Chrysler’s product and business plan is leaking like a neglected radiator, leading up to next week’s announcement. The latest tidbit: an Alfa-badged version of the new Jeep Grand Cherokee. Alfa Romeo has been hunting after an SUV platform for some time, because as Luca DiMeo put it back in ’08,
We need an S.U.V. for America. Not everyone in the company agrees, but this would be the only practical Alfa Romeo and we will be able to design the sportiest, sexiest and most exciting S.U.V. in the world.
It’s important to note though, that this quote predates the revelation that the Alfa SUV would be a Grand Cherokee reskin, effectively replacing the unlovable Chrysler Aspen as ChryCo’s luxury ute.
According to the New York Times:
The new Alfa Romeo would be manufactured in the United States and be based on the platform of the Jeep Grand Cherokee, one of Chrysler’s most successful models. A Jeep-like Alfa Romeo would follow in the tracks of such hot-selling upscale sports utility vehicles as the BMW X3 and deliver much fatter profit margins than traditional small cars. It could also help reintroduce the Alfa Romeo brand to younger drivers after a 14-year absence from the United States.
But did Fiat really take over Chrysler so it could rebadge an SUV? Fiat flacks explain:
Fiat is bringing environmentally smart technology to the U.S., which Chrysler lacks, not just small-car technology. The future isn’t about S.U.V.’s; it will just be a niche. We have to think about the whole range.
Well, if we’re thinking about the whole range, expanding Alfa into SUVs seems like a good way to render the Dodge brand wholly irrelevant. After all, a Durango-badged Grand Cherokee is planned as well, unless that’s going to fit into the new, confusing “Ram” brand. Speculating about Fiat-Alfa-Dodge-Ram-Mopar-Chrysler’s product plans is making my head hurt. Maybe we should just wait for an official announcement.
After I read these last-rites updates about Alfa/Chryslers, I head to my garage with a clean soft cloth, caress the stainless bumpers of my two GTVs, and rue what might have been.
Gads, that’s good looking. It’s as un-BMW as one can get. Now, if it didn’t have the normal Chrysler “we don’t need no stinkin’ quality control” mechanicals, I’d buy one asap.
If it looks like that concept, I don’t know if I’d care too much.
Although the overall design looks a lot like a Mazda with the Alfa front end it works. I think they would do enormously better with that vehicle than they did with the Aspen which isn’t saying much as the Aspen was a total flop. A product styled like the prototype would get buyers into Chrysler showrooms that currently have no reason to visit them. I say bring it on.
This alfa plan is just a rehash of an older internal Chrysler plan. First came the CT, the successor to the CS (Pacifica), which got all the way to Program Start (Lastenheft), then got canceled after tooling dollars had started to be spent (whoops!). Should it be on the LX platform (300C & RWD) or the minivan platform (front wheel Drive)? They ran so many iterations with volume planning and manufacturing studies in a make work exercise then canceled it. It needed to be higher off the ground research said. So the concept moved to the WK/WD (Grand Cherokee, Dodge Durango) program. The WC was born. Conceptually it was basically a Saab 9-7X. A car based SUV idea that would convey the imagery of an SUV (i.e. some ground height) but with better handling and more CUV like (better packaging, fuel economy, visibility, step in height etc). An SUV platform spawning a CUV vehicle, see any issues here? Volumes were forecasted at 70K North America (in 2007 before the dropout). Nobody believed the volumes anyway. Eventually it was canceled, but not before a lot of planning work went into it (more than one late night). The external appearance was pretty good but the functionality may have been compromised by the sloped backglass for sportiness. It was three row like the Dodge (201 in wheelbase). It weighted too much for a CUV and the styling didn’t mate with the desired functionality. It died. Now it lives again however in the new Alfa, as a two row. Easier adaptation since the styling will match the vehicle buyer (higher male, high income, educated, image important, few kids etc).
Chrysler has a really interesting branding situation as it begins to introduce new product like Alfa Romeo-based vehicles. Interesting time to watch auto advertising evolve. Hopefully they do it right.
http://www.cargurus.com/blog/2009/10/28/why-automotive-advertising-is-all-wrong
Looks like my wife’s Epilady. Or maybe shavers are looking more like cars these days.
These people is going to eradicate ALL Chrysler brands from the market. Slowly and steadily.
They have experience, namely, IVECO.
Alfa Romeo needs an SUV like we want to see Rush Limbaugh in lingerie.
Chuck,
I feel the same way about Porsche and Al Franken.
Chuck Goolsbee,
Actually, Rush might look good in a push-up bra…
Gads, thats way sexy. Very Alfa. I suppose its inevetable that the Italians will join the CUV crowd.
And Rush wouldn’t look good in lingerie even with Jessica Biels tits and a full pack of percaset.
Hey Sting Ray try to buy a Fiat tractor/bull dozer, or sorry has that been merged into Case/New Holland. Wasn’t Case/New Holland an American company(ies) on the brink of Bankruptcy. And I think it’s still an American Company, money pumped in from Torino. And speaking of Torino, Ford always thought it was Gran. Go ChryCo!
What is italian for roll-over and roof crush?
@t8528sl: but you have to admit that red interior was pretty cool.
If, I mean when, this car makes it to the most sincere pumpkin patch, I mean Chrysler dealer, near you, will we be able to tell the difference between the Aspen and the 3rd Generation Nissan Murano, the Second Generation Ford Edge and Second Generation Mazda7?
I can think of a couple differences, the Mazda will have a proven and efficient CVT transmission. The Ford and Mazda will have a proven 6-speed transmission with the possibility of an efficient Ecoboost engine. The Nissan and the Ford/Mazda both should have an up to 20% fuel economy advantage over the Chrysler, with similar performance.