news and rumor forum | upcoming models | old news books and manuals| mike's jeep news

July 17, 2002: DCX selling yet another Chrysler plant?

The selloff of Chrysler continues in bits and pieces as rumors surround the New Castle plant, which reportedly is going to be spun off as a joint venture with Metaldyne until the union contract expires. After that, Metaldyne will take over the plant, according to sources.

July 17, 2002: 2003 Sebring Coupe, Sebring/Stratus sedans

Mr. Source provided us with information about the 2003 Stratus coupe yesterday, and followed up today with details on remodelled 2003 Sebring coupe. Not surprisingly, the changes are similar to those on the Stratus, with projector like headlamps, new taillights, and a new grille with chrome bars. Now fog lamps will be outside the grille, and the outside mirrors are now painted body color.

The 2003 sedans will have minor changes, and all Dodge and all Chrysler will have the family look [as seen in Neon spy shots], the sedans will have a much more similar look to the coupes for 2003.

July 17, 2002: Ford GT40 inherits Viper designers

Ford, seemingly annoyed at not having anything to compare to the Viper or Corvette for nearly a decade, is developing a vehicle which should be comparable to the Viper or the highest-level Corvette - the GT40. Andrew Renth pointed out that its design team has at least two people in common with the original Viper team: Carroll Shelby, who designed some of the most notable Ford rear-drive and Chrysler turbo-four cars (as well has having a hand in the Viper), and Chris Theodore, who as Ford's vice president of North America product development hand-picked the team. Theodore joined Ford in 1999, just after the takeover by Mercedes.

As at Chrysler during its heyday, much of the development work will be done by suppliers: Lear, for interior systems experts; Mayflower Vehicle Systems, for aluminum chassis and body systems; Roush Industries, for the powertrain, and Saleen, to guide low-volume niche manufacturing system.

Chrysler's use of suppliers to stimulate internal innovation, manage risk, and reduce costs was described in the Harvard Business Review article Chrysler: An American Kieretsu. This approach is one reason why Chrysler's supplier costs seemed higher than Mercedes' - the company had given suppliers a share in the savings they generated, so that in roughly two years, Chrysler saved $2 billion from supplier suggestions.

July 16, 2002: Chrysler's role in the space program

Though DaimlerChrysler's new ads would indicate that the American space program rested on superior German engineering, Patrick C. was kind enough to provide us with some information from NASA on the company's history in the space effort. It turns out Chrysler made many major contributions, many of which are detailed in this article. That's not to downplay the contributions of Nazi war criminals, who surely advanced the program as well.

July 16, 2002: Stratus changes

Yesterday, we posted an extensive list of 2003 Dodge Stratus changes. We must note that these apply only to the coupe version - that is, the one based on the Mitsubishi Eclipse, the twin of the Sebring Coupe (which shares almost no parts with the sedan and convertible).

July 16, 2002: AutoWeek joins "German superiority" ad criticism

By now, chances are you've heard the new Chrysler ads, telling us how quality is shooting up because superior Germans have taken over the stylish Americans at Chrysler. We note that our coverage of these ads has mistaken some details. For example, when DCX says "A German named Einstein showed us the universe in a whole new light," we did note that Einstein would almost certainly have died at the hands of the German government. We did not remember that Einstein was not even German, but Swiss - he left Germany, where he had a teaching position, in 1932. Though he renounced German citizenship quickly, he retained his Swiss citizenship after becoming an American citizen.

The AutoWeek criticism also points out that giving credit to the German rocket program, which resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths, for the American space program is, to say the least, stretching the truth.

DCX claims to have received no complaints and will continue the campaign, which is being paid for by Chrysler even though it seems to be more a justification of the merger than a way to sell cars to Americans.

July 15, 2002: 2003 Stratus restyled and revamped

According to Mr. Source, the 2003 Dodge Stratus will undergo an extensive cosmetic makeover. Some of the new features:

• The new front look of the car looks like a mix between an Altima or Acura, with new headlamps, a more angled front fascia, a higher grille, and it is more aerodynamic because of the design.
• The front fascia with the new hood and headlamps gives the car a more aggressive look. The lower part of the front fascia is almost identical to the new Neon R/T fascia for 2003, it has almost same fog lamps, and is very similar to the new Neon R/T.
• The rear has new tail lamps, almost identical to the Eclipse lamps (round), round reverse lamps are located in the fascia.
• R/T models will have a rear spoiler, we have a single exhaust and chrome pipe, about a 3 inch wide. So we don´t have the Intrepid look, I might say it looks now very similar to the Eclipse.
• New wheels, 5 spoke, a new design, new side skirts that match the front and rear fascia.
• Interior upgrades, such as volume controls on the back of the steering wheel.