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Doomsday clock ticking for non-performing Stellantis brands

bigbaozi

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That whole Ram spinoff was a whole bit of silly that kind of screwed Dodge over, but I think the Challenger and Charger are still selling well. And the Durango is alright, I guess, if you needed a Grand Cherokee with 3 rows in the before times. At least they finally murdered the Journey.

Chrysler, that brand just needs to go. It's a bloody minivan and the 300 at this point. I expect it will just turn into a rebadge of Fiat / Peugeot / Opel crossovers.

Alfa is a sad case, because the cars are exciting, but it is going to take a long time or something really special to break them out of that niche luxury player market in the USA.
 

The Last Cowboy

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I agree. The Ram brand is a mistake that will kill Dodge. Still not too late to fix it, as there are no dedicated Ram dealer network that I’m aware of. It was cut out as it’s own brand when under Cerberus ownership.

Cerberus was planning to sell Ram and Jeep, then liquidate the rest. The timing couldn't have been worse as the Great Recession set in just as they were beginning to get down to it. Rumors swirled that Ford wanted Jeep, but not Ram or that Navistar or Nissan wanted Ram. It all wound up getting sold to Fiat in a fire sale orchestrated by the Obama administration.

Fiat decided a few years ago to slice Ferrari and Lamborghini out of the group, then sell the rest of the Fiat brands. I am not sure where I stand on Stellantis. I don’t have high hopes. I have no idea where Jeep goes from here if the new company fails. Ford just began to manufacture their own Jeep, which probably came under serious development after Fiat bought Chrysler and it’s brands.

However, Jeep has always endured under many owners
Willys Overland
Kaiser
AMC
Renault
Chrysler
Daimler Benz
Cerberus
Fiat
And now, Stellantis

The brand has been mostly foreign owned since 1980 when Renault bought AMC. It was based in the US when Chrysler bought the brand in 1988 and then went foreign again in 1995 and has been ever since. Cerberus was a Canadian company.
 

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At least they finally murdered the Journey.
Journey was way outdated 5 years ago when we briefly looked at them. Only two new vehicles I've ever test drove that I thought were a joke compared to their competition. The Journey and an Astro back in the day.
 

bigbaozi

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Journey was way outdated 5 years ago when we briefly looked at them. Only two new vehicles I've ever test drove that I thought were a joke compared to their competition. The Journey and an Astro back in the day.
I got one as a rental around when they first came out, it was outdated then. Thing is just an ugly minivan with regular doors and it drove like crap. I'm guessing most of them got sold off to car rental companies because I ended up getting stuck with them at least 2 more times.

I had a coworker that bought one and he was really excited about the V6 in it for some reason... Drove that thing like it was a frickin race car. Damn near killed us trying to show off on a turnpike exit.
 
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Oncorhynchus

Oncorhynchus

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I agree. The Ram brand is a mistake that will kill Dodge. Still not too late to fix it, as there are no dedicated Ram dealer network that I’m aware of. It was cut out as it’s own brand when under Cerberus ownership.

Cerberus was planning to sell Ram and Jeep, then liquidate the rest. The timing couldn't have been worse as the Great Recession set in just as they were beginning to get down to it. Rumors swirled that Ford wanted Jeep, but not Ram or that Navistar or Nissan wanted Ram. It all wound up getting sold to Fiat in a fire sale orchestrated by the Obama administration.

Fiat decided a few years ago to slice Ferrari and Lamborghini out of the group, then sell the rest of the Fiat brands. I am not sure where I stand on Stellantis. I don’t have high hopes. I have no idea where Jeep goes from here if the new company fails. Ford just began to manufacture their own Jeep, which probably came under serious development after Fiat bought Chrysler and it’s brands.

However, Jeep has always endured under many owners
Willys Overland
Kaiser
AMC
Renault
Chrysler
Daimler Benz
Cerberus
Fiat
And now, Stellantis

The brand has been mostly foreign owned since 1980 when Renault bought AMC. It was based in the US when Chrysler bought the brand in 1988 and then went foreign again in 1995 and has been ever since. Cerberus was a Canadian company.
Cerberus is the odd duck in the list. It’s a holding company not a car company.
 

bigbaozi

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Cerberus was planning to sell Ram and Jeep, then liquidate the rest. The timing couldn't have been worse as the Great Recession set in just as they were beginning to get down to it. Rumors swirled that Ford wanted Jeep, but not Ram or that Navistar or Nissan wanted Ram. It all wound up getting sold to Fiat in a fire sale orchestrated by the Obama administration.
I don't think there were that many manufacturers at the time with cash to buy it. Might have been interesting if Geely had gotten ahold of Jeep or Ram, they really seem to be kicking butt with the new Volvo's. But Fiat only had a minority stake initially.

Quite a lot of the bankruptcies were negotiated out by the Bush administration, which is fitting given they were the ones that messed up handling the financial crisis badly enough to require it.
 

SH556JL

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That whole Ram spinoff was a whole bit of silly that kind of screwed Dodge over, but I think the Challenger and Charger are still selling well. And the Durango is alright, I guess, if you needed a Grand Cherokee with 3 rows in the before times. At least they finally murdered the Journey.

Chrysler, that brand just needs to go. It's a bloody minivan and the 300 at this point. I expect it will just turn into a rebadge of Fiat / Peugeot / Opel crossovers.

Alfa is a sad case, because the cars are exciting, but it is going to take a long time or something really special to break them out of that niche luxury player market in the USA.
One of our pilots is a long time Dodge Ram fan, he still refers to his Ram as a Dodge... Not sure if he knows it's a "separate" brand now.
 

bigbaozi

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One of our pilots is a long time Dodge Ram fan, he still refers to his Ram as a Dodge... Not sure if he knows it's a "separate" brand now.
I still call it a Dodge Ram and I'm going to be calling the company FCA for a while as well, Stellantis sounds like stupid marketing crap.
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