If you build it, they will come.

Why won’t Chrysler do like GM and let the public know that they’re up and running, and producing quality Americans want to buy, for the long haul?

You have to get the public behind you like Iacocca did. People love an underdog. (Like Iacocca said: IF YOU CAN FIND A BETTER CAR, BUY IT. ) Chrysler has to let the people know that they are building quality into their autos. Not just building vehicles. Any car company can do this. They have to start being a leader in innovation not like the followers that they have been lately. The American public sees it and they won’t settle for what was peddled to them as in the earlier years. That’s why they buy foreign brands. New styling, good to great mpg’s, comfort with quality, at a reasonable price.

But to the manufacturers’ defense, the government needs to impose EQUAL TRADE TARIFFS ON IMPORTS so the pricing game isn’t so far out of whack!

Chrysler needs to start producing their concept cars, that’s what the public wants. Not these vehicles that you add boxes onto, or have an elephant sit on the hoods and makes them look round. If they continue in this direction they are doomed to fail. ENGINEERING, MANPOWER, and MONEY are wasted if these concept models don’t go into production. They are afraid of make a wrong decision so instead they make NO DECISION, which is even worse! Take the case of the Dodge Rampage, it’s great innovation all the way through. But it needs better mileage, make  it a hybrid , small V-8, and Hemi, or even electric, Now, you’ve covered all the bases.

Dodge was afraid to produce the Rampage it because the Honda Ridgeline is not a fast volume mover. It’s a great vehicle, creature comforts, innovations, mileage, do you know what is missing ?? It’s NOT AMERICAN MADE !! The public would accept a mid-size truck, if it had amenities that didn’t look cheap and uncomfortable.

American car companies have rested to long on their laurels, now it time to get off the pot and beat the competition at their own game. What the BIG – 3 fail to realize is you don’t have to produce quantity to be # 1 , You have to build QUALITY!! QUANTITY will come with QUALITY!

I’d LOVE be asked to come to their OR & DO meetings and give them my evaluations, They made a great move in purchasing the World Engine plant in Dundee Mi. Also going to be using Fiat’s fuel efficient engines. How about turbocharging, it’s been out there for decades, how about super-charging? Multispeed differentials like in yesteryear. Why let the competition steal your gusto?

Quit trying to beat the competition , BE the COMPETITION for a change! THE SCENERY NEVER CHANGES UNLESS YOU’RE THE LEAD DOG! I’m tired of the old scenery, How about YOU??

Chrysler has the newest, largest [in size, not current head-count], most innovative, research and development center in the world! This is where they need to be brain-storming.

Chrysler needs to move up to the 21st century. I love Mopars, always have always will, they NEED to get their heads out back on their shoulders.

The new Challenger SRT is great, great looks, a little bit heavy, but a great ride, quiet inside, and the HEMI sound. Needs to be be $5K cheaper to compete with the loaded Camaro SS/RS. They also need to spiffy-ize the plain drab dashboard. One black color runs into another. Why does it have the same dash as the Charger ? If it’s all new , then let it all be new, the 09s are better Spend a little more on insulation and dashboard BLING! , and lower the price, I do understand about cost of engineering , etc , etc. overhead, ya da ya da ya da. You can’t make all your profit off of only a few vehicles.

Is something good on its way?

While Chrysler has now been out of bankruptcy for a while, it is not giving any real public indication of being alive again. The pundits, when they do mention Chrysler, normally do so in disparaging terms, usually something along the lines of “Chrysler has no product any sane person would buy, and won’t have any until 2011.”

I could point out that the 2009 Ram is still the best pickup out there, despite Ford’s superior marketing and propaganda, or that the minivans are still very competitive, or that many critics have reversed themselves on the Caliber and Patriot, and that some have even had the courage to praise the Sebring for its strengths even though Top Gear apparently thinks it’s worse than the Chevette, Pinto, Yugo, and Tempo all rolled into one.  The Challenger remains a family-sized alternative to the Camaro and Mustang, and is better-looking than either one by a huge margin. And, of course, the Charger has been rapidly replacing the Ford squads, to the point where the Crown Victoria Police Interceptor is being discontinued entirely.

I could also wonder why Chrysler did the absolute minimum it could do this year in terms of press materials. The new model press book was issued online, it had every indication of being a rush job, carelessly tossed out, with numerous missing pieces and, Heaven help us, dead links. Oh, and no way to view the whole thing at once. It was ghastly and did nothing to help those who wanted to get at the major improvements made to some models.

But I’m guessing now that the company is working on saving its energy for a major publicity blast. At least, that’s what I’m hoping, and not just because I miss their ad revenue. (I really do. I mean, Allpar is running ads for Toyota, General Motors, and Ford, but not for Chrysler, and it’s not by choice.)

I recently got an email suggesting that the first batch of 200Cs has just rolled off the assembly line. The 200C is a car so good-looking that when it was revealed at the auto show last January, the press issued a collective “wow.” It’s hard to make the press stand up (literally) and take notice. Sure, the 200C didn’t make the editors’ cut for most publications, but it made the kind of impression nobody can forget.

Maybe, just maybe, Chrysler is holding back until it has something to sell. The dealers are out of stock on many vehicles; the assembly lines are unable to make everything they need to, because suppliers aren’t providing key parts. Even Mercedes, presumably out of spite, is reportedly withholding parts.

Maybe the guys in the executive rooms are figuring that they will come out big-time with a splash, but that they’ll do it when they actually have something to sell at the dealerships.

Maybe they’re smarter than we thought, and smarter than they could be under Daimler’s Chrysler-loathing iron fist, or Cerberus’ cost-slashing (which had to both address longstanding product problems caused by Daimler, and cultural issues also caused by Daimler, while trying to figure out which executives were incompetent bootlickers and which had just not been able to work effectively given their constraints.)

Maybe, too, the new organization needs some time to regroup, as people get used to their new jobs, reorganize, move people around, start the paper trails necessary to fire people in today’s world, and implement the changes needed for higher quality and more customer-friendly cars and trucks.

Let’s hope so. Otherwise, we at Allpar will be very sad as the tailspin continues.