Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The Chrysler name needs to go away. They only make what, 2 cars? under their brand name now.
I don't think Chrysler even makes a small car anymore, spinning off all their various models into their own brand was incredibly stupid, and killing off their halo car is never a good sign. Successful car companies don't do that. They come up with a replacement, a redesign.
I agree with you that killing off a halo car is stupid, but Ford and GM have been doing that for years.
I'm pretty much a Ford guy, but Chrysler/Dodge builds some fantastic cars. My one son has an 08 Ram that looks literally like the day it rolled off the assembly line, and it has been flawless. The new Challengers, especially the Hellcats and Demons are nothing to mess around with performance wise.
Like every other brand, some are good and some have problems, but , by and large, Chrysler builds some very dependable, well built cars.
I agree with you that killing off a halo car is stupid, but Ford and GM have been doing that for years.
Not anymore they don't.
GM has turned the Corvette into a serious sports car, and with the upcoming mid engine version coming out soon, it will be a game changer for them.
Ford came out with the GT in 2005, and the new one they just released is incredible.
These aren't the cars that keep the factories running, that job goes to the more mundane vehicles, like the Mustang, Camaro, and Malibu. But they know that having a sports car keeps people excited about the brand.
The Chrysler name needs to go away. They only make what, 2 cars? under their brand name now.
I don't think Chrysler even makes a small car anymore, spinning off all their various models into their own brand was incredibly stupid, and killing off their halo car is never a good sign. Successful car companies don't do that. They come up with a replacement, a redesign.
Isn't the Chrysler 300 their "halo car?" It's still being sold.
Why do you consider making a small car a benchmark?
Isn't the Chrysler 300 their "halo car?" It's still being sold.
Why do you consider making a small car a benchmark?
LOL
The 300 is not and has never been their halo car. Their halo car was the Viper.
They have the Challenger now, but that car is only good at one thing, going fast in a straight line. The Hellcat and Demon are just straight line monsters. I'm not impressed by either of them. The Viper was the total package. The only impressive thing about Chrysler right now is that they stuffed the Hellcat engine into the Jeep Grand Cherokee.
Chrysler was always a full range automotive manufacturer. It was the K-car that saved Chrysler in the 80's. That was a small/midsize platform. If you're going to be in the business of being a mainstream automaker, you need to have something for the low income demographic. They had the 200 and the Dart, which they killed so that factory could begin making Jeeps, which was the only brand they had at the time that was increasing sales.
But unless you're a niche manufacturer making luxury or sports cars, you need to have a bread and butter car that is affordable to the masses, and that's where having a small/midsize platform comes in. Sergio Marchionne made a very shortsighted decision, and if you're a CEO, you need to think of the big picture.
Honorable mention could also go to the ME412 of course, which would have been THE American supercar of the 2000's, but unfortunately was never produced.
I worked for a Tier One supplier to Chrysler for 20 years.
Basically what I saw in Chrysler, which covered the Chrysler, Daimler, and Cerberus eras, was:
The cars and trucks were cheap poorly made tinny pieces of cr@p. The trucks were designed a tiny bit better, but had the same issues of quality.
The "engineers" were mostly paper pushers, not real engineers (I could tell you stories about these so-called engineers that would make your jaw drop). The few real engineers were subject to the Chrysler mentality that one should never ever leave well enough alone when you have a reliable system; instead you should redesign it.
This led to things like the infamous plastic fuel rails on LH cars that invariably split after a few years in underhood conditions, spraying high pressure fuel all over the top of the engine; the V6 Cirrus/Stratus with severe incurable overheating problems because they didn't realize that there has to be a passage for air to LEAVE the radiator; the replacement of the 318 V8 with an engine featuring 4 overhead cams, camshafts assembled from tubing and lobes, and many feet of timing chain, all justified on the grounds of "reduced valve mass and better high rpm breathing" - on a pickup truck engine; an "underhood beautification committee" that decreed all the wires and tubes must run vertically, horizontally, or squarely across the vehicle axis, no matter whether practical or not; the breakage-prone shift lever on the ZF transmission of the Ram pickups, for which the replacement part was "assembly, transmission" - yes, when (not if) your shift lever broke, you had to replace the entire transmission; noise mitigation that basically consisted of bolting big cast iron weights all over the undercarriage...
When the Cirrus/Stratus were launched, if memory serves they offered 5 different engines. Among these were a 4 cylinder and a V6 with 0.1 L difference in displacement and less than 10 HP difference in power. At the same time, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Mazda 626, and whatever the Nissan equivalent was at the time, typically offered 2 engines only, on vehicle production of many times that of the Cirrus/Stratus. Guess who had a better opportunity to have well developed detail design and manufacturing processes: the Japanese makers who had two engines of large volume for 10+ years at a time, or Chrysler with 5 engines some with tiny production volumes and redesigned every 5 years whether needed or not?
Shall I go on?
Don't forget that this is the same company that made a number of cars in the 60s with left-hand-threaded lug nuts on one side of the car to solve a theoretical problem that never actually happened.
It is well known that Chrysler and its brands are continuously at the bottom of reliability ratings. They have a few decent models but overall, they build a lot of junk. I know a professional mechanic and he says all the same things the OP's mechanic said. He stays extremely busy fixing the same things over and over on late model Chrysler, Dodge, RAM, Jeep products. I see them in his lot continuously so he isn't just blowing smoke or full of it. Hell the police departments around here have just about all gotten rid of their Chargers because they stayed in the shop more than they did on the road.
Most of the guys that I know that tried a Dodge/Ram truck, kept it about 3 years and traded it in as soon as they could. They had the same common problems you read about everywhere.
Fiat owns: Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram.
On page 27 of the April 2018 issue of Consumer Reports, all of the above score average or worse for reliability. Surprisingly Maserati which is also owned by Fiat scores poorly and is reviewed separately.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
