SEMA Challenger comes out; media site blank; we make do
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
