What makes a great car?
What makes a great car? An answer to that question could consist of: a reasonable amount of horsepower and torque, wonderful fuel economy, safety features, a nice interior created with soft materials, or a beautiful exterior.
It is easy to get one of these five characteristics right, but it seems to be hard for a car company to get all five qualities spot on. Therefore when buying a car one usually has to give up one or more of these particular assets.
Soooooooo…
The Commander, the Aspen, and the Compass.
What do these three cars all have in common?
1) They are all new vehicles from the Chrysler Group that have filled much needed segments that were otherwise unoccupied.
2) They are also new vehicles that have caused the majority of allpar members along with the general public to have mixed feelings about their exterior styling. “Mixed” may be a too good of a word in these particular cases. As it is, most people seem to hate their styling.
These three particular vehicles don’t seem to have the same love/hate feelings that, say, the current generation Dodge Ram or the current Chrysler 300 (which has more of a love thing going on but that is just because I am soooooooo in love with this car). There seems to be more hate then love in these three production vehicles.
The Chrysler Group seems to try to push the envelope when it comes to the exterior styling of their vehicles. They seem to polarize the population with their current styling directions. One could say that the styling of the Aspen, Commander, and Compass are polarizing however, I would say that the Chrysler Group went beyond polarizing with these particular trio of vehicles.
So are these cars going to fail in the auto market because of their odd styling? They do have other assets that car buyers look for like: nice interiors, nice safety features, horsepower, and gas mileage (well at least for the Compass I would say). Will the less than acceptable exterior styling outweigh the other four assets? I think the answer will be undeniably NO.
It is a bit easy for me that say that for the Commander when it has been on sale for a couple of months already. The Commanders sales have increases steadily each month with over 8,000 units being sold in December 2005. I do think that trend will continue for the Commander. I also believe that the Aspen and Compass will also do well in the market place.
You see I love these vehicles and even though that I am not IN love with their styling I am so glad they are being produced. At least these are cars that I can talk to my friends about and possibly one day test drive. These are things that I can not do with a concept car.
In four years these vehicles will also get a face lift. If the corporation is listening to the public they will change particular elements of the exterior design that is needed if they are possible at the time.
In eight years we will get new vehicles replacing these cars (obviously this will only happen if the company was able to produce a profit for each of the vehicles). Their successors will hopefully fix the much needed exterior and some interior details.
It is easy to change a car once it has some momentum in the market place and it is more difficult to get a company to produce a vehicle from scratch. Look that the Challenger and Camaro fans, dying for these two cars. Once the car is gone from the market, it is harder to get that car back into the market.
The Aspen will fit the SUV needs of Chrysler buyers. Affordable bling as they call it. If you do not want to spend 60k at a Cadillac dealership for a nice SUV with chrome…well here you go.
The Compass fits the wagon/rally needs for Jeep buyers. Don’t want a Subaru or an Evo, well, here you go… of course it will truly be an STi/Evo beater if they turbocharge the inline four.
The Commander fits the needs of people wanting a larger SUV that has a third row seat.
Only the consumer will let the corporation know if they want major/minor changes in their exterior styling. Only time will tell if this trio of vehicles will make it in the market.
I think the chrysler ASPEN should have a better front grill. If it wants to compete with chevy, things like a standard remote start and maybe a electronic rear door that opens and closes. Also the guage cluster should be redesigned or have some new type of flare to them. I just see too many things comming from the durango. I would expect to see the Aspen in Canada before the US. Well enough of my ranting, im a MOPAR FAN TO THE END….. i really like the imperial concept looks promising as well as the ASPEN
You are right about the Aspen (I do think that the package looks great in black though).
But in 4 or 6 or so years from now the Durango/Aspen will be reworked.
Hopefully DCX will listen to us and change what is needed.
I like the gauge cluster, myself. Most cusotmers won’t have seen the Durango yet. Anyway, the Aspen was just a Dodged Volare…!
Forget about looks for a moment.
My fiance (who is a bit of a snob when it comes to cars…Benz, Bimmer etc she likes)
Drove a 04 Durango and she loved it.
She ended up buying it and thinks it is the one of the best she ever bought. (Remember what vehicles she usually buys).
I think the Durango is a great vehicle but a lot of people just will not step in a Dodge dealership. (This is what took most of the convincing.)
If the CG just gets people in the doors, they will realize they do make great vehicles.
aka the halo effect of the 300.
Hmm, good question…what makes a great car.
I’d say my old Neon was a great car, in that it did everything I asked of it and more, for nine and a half years and 163000 miles. It certainly wasn’t perfect, but aside from the ubiquitous head gasket deal there was little that broke prematurely, and while a couple things annoyed me (frameless windows topping the list) a quick drive somehow made me forget about it. Since I keep cars awhile, ‘Great’ has to be earned. My old LeBaron coupe had definite great looks; overall it was a bit short of great though.
I think Chrysler is wise trying to toe the line between ‘distinctive’ and ‘egads what the heck is that?!’ I think it’s good to take a design stand and say ‘if you just want a vanilla vehicle then maybe this ain’t your bag’. I mean, I think the Durango is ugly, but at least it looks different. They certainly don’t seem to want to promote the Sebring/Stratus, their blandest entry.
It’s an interesting dilemma. The biggest critique I’ve heard of the new Civic is that it’s too ‘out there’ for the person who normally buys a Civic. This after years of ‘It’s a bit boring’. Can’t win, I guess….
I agree wtih you there. Of course you can never win with some critics. Remember BTO? “Their albums sound too much alike,” said the critics. Then with the Freeways album, “It’s too different, they shoulda stuck with the formula.”
Hi,
Personally I think the Dodge Ram is a GREAT truck and fits
all my personal needs - BUT - this is one of the “personal needs and wants” things as well.
Some people are good with some things lacking a bit and others with different things lacking - some don;t want any lacking at all.
For instance, my wife is a HUGE ford fan. Perosnall I only like the older (60’s and 70’s) mustangs. other then that I’d be happy in a different car or truck (truck personally) all together.
Anyway, I just wanted to share my piece…
Nice blog and nice discussion.
Thanks!
- Ray