Sad that it has come to this.
The Mopar
So Chrysler has been lower in the mud in the past; there were days when Mitsubishi made every V6 (3.0), every small car, the optional four-cylinder (2.6), and the compact pickup (D50). Indeed, for a long time it seemed as though Chrysler would make the money-losing big cars
Yes, I like the look of the Hornet, not to mention its performance, but with the New York Times suggesting that the 1.6 engine plant in Brazil will be sold to a Chinese company, which will no doubt study it carefully and learn from its systems to flood the US (eventually) with good, cheap, advanced engine designs, we’re probably looking at a Volkswagen engine in the Hornet to match the basic platform. I can hope that Chrysler will essentially use the Polo’s hard points and redesign everything else, but I don’t think that’s in the cards. I think it more likely Chrysler will sell Polos in the US as Volkswagen sells Caravans in Europe, and Chrysler-Volkswagen will pick up where Chrysler-Mitsubishi left off, except that there’s also a Mercedes in the mix now. (Not that it would have mattered in the 1970s or the 1980s, anyway, since Chrysler was busy being pushed so far into Plymouth’s turf that Plymouth ended up with nowhere to go, and Chrysler ended up selling entry-level, stripped-down minivans…a prospect that most Americans now don’t find puzzling or disturbing, I suspect, but when I grew up, Chrysler was still challenging Cadillac, Lincoln, and anyone who cared to import a luxury car; the Imperial went after the best Europe could offer, but with better reliabilty.)
I don’t have a real upbeat ending to this. The Hornet is a great little concept, and I hope the Caliber does so well that Stuttgart decides to let Chrysler both engineer and build the Hornet in its own labs and plants. However, the part of me that realizes how much Mercedes is in the LX tells me that it’s more likely we’ll be getting Polos with Chrysler sheet metal, made in a Volkswagen factory…just like the Eclipse-based Dodge Avenger, Dodge Stealth, Plymouth Laser, Eagle Talon, Chrysler Sebring Coupe, Dodge Stratus Coupe, Plymouth Arrow, Dodge/Plymouth Colt, Dodge D50, Chrysler Crossfire, and quite probably a few I’m missing.
Sort of sad to read this. Yet, in so doing, I can feel the depth of concern and pain that Dave is expressing here. Before you go and jump all over him or me for agreeing, stop and think of what he is pointing out. Have we devolved into just a big part assembly company, taking bits and parts from all over the world? Oh….. wait, that is what most of the DCXers constantly crow about. The great take over so that poor ailing sickly Chrysler could get all healed and well with Mercedes Benz parts grafted into the Crhysler platforms. So where is the pride in owning one of these things assembled from who knows exactly where? Probably isn’t any. That translates into a loss of product awareness, design, and concern for quality control on the line where assembly takes place. Well, it isn’t my problem because we didn’t build it here. In a very real sense Plymouth had more of an influence than anyone could realize when its demise was so celebrated by certain quarters even on this forum. However, overall, Chrysler’s own market pentration has been less than stellar and Dodge is only making money due to it’s trucks. Recall the poem where Great Casey has struck out. It is sort of like that.
For the record: it will be the first time that Chrysler used a VW/Audi engine………the 2.0L used in the last Gremlins as well as the 1.7L Four in the original Omni/Horizon back in 1978.
In the Omni/Horizon, the engine was outsourced as a temporary measure only while the 2.2 was developed and brought up to production quantities. There’s a big difference! … not to mention that most other Chrylser vehicles were, well, Chrysler vehicles. Even then the rot had set in, but I had hoped we had moved beyond that. The pride was back for a while in the 1990s. Then the appearance of pride came back…with Global Motors.
Yes and the original 1.7 litre engine was sourced from VW for the Omni/Horizon twins. Again, I make reference to the homage paid to Daimler when it took over Chrysler as being the savior. Now the subsequent action is to take bits and pieces from everywhere to assemble here and there or anywhere and call it a brand from here. That goes to just having a job and not much else. If you do see something wrong, it would take a freight train like effort to get it stopped, having to go way back to the source to make changes.
Though that 1.7 was indeed VW sourced it was _a temporary measure_ and not a permanent policy.
Again, agreed that the 1.7 VW engine was temporary from the git go…… however, it is a different time and a different company. With its eyes on the coveted “world” car company. Nothing will ever be built that will contain single sources ever again. After all that was the rhyme and the reason for the take….. ooops excuse me, the “merger of equals” in the first instance. Thereby hailing Daimler as the “grace and savior” of poor lowly Chrysler. Bah! Just in the same way, this now is permanent and doesn’t bode well for single source pride in quality.