| Subject: bite your tongue Al |
Author:
Rick
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Date Posted: Thursday, January 28, 09:02:43pm
Dodge Charger and Challenger.
The Ram truck is still ppopular but I saw what one looks like after it hit a deer and I'd rather be in a car with airbags. A 150 pound doe wrote the truck off. wrote the deer off too but 2 tons vs 150 pounds does not a fair trade make.
If Dodge could focus on cars people want, they'd be ok. In the end, I think GM did one thing thats brilliant. Granted they had to do it... they got rid of the Pontiac brand. That was a mistake because that means they can never make Firebird again and now that we're seeing revamped Chargers, Challengers, Camaros and Mustangs, losing Pontiac/Firebird is going to hurt GM the way losing Plymouth/Cuda is hurting Chrysler. Personally if I was running Chrysler, I'd have used the 'Cuda brand on the Challenger. There is no law that says they can't put 'Plymouth' emblems on a car. they will always own that name.
GM could do the same with Firebird and they should.
But what I like most about what GM did, was cut out all of the cars that weren't making money. Making fewer nameplates, but selling more of them, makes sense. Ford never really had that issue. They have Ford, Lincoln and Mercury. What did GM have? Chevrolet, Pontiac, Hummer, Cadillac, GMC, Saturn, what else? There's gotta be more. Chrysler had Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth and probably more.
They need to bring them all under one umbrella.
There was never any real reason to make a Firebird and a Camaro, or a Nova and an Acadian. But once you let the Firebird out of the barn, it's pretty hard to put it back in. So get rid of the brand, but keep the name plate. Build a GM Firebird and put the Pontiac plate on that one car. Build a Cuda and put the Plymouth on it.
Ford has far fewer issues because they played this game smart from about 1964 and everyone else is just catching up.
I do think there are car guys at Dodge. If not, you wouldn't see hemi's in everything. You wouldn't see the Charger SRT or the Challenger, or even the Rumble Bee truck. But they need to let those guys market to the people who want them.
when all is said and done, probably the SmartCar will be the only survivor. As long as it has a hemi and wheelie bars, it'll be ok.
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