What will stay and what will go?
This is just my opinion based on current reports. There might be more new vehicles to replace the ones I’m counting as living. My guess is that the Caliber, Patriot, and Compass might all be dropped and Belvedere closed when the China-cars come online, unless they replace them all with entry-level cars or some new segments - but I think future cars will come from cheap-labor markets. (Though the falling dollar might ameliorate that - the question is, are people chasing low costs or following dogma?)
Note that if we look at the cuts the following way, they don’t seem so bad. I’m also expecting a Scrambler pickup, so Dakota might disappear to make room for that. Durango and Aspen might both go away if every dealership has all brands.
This leaves more than the normally stated 30 models, but of course Chally isn’t on sale yet. Your comments on revisions would be appreciated.
Most scary to me is a rumor that more engineers are going to be laid off. What’s the point in flexible manufacturing if they won’t pay for cars to be engineered and built?
Dodge
| 1 | Avenger | In the process of being redesigned from the ground up | Living |
| 2 | Caliber | Too similar to Patriot, Journey; retail sales slow | Up for grabs |
| 3 | Caliber SRT-4 | Life depends on profits and Caliber’s survival | Unknown |
| 4 | Charger | Not going anywhere; staple big car | Living |
| 5 | Charger SRT-8 | Being updated in a year or two; probably profitable | Living |
| 6 | Challenger | New! | Living |
| 7 | Challenger SRT-8 | Seems successful so far | Living |
| 8 | Journey | New. I’m not as optimistic as they are. | Living |
| 9 | Magnum | Fate sealed. | Dead |
| 10 | Viper | Fate reportedly sealed as of 2011. Hard to keep it on top. | Dying |
| 11 | Caravan | One of the company’s best sellers; needs interior restyling, suspension tuning | Living |
| 12 | Ram 1500 | You must be joking | Living |
| 13 | Ram 2500/3500 | Still big sales | Living |
| 14 | Durango | Slow sales; needs considerable work; obsolete factory | In doubt |
| 15 | Dakota | Slow sales; weight reduction and re-niche-ing was planned | In doubt |
| 16 | Nitro | I suspect it’ll get the axe - just not popular enough to keep when all stores sell all brands | In doubt |
Chrysler
| 17 | Crossfire SRT6 | Linked to Crossfire | Dying |
| 18 | PT Cruiser | Could still be saved if Journey bombs, since it uses the same line | Dying |
| 19 | Sebring Sedan | Too low-end to be a Chrysler; could survive as just a Dodge | Could be dropped |
| 20 | Sebring Convertible | Best selling ragtop; name has considerable weight | Living |
| 21 | 300 | Base model drags down the reputation and duplicates Charger | In doubt |
| 22 | 300C | Iconic, popular, the only "real" Chrysler | Living |
| 23 | 300C SRT8 | Could go either way | In doubt |
| 24 | Aspen | Almost certain to go away; though I’d keep and rename it! | Dying |
| 25 | Pacifica | Already announced | Dying |
| 26 | Town & Country | Personally I’d keep this as a pure luxury minivan, one model, with full options and better sound insulation, smoother ride than the Dodge. My suspicion is they’ll keep trying to shift sales from Dodge to Chrysler. At least they should change the name, it’s so hard to type! | Living |
| 27 | PT Convertible | Already dead | Dead |
| 28 | Crossfire | Why? | Dying |
Jeep
| 29 | Patriot | Moderately successful but if they dropped it, they could close Belvedere | In doubt |
| 30 | Compass | Pretty much certain to get killed | Dying |
| 31 | Commander | Hasn’t been a huge success, though it should have done well | Dying |
| 32 | Grand Cherokee | A Jeep staple that’s done poorly since the redesign, it’ll probably survive | Living |
| 33 | Wrangler | Really has to be kept | Living |
| 34 | Liberty | Once a Jeep staple, it overlaps the Patriot to a degree, and removing both it and the Nitro would allow Cerberus to shut another factory. Isn’t that the way you rescue an American icon? | Not sure |