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Filed under: Car Buying , Etc. , Chrysler, LLC. , Jeep Click above to view a gallery of the Patriot's new accoutrements All you used to need to know about the Jeep Patriot is that it looks Jeepy; drives super-solidly (even when making forays above 80 mph); and comes with a nasty interior that will shred your knuckles on that excess flash all over every piece (Ed. note: flash is what's left over from injection molding where the two halves of the mold come together) . Take that painful and bloody criticism, print it out on heavy paper, and then savor the sound as you crumple it up; our bloviating has been rendered irrelevant by Chrysler delivering on its promise to fix the Patriot's insides. Our final judgement will come down after we get a chance to sample one of the new interiors in person, but these pics of the new interior we picked up on last week are inside vehicles that have already made their way to some Jeep dealers' lots. There's a new, smoother dashboard; SRT...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Chrysler, LLC. , Dodge , Jeep A quick look at July sales figures shows that Chrysler saw a massive 34% drop in its Daily Sales Rate vs. July 2007, but the bottom line could have looked worse. Chrysler's recent announcement that its financing arm would exit the leasing business by July 31 had lead to a rush of customers visiting local Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep dealerships. Some dealers sold four times as many vehicles as usual for the last couple days of the month, giving the stores some relief from an otherwise bleak July. Now dealers are worried that the increased sales volume could lead to a still more bleak August, since many customers pulled forward their purchase decision. Some dealers are trying to find third-party banks willing to get in on the leasing game, but a tight credit market and massive losses at automaker credit arms have made leasing look very unattractive as lease price begin to rise. Chrysler is hoping a fresh round of incentives will help...
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Filed under: Car Buying , SUVs , Chrysler, LLC. , Dodge , Jeep , Earnings/Financials The automotive sales sector is in a major state of flux as consumers continue to run from SUVs and pickup trucks into smaller, more fuel efficient cars. One manufacturer hit especially hard by this transition is Chrysler, a company that recently posted the worst fleet average fuel economy numbers of all major automakers in the U.S. due to its truck-heavy lineup. Still, the automaker has built up a large supply of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep utility vehicles that they have got to get off dealer lots somehow. To ease consumers into the fuel-thirsy utes, Chrysler has introduced new incentives of zero-percent financing for 72 months on the 2008 Dodge Durango, Chrysler Aspen and Jeep Grand Cherokee and Commander. While the lack of any financing charges will certainly impact the bottom line, it is nothing compared to the losses the automaker has been hit with over its past lease deals. In fact, truck and SUV residuals...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Marketing/Advertising , Chrysler , Dodge , Jeep Chrysler's Project Genesis plan has been gaining traction as of late. The goal is to cut out redundant models between the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands, which would also mean consolidating its entire product line into one dealership which offers all three marques. While there are some dealership owners fighting the strategy, The Detroit News reports that Chrysler already has fifty-eight percent of its dealerships offering its three brands, and its been able to cut out some smaller, less profitable sites in the process. While franchise laws prohibit Chrysler from requiring the switch, reducing its model line can have the same effect, forcing its dealers to offer the entire product catalog from the company in order to offer a full line of vehicles. As a side benefit, the automaker hopes that its dealers can upgrade their franchises, offering a modern look and high-tech features such as Wi-Fi and a cafe on site...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Marketing/Advertising , Chrysler , Dodge , Jeep , Earnings/Financials It looks like car shoppers have been smart enough to see past Chrysler's cheap gas guarantee . Despite Chrysler's extension of the offer for an extra month, a very small percentage of actual consumers have actually chosen the gas guarantee over the old fashioned cash back options. As we've reported in the past, the incentive wasn't really as good as it seemed once the math was done. As was pointed out by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a 3 mpg bump in efficiency would be equal to the savings Chrysler was offering. Additionally, Chrysler not only has the worst fleet in terms of fuel efficiency, but many of its products haven't exactly set the world on fire based solely on their own merit . The performance of the incentive deal suggests that in today's world average consumers may not want to be seen driving gas guzzling vehicles, regardless of what they're paying...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Chrysler , Dodge , Jeep Chrysler's restructuring plan and new plan for product development named Project Genesis is facing some expected criticism from many dealers. However, others are praising the cost-cutting, model-trimming and dealer-consolidation program that's happening as a result. As Chrysler pressures its traditional dealer network to sell all three brands (Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge) under one roof - without any financial assistance to help those already struggling with slow sales - many dealers are having a difficult time with the expense of investing in larger facilities to meet the Project Genesis requirements. According to Chrysler, a one-brand dealer won't be able to survive with its limited vehicle offerings after Chrysler trims down its model lines (expected to be complete by 2012). This is forcing dealers to add the other brands, or shut their doors as sales slowly dwindle. Conversely, the closure of some dealers is having a positive...
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Filed under: Car Buying , SUVs , Plants/Manufacturing , Chrysler , Dodge , Jeep Click above for a high-res gallery of the 2009 Dodge Journey Making a step towards a more fuel-efficient vehicle lineup, and reducing the number of overlapping vehicles between its brands, the plug has been pulled on a Chrysler-branded version of the 2009 Dodge Journey . Chrysler LLC will instead focus the resources on a Nissan-manufactured compact car. While the automaker currently captures the bulk of its sales from light trucks and SUVs, Chrysler is trying to pare down its lineup significantly to cut costs. So far, they have cut four models. Moving forward, the Jeep Commander SUV is expected to be dropped next year, and the company has already said they were canceling the PT Cruiser Convertible . While the 2009 Dodge lineup gains the aforementioned Journey, Dodge Challenger , and a redesigned Dodge Ram pickup, Chrysler's product lineup for the next twelve months looks particularly bleak with nothing significantly...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Etc. , Chrysler , Dodge , Jeep If you have a Dodge Ram in the driveway and someone claiming to be Jim Press calls you asking if you're satisfied with your truck, it just might be him. Chrysler recognizes that it has a customer service problem, and the Pentastar is going to extraordinary lengths to correct it. Its top 300 executives and directors are participating in a program called "Customer First" that puts a priority on -- you guessed it -- the customer. The executives, even guys named Nardelli, Press, and LaSorda, are responsible for at least one customer call per day, and all execs will man at least one shift at Chrysler's customer call center. The Pentastar elite are also partaking in a three month competition to see who can generate the most sales. We don't know what the prize is for the winner, but whomever claims top sales should get something really, really good. Like a lifetime supply of Chrysler Sebrings. [Source: Detroit Free...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Plants/Manufacturing , Chrysler , Dodge , Jeep With Project Genesis in full swing, new revelations from Steven Landry, Chrysler executive vice president for North American Sales, have shed some more light on the corporate strategy to trim waste and turn the company around. As of now, dealers are under the belief that the automaker intends to cut its lineup by one-third to one-half. Supporting that assumption, Landry told a crowd at Northwood University that "twins" -- vehicles built on the same platform yet are sold under different brand names -- are out ( think Jeep Liberty / Dodge Nitro ). As Chrysler has more than a handful of twins, sold under several different brands, their dilemma will be in choosing which twin gets the axe, and which gets to survive. [Source: Detroit Free Press ] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Car Buying , SUVs , Crossovers/CUVs , Chrysler , Dodge , Jeep It's no secret that Chrysler has some overlapping models in its lineup. Case(s)-in-point: it's hard to make a rational argument that Jeep should be offering both the Compass and Patriot (not to mention Dodge selling the Patriot's platform sibling, the Caliber) or the Grand Cherokee and the Commander. The Chrysler Aspen and Dodge Durango barely pretend to be different vehicles and there's no reason to sell both the Jeep Liberty and Dodge Nitro when they're basically the same machine. This revelation is as obvious to Chrysler's new management as it is to us, and Chrysler President Jim Press, says as much. "We're going to stop overlapping, we're going to bring everything under one roof. By doing that we will have more products in the markets we are not covering." Also marked as redundant by Press are the Chrysler Town and Country and Dodge Caravan minivans, but as easy as it...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Coupes , Etc. , Chevrolet , Ford , Honda , Jeep , Toyota , Volkswagen Research International USA's TRU branch has polled the youth of our country and discovered that they'd like a fun, stylish car more than anything (duh) -- namely the Mustang. Twenty-somethings posed the same question picked the Honda Civic above all else, mainly because they've had a dose of reality, and are now paying their own insurance and fuel. So what exactly does this study say? As you mature, your experience leads to more practical decision making, perhaps? That there's a whole subset of spoiled brat high schoolers who have their insurance and fuel paid for and also expect that being handed the keys to a 3,500 pound wheeled liability is a birthright? Probably a bit of both, we suppose, but the fact remains that the Mustang is a flashy, fun car that even non-car people could point out in a crowd and undoubtedly has decent youth appeal. The rest of the teens choices weren't...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Podcasts , Economy , Hatchbacks , BMW , Chevrolet , Chrysler , Ford , Jaguar , Jeep , MINI , Toys , Australia , FPV , Tata UPDATE: Back by popular demand, direct download of the podcast has been added as a link below. The biggest news of the past week: the suckfest that was the Knight Rider movie. Alex liveblogged it so that we didn't have to watch. Sure it was crap, but was it really that bad? The original was a clunker, too, remember. There's car stuff going on, too, and we move on to covering what's in our respective Autoblog Garages . Keep an eye out for some new reviews, and John has a podcast-exclusive announcement, too. We spin off into a small car smackdown, postulate on who should buy Jaguar if Tata flips them , and boomerang back to our MINI vs. Aveo sales number deathmatch. In this week's installment of "Fords We Don't Get," there's a new Austrailian Falcon that is available in full-on sinister. It's badass in FPV...
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Filed under: Car Buying , SUVs , Jeep The price of getting into a Jeep Grand Cherokee with a diesel engine just got a little lower, as Chrysler has expanded the 3.0L oil-burner's availability to the Laredo trim level (with X Package). $35,685 gets you behind the wheel of a 4x2 model, while $38,305 is the price of the 4x4. Either way, the Laredo Diesel seems pretty well-equipped, including SIRIUS satellite radio, power sunroof, remote start, and a host of other features. Additionally, Chrysler has dropped the price of both the Grand Cherokee Limited Diesel and Grand Cherokee Overland Diesel by $1,000. So, now all you need is the will, the means, and residence in any state except CA, NY, CT, ME, VT, MA, PA or RI. For more info on the Grand Cherokee Diesel, check out AutoblogGreen's October review of the SUV. Complete details on the Laredo Diesel availability and the Limited/Overland price drops are in the press release pasted after the jump. [Source: Chrysler] Continue reading Diesel...
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