Chrysler's Biggest Problem is...Chrysler

last year stellanta ceo carlos tavares issued an ultimatum to the 14 brands under his command we're giving each brand a chance giving each a time window of 10 years and giving funding for 10 years to do a core model strategy if they succeed great but if they don't it could mean the end for an american icon chrysler this is a big problem for the 96 year old company but an even bigger problem in the way of solving it is themselves inside your car there's a creep unlike anything you've ever heard before but be warned it can be quite temperamental always run an intercooler do not use low octane dino juice and the most important thing beware the creep that lurks within the boost donut media presents the new hair-raising boost creep shirt available right now at donumedia.com for just 29.98 really that cheaper that's so much cheaper than 30 if you go to chrysler.com right now you will see three vehicles listed two of them are the same car and one of them is probably gonna get the axe pretty soon in light of this new 10-year timeline things aren't off to a great start the stakes are very real here if chrysler doesn't get their act together soon the big three could just become the big two that would be sad chrysler is almost 100 years old it has a dedicated albeit aging following across the u.s i'm a chrysler guy the first cars that make me think hey i like cars were the muscle cars i saw in hot rod magazine built under the chrysler mopar umbrella but at the same time that rich heritage of awesome cars is precisely why it's so frustrating to see the current lineup wilting on the vine you're chrysler start acting like it damn it luckily for the company and my sanity chrysler has a new leader at the helm who thinks they can right the ship christine fuel very appropriate name by the way was made chrysler brand ceo in september of last year christine's got a lot of experience in the automotive industry she worked at ford for nearly 15 years then for one of the world's biggest car seating suppliers then right before she got the chrysler gig she worked for honeywell in the multinational conglomerates automation department as the cco of safety and production and i think that last part is really going to help chrysler in an interview with motor trend fuel described her mantra for chrysler with the 10-year mandate in mind she calls it accessible innovation bringing high technology to what's left of the middle class in this interview christine is refreshingly honest when asked if she wants to bring chrysler up market to compete with more expensive cars she said quote in my opinion chrysler has not yet earned credibility as a luxury brand it has a lot of great features and design elements that position it more as a premium brand and that's a good place to be christine doesn't want chrysler to compete with the cadillacs and the audi's of the world where the brand is right now it's more realistic to take market share from genesis and mazda by bringing sweet new tech to the middle class when's the last time you heard a ceo be this upfront about their own company it's awesome these days an easy way to become premium in the eyes of consumers while staying somewhat accessible is to give them an electric car with a clock ticking down for chrysler the timing couldn't have been any better back in january when they revealed their first ev concept the airflow if the name airflow sounds familiar to you you probably voted for eisenhower because chrysler hasn't built the airflow since 1937. the airflow was a groundbreaking car chrysler engineer carl breer was inspired by the swooping shapes of airplanes and birds when he first imagined the airflow compared to other cars of the time the airflow was extremely aerodynamic with its low sleeping stance and very roomy interior but the good times didn't last the story goes that tons of pre-orders for the cars came in but the car's complex construction meant production delays sounds familiar when people finally got their hands on it the airflow had tons of reliability issues now for three years the airflow was cancelled so naming the new ev you're hoping will save your company after it is pretty bold to say the least so what is this ev the airflow concept makes 400 horsepower from its two 150 kilowatt motors and the battery gives it a projected range of 400 miles that's more than the mustang mock e and model y if chrysler is able to achieve that in the real world styling wise the airflow has the familiar curves of a sedan with the practicality of a vehicle with raised ground clearance this fusion of sedan and suv design makes the airflow it's an electric crossover not a revolutionary design but a safe bet in today's market i actually think it looks pretty good but with the airflow ev it's what's on the inside that counts the airflow's interior is built around the stelantis smart cockpit system which we talked about a little bit a few weeks ago in our amazon delivery van episode every seat in the airflow has its own screen and camera and feasibly you can make video calls from your car if you thought working from home was cool wait until you try working from car this is what chrysler means when they're talking about accessible innovation if they can deliver a car like the airflow concept at a reasonable and i mean reasonable price they could take some serious steam out of the competition tesla doesn't have video conferencing at least not right now i have no doubt that chrysler has the right idea with the airflow concept but i can't shake the feeling that they're too late to the game with this thing for us to be super excited about it the time to announce a premium tier ev was back in 2010 when the model s dropped granted hindsight is 2020. i doubt detroit thought tesla would come this far in such a short time also i fully acknowledge that scraggly jaded neckbeard youtube car guy isn't exactly the target audience for this car if they dropped it today the airflow would probably do pretty well but would it save chrysler on its own that i'm not so sure about 10 years is not a lot of time in the automotive industry from pen to production car development typically takes three to five years sometimes longer luckily chrysler doesn't have to do it all on their own one of the advantages of being part of a huge corporation like stellantis is that they have 13 siblings to borrow from and lean on i would not be surprised if we see chrysler re-badge some cars from sister brands like opal or pujo to fill out the lineup this would probably help keep the ship afloat but in my opinion it would be a temporary solution to a larger problem that chrysler needs to address sooner than later and that is the brand's identity people aren't going to believe that chrysler is an elevated american premium brand if their car looks a little too similar to a pujo lucky for me there's a pretty strong example out there that proves my point buick a few months ago we discussed buick's place in the american market and their lack of identity a large part of this stems from where buick has been getting their cars for the last decade one of buick's most interesting cars was the regal tour x and it's only interesting because i happen to like wagons but this car wasn't designed for america where people don't buy wagons it was designed by opal for europe where people do buy wagons the regal was a rebadged opel insignia a handsome car for sure but not right for america general motors sold both opel and vauxhall to the french psa group in 2017 psa would then merge with fiat chrysler america to form who else but stalantis it's completely feasible that chrysler could re-badge the current opel lineup throw some nicer materials in the interior and call the day but would that really get them better results than buick did doing the same thing probably not however i will say a chrysler wagon would be pretty sick and i know at least four other people who think so too this is a question from my boomer audience if you were around when wagons were popular were people getting tired of them like we are of crossovers today where people like uh another station wagon i was born in the wrong generation do i just sound like one of those people anyway we should probably talk about how chrysler got in this mess in the first place because believe it or not chrysler used to be killing it 2004 usher was saying yeah repeatedly shrek 2 ruled the box office and chrysler was about to drop on the most iconic cars of the decade the 300c was a reinvention of the chrysler brand setting the course for a bright future in the 2004 launch ad campaign chrysler was telling american you can drive around construction sites you can drive in the snow you can kiss your beautiful wife and we wanted to do those things the 300c was the dodge chargers fancier cousin where the dodge was all about loud exhaust and burnouts cousin chrysler was all about making you feel like a boss this was a mafia staff car you could buy with no money down everyone wanted one of these things rappers accountants my mom she's all three i don't care who you are some part of you saw yourself in a 300c sure the styling was inspired by bentley but the 300c was all-american it was the automotive equivalent of a casual mail xl store you could also get one with a hemi what more could you ask from a car the 300c set the pace for the rest of chrysler's lineup the crossfire was launched alongside there's a sporty-ish two-door coupe derived from the first gen mercedes slk time out time up something you need to know about chrysler at this time is that they were merged with slash owned by daimler mercedes is his parent company mercedes would benefit from chrysler's massive infrastructure and chrysler would gain access to mercedes's legendary engineering and platforms it's what allowed chrysler to build cars like the 300c and crossfire the aspen large suv followed in 2007 based off the durango and damn look at this thing it's awesome the seabring was there too looking at these cars side by side you can see how the strong chrysler design language worked across all styles of car that's a hard thing to do price store is also working on one more car that would have elevated the brand to performance heights never seen before by the company they called it the me412 in less than four months a small but dedicated team within chrysler was able to design and assemble a carbon fiber aluminum supercar prototype from scratch the me412 was powered by a quad turbocharged amg mercedes 12 cylinder engine making an ungodly 850 horsepower 0-60 in 2.9 seconds and can hit a top speed of nearly 240 miles per hour chrysler wanted to build 300 of these things a year with production set to begin in 2006 but it never happened why well the first part was purely financial building the prototypes was one thing but to make them road legal would cost chrysler millions of dollars money that could be better spent on developing mass-market road cars like the 300 seat the second reason is a bit murkier i'll admit apparently daimler didn't like that the me412 was faster than the slr mclaren supercar despite the fact that mercedes and chrysler were considered equals rumor has it that daimler could not let the american supercar be faster than their own crown jewel this is a point that gets brought up in many articles about the me412 i haven't found a direct quote confirming it so take that with a grain of salt so money and egos meant that the me412 would never make it to real roads if you want to know more about the development of the supercar check out this video by alphaguy2 i'll leave a link in the description so with this rad lineup chrysler sales dipped from 2004 to 2005 sales increased 10 then just went downhill from there every year until 2010. you know it's very possible my nostalgia for these cars is clouding my judgment a big factor in this of course was the 2008 economic crisis people lost their jobs they saved their money and didn't buy cars as a result chrysler lost a lot of money and didn't make cars in december of 2008 chrysler shut down its factories and entered bankruptcy for 42 days they were saved by a 4 billion loan from the federal government in a very juicy partnership with fiat in june of 2009. the crossfire aspen and sebring didn't live to see 2010 with only the 300c in town and country minivan trudging on the chrysler 200 joined the gang in 2011 and lived for six years not bad for a dressed up dodge dart the pacifica minivan replaced the town and country in 2017 here we are today two cars and no identity it's not an enviable position but i haven't lost hope doesn't happen with every car they make but every once in a while chrysler will build a car people really gravitate towards i professed my love for the 300 earlier but there's an even better example that came out a few years before that you might have forgotten about a car chrysler probably wishes they could replicate today at least when it comes to sales talking about the pt cruiser from 2000 to 2003 the pt accounted for over a quarter of chrysler's sales and over its 10-year lifespan more than 1 million pt cruisers were sold the 300 has been around for almost twice as long as the pt and it's only got like a 100 000 car lead look you can say whatever you want about the pt cruiser but these things were a cultural phenomenon look i know this is way way easier said than done but if chrysler wants to turn things around they need another iconic car like the 300 or the pt cruiser both cars were so successful because they embodied a cultural moment at the time and spoke to the public in a very profound way to be honest i don't know if a crossover ev is gonna be the car to do that on the morning of march first just a few hours ago as i record this carlos tavares announced that quote chrysler will be relaunched and that the new cars plural will quote look really gorgeous it's been a long day guys the new cars will look really gorgeous i sure hope so tavares also announced that chrysler aims to be fully electric by 2028 just six years from now so it's safe to assume that the other models in the works at chrysler will be electric like the airflow and to give chrysler some credit again the airflow it's a safe bet people will probably buy it but it's inoffensive when you look at the competition they're taking more chances and taking bigger swings for chrysler to survive the next 10 years chrysler needs to break the cycle they found themselves in they need to shed the stuffy image and build something that will get people stoked to drive a chrysler again like a pt cruiser all right thank you very much for watching wheelhouse love chrysler uh i really i am pulling for you guys follow me at nolanjsykes on all social media if you'd like thank you very much for watching the video let me know your favorite chrysler down in the comments hit like on this video if you liked it subscribe to the channel if you really liked it follow me at nolanjsykes if you'd like be kind i'll see you next time

Channel: Donut

Views: 2,176,411

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Id: qhbupp6e_VY

Length: 14min 31sec (871 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 28 2022