A new red, white, and blue Challenger, clearly a prototype, rolled out for SEMA, wearing a paint scheme direct from Sox & Martin’s legendary Mopar racers. SEMA was also the grounds for a Challenger ragtop, a Nitro panel van, a new Hennessy Viper, and other new Chrysler Group vehicles.

So we went to Chrysler’s media site, media.chrysler.com, to see if there were any photos we could use, and got a depressing insight into what’s wrong with Chrysler and why journalists prefer to find their bright news just about anywhere else.

Type in media.chrysler.com, and you are directed to the media.daimlerchrysler.com site. Here are the top stories there:
* Long Distance Drive Paris - Beijing 2006 (This is a fleet of Mercedes E Class diesels)
* Swedish bus operator Bergkvarabuss receives the 15,000th Mercedes-Benz Citaro
* Mobile navigation systems for retrofitting: the StreetPilot II generation for Mercedes
* DaimlerChrysler sells former Group headquarters in Stuttgart-Möhringen to IXIS Capital Partners Ltd.
* smart fortwo in new dream role

Oh, but wait! There are photos on the right! Let’s see…

* E-Class Experience
* Paris-Beijing Web Special
* Mercedes-Benz S600 Guard
* BlueTec
* Mercedes-Benz at the 2006 Paris Motor Show
* Chrysler Group 2006 Auto Shows
* Maybach 57 S

Maybe under events?

* July 27 - Interim Report Q2 2006 and Live Web Cast of the Global Conference Call
* Annual Report 2005

Maybe under press kits? Nope, the top five are E-Class Experience again, S600, Mercedes Paris, Maybach 57S again, and smart at Paris. Followed by DCX at IAA Commercial Vehicle show, ten years of the SLK, the new CL, the new S-Class, … you get the idea.

The order of the breakouts in the middle column, under the news, is company, Mercedes passenger cars, smart, Chrysler Group, Mercedes commercial, financial services, technology, and motorsport.

Want Chrysler news? Well, go straight to the Chrysler media site. Except that to get there you have to drop in on the Mercedes news pages, search for the Chrysler Group media site - which is in regular size type underneath an oversize American flag and a large-type “Visit your MB USA Media Site” banner.

Click on that small type, if you can find it, and the Chrysler site will show up, with the DaimlerChrysler logo again, in a smaller window on top of the Merc- I mean DaimlerChrysler main media site.

That’s the way it works even if you tried to follow a story from the link in their press release.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t see why the people who do this still have jobs. Can you imagine going to General Motors and having to wade through a bunch of Caddy news in order to find out about the new Chevrolet? Or, if you visited Google to read their latest press releases, having to open a slow-loading Froogle press site with a note about Google’s web search having their own media site somewhere in the corner?

Chrysler’s $8 billion cash hoard funded Mercedes’ buying spree. Chrysler Financial profits goes right into corporate coffers. Chrysler itself reportedly helps to fund Mercedes via hefty royalties, “consulting fees,” and other siphon methods. Chrysler sells many more vehicles than Mercedes, yet gets less respect on the media site than smart.

Something is wrong here.

Oh, and in case you were wondering… there was no mention of SEMA on the Chrysler media site, either.

Update: see http://www.allpar.com/cars/concepts/sema-2006.html

The high level of negativity of Chrysler owners has been commented on, and I think it comes down to Chrysler doing a 180 yet again and leaving the people who liked its old lineup in the dust while it pursues newer pastures.

Those of us who liked the LH and Neon are looking at a totally different lineup. Plymouth (with its 265,000 sales/year) was jettisoned as well.

It seems every year Chrysler finds a new group of people to offend. I wonder if that’s a large part of the negativity… not unlike all those people who turned against Chrysler when the company dropped all of its rear-drive vehicles and strutted around bragging of its front wheel drive K-cars. (I noticed that while they pointed out the advantages of their new Neons, LH, etc., they never actually put down the K-cars in that particular transition, though.)

Then there’s the continued insult of DAIMLERchrysler: the signs in front of every Chrysler Group factory say DaimlerChrysler, while Mercedes is always kept separate and above. The DaimlerChrysler web site treats Chrysler as though it’s smaller than Smart or Maybach. And if you want to get to the Chrysler media site, you have to go to the DaimlerChrysler media site - for all brands except Chrysler Group - and then click through to a new page for Chrysler Group. That’s true even if you respond to the links in their mailing list! The acquisition is done and over with; perhaps it’s time to stop rubbing our noses in it.

(This was originally posted in our forums. Here are some comments people made to follow through:)

Patrick Lynch:

I agree with this. I was especially distressed when Chrysler ran the ad where someone was trying to fix an old fast-top C-body and putting it down while extolling the virtues of turbo four cylinders. At the time, I was driving a fast-top C-body that was running just fine.

I have been struggling with trying to be positive about current DCX products. When gas hit the three dollar a gallon mark, fuel economy became a big issue with me in a way that it hadn’t before. With the demise of the Neon as well as the Stratus Coupe, I don’t see a comparable new DCX product for replacing the LeBaron I have now. In that respect I feel left behind as the LeBaron will be my last coupe. If I were to replace my St. Regis with a comparable product, a Charger would be in my garage and that’s an easy choice if I never had to worry about keeping a full tank of gas in the beast. I got the LeBaron to put my bigger older car into a nice semi retirement and not rely on it for the daily grind. I’m trying to find a way to stay with Mopar, so it looks like its going to be another used car for me. After that, we’ll see.

hawk added:

- Mediocre to middling reviews on most of the new Chrysler cars (LX excluded). Outside of the LX vehicles, we don’t have a vehicle that is universally considered a benchmark in its class. After the LXes got so much media praise, the Caliber gets comments like it is 7/8ths ready, half-baked, and what’s the point of buying it. Haven’t read any in depth reviews of the Sebring, but most of what I read is that it is an average car. I want to read something like, “You would be stupid to buy a Camry or Accord over this car cause it is that good”.
- Still have interiors behind the competition. Even GM gets it.
- Each vehicle is still overwieght.
- All the positive momentum we had with the LXes was killed with the huge inventory problem this year. Now even LX cars have rebates, whereas the demand on them was so high that on average you paid MSRP. We are lumped with Ford and GM because we are doing as bad as them.
- The Chrysler was caught with its pants down when it had too many SUVs and not enough cars when gas was $3.00/gallon
- Little was done to convince the American car buying public that it is safe to buy a Chrysler product because our quality compares with Toyota, which is why a better warranty should be given. Instead of a warranty, CG seems to use gimmicks like a cooled/heated cupholders, built in coolers, and such.

In fairness, there have been many improvements, the negative stuff always gets the press.

With the 2008 Liberty now completely undressed at http://www.allpar.com/trucks/jeep/liberty-2008.html, we can see that the new look harkens back to the old look; the new Liberty looks remarkably like the beloved old Cherokee. And who said retro was out of fashion?

Speaking of retro, we now have two conflicting PT Cruiser rumors. One says the model is gone in 2009; the other said it is merely moving to the Avenger/Sebring platform so it can finally get a V6, and along the way differentiate itself further from the (less popular) Chevy HHR. We hope Chrysler won’t move even further away from the classic charm that has made the PT endearing to so many (along with its reasonable price tag and extreme usability). And hey, guys, if it’s too cheap to be a Chrysler, how ’bout making it the only Plymouth? Then you can admit that PT means Plymouth Truck. (Either that or it’s simply the Truck version of the PL body.)

Canadian Sales : September 2006

Chrysler Group:
Sept. 2006 - 16,191
Sept. 2005 - 16,115
Aug. 2006 - 20,252

Therefore the CG was UP 0.5% or 76 units relative to last year and DOWN 20% or 4,061 units relative to last month.

Chrysler Group Year-to-Date:
2005 - 171,402
2006 - 169,744
Which translates to a decline of 1% or a loss of 1,658 units.

Underlined are the Highest and Lowest gains/losses in percentage and units.

Here are some highlights for the month of September:
Dodge Ram sales increased 6.9% to reach 2,914 units, a September monthly record, while Dodge Dakota’s monthly sales increased 9.5%.

Brampton-built-Chrysler 300/300C and Dodge Charger achieved monthly increases
of 19.6% (929 units from 777 units) and 120% (847 units from 385) respectively.

Newer models, like Dodge Caliber and Jeep Compass with sales of 1,810 and 371 respectively, are drawing new customers into the showrooms.

Some time ago, Chrysler and DCX execs were talking about how Chrysler was being rescued by the quality gurus of Mercedes. The Chrysler production system was to be replaced, the highly successful SCORE program was killed off, and white-coated engineers (”quality SWAT teams”) would, in the Mercedes tradition, be dispatched to handle quality problems, in a supposed step up from the empowered-employee, bottom-up quality approach that had worked so well in Windsor and other plants (not to mention throughout Toyota and, for a time, throughout Volvo).

Then it seemed that the younger “cost-control” kids had been either fired or at least put somewhere they couldn’t do any harm; and we started hearing about empowered work teams. The tide seemed to be turning back to the pre-Daimler days. A major bright spot appeared when the decision was made to engineer the entire corporation’s V6 engines in Auburn Hills, not Stuttgart. Mercedes may get to use special technology (camless heads?) in their own cars, technology too expensive for Chrysler’s pricing; but the engines would be designed by Chrysler. That was such a major step, in light of Daimler’s constant stream of put-downs from the acquisition onwards, that it seemed almost unbelievable. Yes, we knew that Mercedes was using the Grand Cherokee as the basis for the M Class SUVs, but that was trucks, and Mercedes pretty much denied it anyway.

Insiders were telling us that Mercedes people were being dispatched to “fix” Chrysler, but were eventually finding out that Chrysler often had better processes than Mercedes, even if its executives were often poorly chosen (for brown-nosing ability rather than actual capability). Once “spoiled,” these Mercedes reps would be recalled, a move that infected Mercedes - spreading the AMC/Chrysler Way, or so we were told. Wishful thinking, we secretly thought.

Then again, there was that supplier who leaked the common basis of the LY cars with the upcoming Mercedes C and E Classes. Since the LY was coming first, it would seem to indicate that the “real Mercedes” would be riding on a platform and chassis largely engineered by Chrysler - a sensible move for Mercedes, since Chrysler knows how to engineer within a budget and with quality in mind. (Yes, I just said that. We can argue about it later, but the engineers are capable of making darned good, inexpensive vehicles - when executives aren’t busy cutting costs in the most short-sighted possible ways.)

In the latest issue (October 2) of Automotive News, Harald Hamprecht and Bradford Wernie, though, planted some interesting facts in a note about Dieter Zetsche’s ruling out of the United States as the location for a new Mercedes plant (apparently using an old Chrysler plant and saving Chrysler money on all those retirees and laid-off personnel is out of the question). Along the way he noted that Mercedes “is using Chrysler expertise to make Mercedes factories more flexible” and was quoted as saying “We are certainly benefiting from the Chrysler production systme and the assignment of Chrysler experts at Mercedes.”

Let me just repeat that. The chief of Mercedes, Dieter Zetsche, said:

“We are certainly benefiting from the Chrysler production systme and the assignment of Chrysler experts at Mercedes.”

Also, when asked about producing Chrysler vehicles on Mercedes assembly lines, he did not rule it out, but said it wouldn’t be possible for some years.

It seems as though perhaps there’s some dim glow of respect for Chrysler burning in Stuttgart at long last - and, despite the awful possibility of Dodges engineered and built by Chery in China, the continued production of Spinters and Crossfires, and the huge DAIMLERchrysler signs outside all the factories, perhaps the embers of AMC and Chrysler Corporation will be rekindled.

The new Lexus LS 460’s ability to park itself presents some interesting food for thought.

For one, Toyota generally doesn’t take huge risks in new technology unless they’re darn sure their clientele would support it. That is, they think Lexus buyers want cars that will park themselves. Toyota didn’t get where they’re at by being wrong.

Take this concept of automobile automation a few large steps forward, and we have the mythical Automated Highway, where the cars drive themselves within inches of each other. No rubber necking (hard to rubber neck when 1, the machine is driving and 2, there are no accidents!). No swerving back and forth between lanes, no left lane hogs…transportation Nirvana! We already have active cruise control, so the “automated parking” geegaw isn’t the first step along this path.

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out, as full blown automation is certainly coming. On the one side you have the advancing technology as mentioned above, and on the other we have the increasing preoccupation with stuffing as much “productivity” into our days as humanly possible, leading to the multitude of things done in moving vehicles that have nothing to do with driving, and a seemingly increasing disintrest in the act of driving itself. The Lexus parking system still tasks the “driver” with operating the pedals, so it’s not actually fully automated; but be assured that’s coming (it can already tell you you’re going too fast, you stupid human).

Additionally, many people simply don’t want to drive. We all (I’m sure) know people who for various reasons don’t drive at night or in the rain and snow. We all (I’m sure) know people that *shouldn’t* be driving…anywhere, at any time. Automated highways would also be popular with those who seem to have issues with keeping up with the speed of traffic.

The transportation industry would love it; nonstop unmanned trucks who don’t need rest periods, hurtling along on dedicated high speed lanes.

As huge as those implications are, the underbelly could be considered rather frightening. Imagine if the power grid were to go down? Do the cars just stop or careen out of control? How many failsafes do you include and what happens when a virus infection occurs?

How much will all this cost? From the infrastructure to the simple act of maintaining one of these creatures, this isn’t something a mobile cold patch unit or a Jiffy Lube is going to be able to handle. What about people who can’t afford something like this? Does this shrink the middle class even more (assuming, of course, there still is one when this all comes to pass)?

The next leap (for it’s much more than a step) would be automated surface roads. This obviously is a lot more complicated as you introduce an amazing number of variables here that don’t exist on the Interstates, and you need a *much* smarter vehicle. But if we now have vehicles with active cruise control that can slow themselves automatically, and you have a car that can steer into a parallel parking spot all by itself, how is the fully automated car unrealistic?

It’s just a matter of time.

Enjoy your drive :)