Question for PVOMan or Steve or anyone else who might know:
What's the deal with Mopar's small-car program? I've heard a few hints that there's a "true" Neon replacement in the works, and we've seen the Hornet and the Demon, and we've heard a few other hints that Caliber will be a short-lived model... what's going on and what's the timing?
Question for PVOMan or Steve or anyone else who might know:
What's the deal with Mopar's small-car program? I've heard a few hints that there's a "true" Neon replacement in the works, and we've seen the Hornet and the Demon, and we've heard a few other hints that Caliber will be a short-lived model... what's going on and what's the timing?
FYI Chrysler only makes Rumors and Concept Cars.
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Quote: Originally Posted by sphipps
Obviously you are not detecting the sarcasim in my posts.
I went back to my local lot today which finally got some '08 Caravans... it still looks small I find. Maybe it's just the one 3/4 angle from the rear... but that rear end that evokes Kias and Hyundias just does nothing for me.
They played it safe - just like everything in the lineup (except the 300). To me, good car design means that you should be able to remove the signature grille and still be able to identify the car, and it should have a distinctive shape that sets it apart from the rest.
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"This car is 100% sh*ts and giggles."A car can be a tool but it can also be so much more. It can be a heart-starter, it can be a drug, it can be a piece of art and it can stir your soul.
"Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary... that's what gets you." Jeremy Clarkson
Fifth Gear clip on Ford's development of the ST. The line that was lingering in my memory was the part where they said they had "tested a ST's engine at max revs for four weeks... over 150k miles... :
On a totally different note...after seeing a few Patriots in person now...I wish the SRT guys would lend a helping hand. The Patriot and Caliber ride on the same platform right? I'd love an AWD 285 hp patriot. That would be great for getting groceries and getting to Tahoe!!!
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Get in,
Sit down,
Shut up,
and hold on...Mopar 2 ya
On a totally different note...after seeing a few Patriots in person now...I wish the SRT guys would lend a helping hand. The Patriot and Caliber ride on the same platform right? I'd love an AWD 285 hp patriot. That would be great for getting groceries and getting to Tahoe!!!
Absolutely agree. I saw a black Patriot yesterday... looks pretty BA
On a totally different note...after seeing a few Patriots in person now...I wish the SRT guys would lend a helping hand. The Patriot and Caliber ride on the same platform right? I'd love an AWD 285 hp patriot. That would be great for getting groceries and getting to Tahoe!!!
Absolutely agree. I saw a black Patriot yesterday... looks pretty BA
i would have to agree with both statements there Even if I, myself, would buy a JK wrangler unlimited
Jim Press, president of Toyota Motors North America Lured Away to Chrysler
DAMIAN DOVARGANES/Associated Press
A CLOSER LOOK
Last year, Press become the first non-Japanese president of Toyota Motor North America Inc., overseeing sales and engineering divisions as well as 12 manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Canada, including the auto maker's Camry plant in Georgetown, Ky.
Press, who enjoys scuba diving and flying airplanes, joined the Toyota board as part of an expansion of the board from 25 to 30 members.
He joined Toyota in 1970, after leaving Ford Motor Co
Chrysler's coup
Toyota's top North American exec jumps to rival
Compiled from Post news services
DETROIT - Chrysler pulled off a major coup Thursday, hiring away the highly-regarded Jim Press, Toyota's top North American executive, to run its sales and marketing operations.
Press, 60, formerly president and chief operating officer for Toyota in North America and the first non-Japanese member of Toyota Motor Corp.'s board of directors, will become Chrysler vice chairman and president.
He joins new Chairman and chief executive Robert Nardelli and Tom LaSorda on Chrysler LLC's top management team. LaSorda already has and will retain the same titles as Press.
LaSorda will run the company's manufacturing and purchasing operations, while Press will handle sales, marketing and product strategy, said company spokesman Mike Aberlich.
Toyota said Press' resignation will be effective Sept. 14. Shigeru Hayakawa, a Japanese veteran at the company and Toyota managing officer, will be the new president of Toyota North America.
Hiring Press is Chrysler's second major executive announcement since August, when private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP took control of 80.1 percent of the company from DaimlerChrysler AG. Cerberus announced Aug. 6 that Nardelli, a former Home Depot Inc. CEO, would become Chrysler's chairman and CEO.
"Toyota has been the centerpiece of my life. This was the most difficult decision I have made," Press said in a statement.
Press, an American, has been with Toyota for 37 years. His rise at Toyota was widely seen as furthering the company's effort to bolster its standing as a multinational corporation.
"Jim has played a significant role in strengthening Toyota's presence in the U.S," Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said. "I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all he has done for Toyota."
Press comes to Chrysler with a great record of success at Toyota, which has seen continued U.S. sales increases for the past several years. Chrysler's sales have been dropping.
Aberlich said hiring Press is no reflection on LaSorda, who was demoted from chairman and CEO when Nardelli was hired. "The guy is such a remarkable 'get' that you're going to do it," Aberlich said of Press, equating the hiring with a baseball team bringing another power hitter onto its roster.
Chrysler would not comment on Press' compensation package, and because it now is a private company, details likely will be kept quiet.
Aberlich said the compensation, like Nardelli's, will be tied to Chrysler's performance. "He'll help turn us around, and he'll be rewarded."
Press will face two immediate challenges: managing the launch of crucial new vehicles such as the Chrysler Town & Country minivan and Dodge Avenger sedan, and repairing the company's frayed relations with its dealers. Both tasks should play to his strengths.
As the key figure at Toyota's Torrance, Calif .-based U.S. sales division from 1999 to 2005, Press served as the automaker's eyes and ears in this country and was credited with having a keen understanding of what appealed to U.S. drivers. As head of Toyota Motor Sales USA, Press led Toyota's rapid sales climb from a 9.3 percent U.S. market share in 2000 to 13.1 percent in 2005.
"He's smart enough to know how to bring to market what the customer wants," said Jim Hall, an analyst with Tustin, Calif. -based consulting company AutoPacific Inc. "And knowing the secret of how to put the customer No. 1 is how Toyota went from being an importer with their headquarters Hollywood Boulevard to what may be the smartest car company on the planet."
Press also displayed a talent for working with car dealers, which will be "incredibly important at Chrysler because Chrysler has bungled its relations with its dealers," said Michelle Krebs, editor of Edmunds' AutoObserver.com.
Press is the second Toyota defector to join Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Chrysler. Last month, it hired a top marketing executive from the other company's Lexus luxury division - a division Press ran in the 1990s. Deborah Wahl Meyer, 44, was named vice president and chief marketing officer.
As the industry recovers from the shock of Thursday’s announcement that Chrysler had hired Toyota’s top-ranking, Jim Press, the automaker dropped another bombshell: it has hired Phil Murtaugh away from Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., General Motors’ joint venture partner in China.
In Chinese circles, the news of Murtaugh joining Chrysler in China is nearly as big as the news of Press joining Chrysler in the U.S. as he is credited with building GM’s extraordinarily successful China business.
And the move demonstrates, yet again, Chrysler’s new owner, Cerberus Capital Management, is pulling out all of the stops to buy the world’s best automotive talent to turn Chrysler around.
Murtaugh’s hiring also suggests what AutoObserver has long suspected – that there is a serious China connection involved in Cerberus’ purchase of Chrysler.
Chrysler confirmed to AutoObserver Friday morning the hiring of Murtaugh, who becomes CEO of Chrysler's Asian Operations.
"We went fishing and got a couple of whoppers," Jason Vines, Chrysler vice president of communications told AutoObserver about the hiring of Press and then Murtaugh.
Vines said Chrysler under its new owners was shopping for the best in the business in Asia Pacific. Tom LaSorda, Chrysler co-president and co-vice chairman with ex-Toyota exec Press, said Murtaugh was the best, but that Chrysler would never get him. But they did.
The Associated Press reported Friday morning that Murtaugh confirmed he had "accepted an offer from Chrysler that I think will be a tremendous opportunity for me.”
“At this stage of my career, it is an offer I just cannot turn down," Murtaugh reportedly said.
The hiring of Murtaugh is yet-another coup for Chrysler. The automaker has extremely ambitious plans to expand globally, and China must be key for any automobile manufacturer serious about a worldwide presence. In fact, Chrysler has a deal with another Chinese automaker, Chery Automobile Co., to jointly produce and export small cars to Europe and the U.S. in the next few years.
Murtaugh, extremely well respected in the Chinese auto industry and inside GM, abruptly left GM after 32 years in June 2006 for what he said were “personal reasons.” He joined GM's partner, SAIC.
It was widely believed by industry observers that Murtaugh wasn’t thrilled with the way GM was reorganizing its China operations and merging them with its Asia-Pacific operations, which were moved from Singapore to Shanghai. Murtaugh had been able to move fast in China and be successful, in part, because he could operate under the radar screen of GM’s bureaucracy. He'll likely thrive under the fast-paced, quick results private equity ownership of Chrysler.
The hiring of Murtaugh and hints of Chrysler's China aspirations lend credence to what AutoObserver learned months ago from sources in financial circles familiar with the Cerberus negotiations for Chrysler. Those sources said the China factor played a major role in Cerberus' consideration of buying Chrysler. One source called Chrysler Cerberus’ “Trojan horse for the Chinese.”
AutoObserver has wondered if Cerberus is scurrying to turn Chrysler around so it can sell it to a Chinese company. In the early days of Chrysler being on the auction block, some analysts had speculated that Chrysler could be purchased by a Chinese company. It would be a ready-way – with Chrysler's extensive distribution network and manufacturing operations – for the Chinese to quickly gain a foothold in North America.
Indeed, both Chery and SAIC are players to watch. Both have ambitious global expansion plans.
In fact, SAIC's hiring of Murtaugh in 2006 was seen as a major move in taking SAIC global.
SAIC, China's largest automaker, partners with the world’s major players, notably GM and VW, to build vehicles jointly with them. SAIC hired Murtaugh to help launch vehicles under SAIC's own brand for the first time in history. That brand, based on the remnants of England's MG Rover that SAIC had purchased, is Rongwei (in Chinese), Roewe in English (pronounced "wrong way," which drew its share of jokes in the business.)
The Associated Press reported Friday that SAIC applauded Murtaugh's contribution to the automaker's efforts to build its own-brand business.
Murtaugh also had been charged with turning around Ssangyong Motor Co., the financially troubled Korean automaker that SAIC bought in 2004. Using the resources of its far-flung operations, especially Ssangyong's electornics capability, SAIC plans to launch a hybrid by the end of this year.
Chery operates independently and sells vehicles under the Chery brand, including the small QQ, over which GM sued Chery – and lost in the Chinese courts – for copying the Chevrolet Spark.
The other question that comes to mind -- who in the world will Chrysler recruit next?
Chrysler's Comeback Kid? New Town & Country Is
Best Vehicle for $35,000;
Smooth and Serene
September 7, 2007; Page W4
There's no more banal a category in the auto industry than the mid-$30,000 luxury vehicle. Car makers put out dozens of these models, and even the better ones aren't particularly interesting. From the sleepily competent Lexus ES350 sedan to the crude-but-effective Infiniti G37 coupe to the pseudo-high-tech styling of the Acura RDX sport-utility vehicle, this price range promises little more than pretentiousness and profits. You get the former, the auto maker reaps the latter, and everyone else is left to observe that you're not very secure in your self-image.
Jeff Sabatini reviews the MyGig entertainment system, the newest feature of Chrysler's Town & Country Limited luxury mini-van, and says the user interface "is a mess."
Perhaps this analysis is a bit harsh, but it's not for nothing that this segment is called "near luxury." Truly, the vehicles are nearer to common, ordinary transportation. This makes it fitting -- and deliciously ironic -- that the best $35,000 vehicle on the market would be a minivan. Surely no one who plunks down that same amount on something like the laughable Jaguar X-Type sedan (a low-budget Ford in disguise) would agree, but it's likely he or she has never driven the 2008 Chrysler Town & Country Limited either.
Calling it the "Cadillac of minivans" would be true to the spirit of the phrase, and please don't let even the slightest note of sarcasm creep into your voice when you say it. The Limited is the class of Chrysler's completely redesigned minivan line, which also includes the Dodge Grand Caravan, a model that can be had for as little as $22,470.
But the $36,400 Limited shouldn't -- and won't -- be mistaken for its economy-class siblings, as this is the nicest, most comfortable and best-riding vehicle Chrysler sells, hands down. Excepting perhaps the 300C, the muscular sedan that heavily influenced the new minivan's styling, the Town & Country is the most attractive thing you'll see at a Chrysler dealership. Pictures don't do the vehicle justice.
Moving Upscale
A black Limited -- it should be available in no other color -- was dropped off at my house on a Friday. By the end of the weekend I was nearly convinced that the "New Chrysler," freed of its former German owners at Daimler, has a shot at its goal of taking its namesake brand upscale. Of course that's not going to happen with boat anchors like the Aspen, Crossfire and Sebring in the lineup, but the Town & Country is another proposition entirely. If its formal, upright stance and simple, conservative styling are the harbinger of things to come, Chrysler should at least be able to bury Lincoln once and for all. (Granted, this is neither a tall order nor a particularly enviable outcome, but good riddance just the same.)
While the Town & Country's resemblance to a vintage hearse, especially in the "D-pillar" at the rear corners, may not scream American luxury to all comers, it's a credible stand-in for the proverbial "long, black limousine." Indeed, the Limited floats along like a chauffeured livery vehicle, aided by its long wheelbase, and its soft leather-and-suede seats offer an executive-grade experience. The level of quiet refinement achieved in this minivan is heretofore unheard of in any Chrysler product, as is the quality of the interior materials. The steering and suspension seem to have been designed by engineers who actually spoke to one another during the development process. It's still a minivan, with the requisite soft suspension and lots of body roll, but the vehicle is predictable and easy to control.
Seats That Swivel
The Town & Country feels stable at all reasonable speeds, and even plenty of unreasonable ones, rates of travel more easily attained by choosing the new top-of-the-line engine. This 4.0-liter V6 puts out 251 horsepower, and it's a motor worthy of a sports sedan. With a nice growl under hard acceleration, but smooth and serene otherwise, it's standard on the Limited and should be one of the first options anyone buying a Chrysler minivan thinks about ordering. Coupled to a six-speed automatic, the big V6 not only outpaces Chrysler's anemic 3.8-liter, 197-horsepower V6, but does so without incurring a fuel-economy penalty.
I got about 20.4 miles per gallon over 675 miles of highway and local driving; the EPA's official rating is 18 mpg combined. That's nothing to get too excited about, but it's in line with Toyota's Sienna, and slightly better than you'll do in most of the overpriced "crossovers" that auto makers are pushing as minivan surrogates now that SUVs have gone gauche. Of course, the common measure of any real minivan's worth is found in its feature list. Suffice it to say that some shoppers of such vehicles would gladly buy an ox cart as long as it offered DVD players for every passenger and required a census to determine just how many cupholders were present.
That's why Chrysler isn't shy about offering anything and everything in its new minivans, from seats that swivel around to encircle a table between the second and third rows, to three kids' channels of Sirius satellite television. Much of this stuff is as boring to read about as it is fun to play with while you're on the road, so we'll cut the discussion short by saying that the option list on the Town & Country isn't.
At the end of the day, as much of an entry-luxury-value proposition as the Town & Country Limited offers, it's not going to be cross-shopped against the BMW 328i and Hummer H3. Anyone with the income and inclination to drive home a Limited is also likely to look at the top-of-the-line Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna minivans. The Odyssey does have an excellent feature that deactivates up to three cylinders of its V6 engine while cruising, which should give it the edge in fuel economy. However, Honda has yet to announce the revised fuel-economy rating of the 2008 model. A less compelling case can be made for the Sienna in that it can be ordered with all-wheel drive.
Yet neither of the competitive minivans can quite match the Chrysler's comfort and sophistication, let alone its visual appeal or feature list. The Town & Country Limited is just competing on a wholly different level.
If Chrysler ever becomes Chinese owned you can kiss it all goodbye. I would definitely not buy an automobile that was made by a Chinese company. Sorry.
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The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get rich quick theory of life.
-Theodore Roosevelt-
Every generation needs a new revolution.
-Thomas Jefferson-
Fifth Gear clip on Ford's development of the ST. The line that was lingering in my memory was the part where they said they had "tested a ST's engine at max revs for four weeks... over 150k miles... :
Engines starting and stopping then cooling, and repeating the cycle are 90% of the causes for wear. 150K is nothing if not turned on and off a thousand times. And a durable 4 banged is nothing special.
If Chrysler ever becomes Chinese owned you can kiss it all goodbye. I would definitely not buy an automobile that was made by a Chinese company. Sorry.
at this time Phil Murtaugh is brought in only to lead Chrysler's Asian Operations. Meaning he will probably be head of Chery. Which will be sourced for Chryslers Scion-fighting brand.
The Chinese will not take over Chrysler, however they will have a good solid outlet to use within the company.
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