) they scored better than Malibu, Aura, G35, Altima, and Galant. And IIHS test standards are more stringent than those NHTSA uses.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/iihs-rates-malibu-avenger-g35-optima-galant-aura-and-altima-safety/comment-page-1/
The actual sales numbers were worse thean you stated – in 1993 sales of the Ram were about 100,000 units. They were roughly equal to the GMC division. When the new ram came out they went from ‘nowhere’ to 400,000 units
If Chrsyler had not slapped the Cummins Diesel in the Ram, then it would have been a miracle to see 50,000 trucks sold. The old body was lacklustre n design. When the new bodystyle came it looked much better.
Chrysler could have slapped the 4BT diesels in their bgger sedans too.
Anyone else still in disbelief that Chrysler hasn’t offered up a shortened version of the LX for the midsize market?
Let’s see…a near luxury brand desperately trying to emulate the established brands and differentiate itself from relentless Asian FWD comptitors…what to do…what to do…
It’s not like the 3/5/7 Series playbook is all that hard to understand.
I don’t know how much they can shorten LX (or LY by now, I guess). They have a long-wheelbase version of the 300 called the Walter P. Chrysler Executive Series, so they can change it 6 inches one way, at least.
I think I’m right in saying that the current Sebring was supposed to ape the 300, in the same wa that the Avenger looks like a mini-Charger.