(By Tom Lohnes) – After selling only just over 31,000 vehicles in 2020, the Chrysler brand may be on the chopping block after the recent merge with PSA.
If you do not live under a rock, you know that FCA recently merged with PSA, a group of French automakers to form Stellantis which is a giant company named after a prescription drug of some sort, apparently. With the merger, Stellantis is considering cutting possibly the weakest brand in the whole group: Chrysler. Only offering 3 models: The aging 300, the boring Pacifica minivan, and its budget brother, the Voyager, Chrysler is pretty much the last resort when choosing a “luxury” vehicle. Back in the 1960’s, Chrysler made land yachts similar to Cadillac and Lincoln, and now their closest rival is Buick.
With such a lackluster lineup, it is a sad but logical decision to cancel Chrysler. With Dodge and Jeep doing so well, Fiat hoarding global sales, Ferrari making world-class supercars, and Alfa Romeo making world-class sport sedans and SUVs, why not get rid of a lower mid-tier Luxury brand with no sales at all like Chrysler? It really makes no sense to keep it.
So, with Chrysler gone, what would be the next move? We’ll have to see how the Ford Bronco stacks up against the Jeep Wrangler in both experience and sales and then we’ll see.
Humm, How about making the Car they have, the 300, worthy of keeping and going head to head with Caddy again? I knew several Caddy guys who switched to Chrysler when the 300 came out, all said the 300 was the better luxury sedan. Mopar let it get old, so now they want to kill it? Kill the bean counters instead.
Completely agree with you Gary.
Our 2011 300 is one of the best vehicles I’ve ever owned. Full sized car, still stylish after several years, Gets 30+mpg on the interstate (3.6L). 120,000 miles and never a trip to the dealer. Was planning to buy another one someday. I love the Charger, the wife has always preferred the 300 styling (because she cares about styling). Still got a few years to decide…hope the merger doesn’t screw up a good thing…haven’t seen too many “mergersof equals” that worked out for everyone (especially the customer).
Gary’s right! I would also add that they could easily build a SRT version again that would give the CTS-V a real challenge. I personally think that they should stretch the 300’s ancient wheelbase and created a flagship Imperial. I could even see a Ram based Chrysler/Imperial premium SUV as a Waggoneer platform mate to compete against the Escalade.
I’m in the market right now for a new rear drive, American made, V8, 4 door. The 300 and the Dodge Charger are about all that’s available. I have to face the facts: American manufacturers are no longer interested in a guy like me. Was very impressed with the Genesis G90. Wish GM/Ford/Chrysler (or whatever they call themselves) would build a car like that. However, would be a cold day in hell before I pulled the pin on a Korean automobile!
We can wax nostalgic about the by gone days of V8 RWD sedans all we’d like, but, for better or worse, vehicle tastes have changed and people like us are the minority by far. Moving a mere 31,000 vehicles a year makes it difficult to justify keeping a single model around, but 31,000 combined sales for an entire brand is flat out abysmal and one doesn’t need to be an economics major to see that. I’m honestly surprised the brand has survived this long given that sales have been on a steady decline for several years now.
The 31,000 sales figure is incorrect according to what I found. Looks like they sold over 50,000 Pacificas alone.
Brian,
I think you may have missed an important point to your story. There are a huge number of law enforcement folks across the country that have depended on Chrysler for their pursuits vehicles. I believe the Charger has been the vehicle of choice, mostly due to the RWD configuration and the fact that the other OEM’s have bailed out on sedans. For those towns and counties who don’t happen to be flush with cash, (i.e. the rural areas), this pending merger presents a difficult situation. The alternatives are something like Tahoe SUV’s and trucks that get much worse gas mileage than the Chrysler sedans.
Electric vehicles don’t present much of an alternative when the driving range is less than 200 miles, and you have an officer that’s on duty for 12 hour shifts. What do you do, buy 2 cars for every officer in order to keep them in the road? Plus the infrastructure costs of setting up charging stations.
In the end, I have been more amazed that the automakers didn’t spend more time with hybrid technology. We rented a hybrid Fusion for awhile that seem to be the best of both worlds.
FCA threw their limited resources at Dodge/Ram and Jeep. They’ve do nothing with Chrysler so it’s hardly any wonder that it’s withered and about to die.