[guyverfanboy]

Great article! I'm glad to see Chrysler's reputation improving!

 

[Beentherebefore]

They need to build some of those types of vehicles in the more affordable $30 - 40,000 range, which is what the average car buyer is paying these days. That would put the company at the top of the "affordable" muscle cars, like back in the muscle car era. Then they need to support teams in Nascar (and Nascar trucks), NHRA, ARCA, Sprint cars & Outlaws, K&N East/West and other short track & off road series to win back their performance reputation. They are basically still living off the performance reputation that they achieved in the 60s and 70s.

 

[Andy4.7]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-22/surging-chrysler-targets-bmw-with-brawny-luxury-300-srt8.html?cmpid=yhoo


Produce a great product, and the accolades inevitably follow...

It’s great news that people’s perception of Chrysler is improving. I don’t understand why people love to hate on Mopar. In my experience Chrysler products have always been high quality. My first car was a (very) used 67 Polara with a 383 that just would not give up. After that I had 70 Duster with a 318, then I got a 70 Challenger RT that I beat on without mercy, a 77 D100 (given to me by my father in law) that served my family for 15 years, a 92 Dakota that I bought new and drove for 16 years (the only things I replaced were tires and a water pump), an 08 Ram that was the best truck I’ve ever owned and now I have a 12 JK that I am in love with. So when people say “I would never buy a Dodge” I just don’t get it.

 

[Erik Latranyi]

It’s great news that people’s perception of Chrysler is improving. I don’t understand why people love to hate on Mopar. In my experience Chrysler products have always been high quality. My first car was a (very) used 67 Polara with a 383 that just would not give up. After that I had 70 Duster with a 318, then I got a 70 Challenger RT that I beat on without mercy, a 77 D100 (given to me by my father in law) that served my family for 15 years, a 92 Dakota that I bought new and drove for 16 years (the only things I replaced were tires and a water pump), an 08 Ram that was the best truck I’ve ever owned and now I have a 12 JK that I am in love with. So when people say “I would never buy a Dodge” I just don’t get it.

Many people have had horrible experiences with Chrysler products through the years. It is not a wives tale.

Is the reputation deserved? To a degree, yes.

Through the years, every time Chrysler's quality improved, management cut corners and set the company back.

 

[Moparian]

Many people have had horrible experiences with Chrysler products through the years. It is not a wives tale.

Is the reputation deserved? To a degree, yes.

Through the years, every time Chrysler's quality improved, management cut corners and set the company back.

1st few years of the Neon, Grand Cherokee transmission issues back in the 90s, the whole DBAG era. The products they are putting out now are head and shoulders above just a few years ago. I have had 0 issues with my 200 so far with over 26K on the clock. I drove it from Florida to CT and back and not even a peep of trouble.

 

[W Bohannon]

When Chrysler starts to make money from their improved products, and mgmt. starts to roll in the bonuses, someone gets greedy and cuts corners for short term profits instead of improving on their improvements for long term profitably. At least that is how it seems to me.

 

[bumonbox]

Many people have had horrible experiences with Chrysler products through the years. It is not a wives tale.

Is the reputation deserved? To a degree, yes.

Through the years, every time Chrysler's quality improved, management cut corners and set the company back.

It's certainly never been as bad as the public likes to think. But certainly, they've done something to earn it (I don't know that they've done any more than Ford and GM, they too have attempted corner cutting measure carelessly that created issues). I'd really say the domestics as a whole earned a bad rap to a degree. The annoying thing is how slow people are to see it, especially when it comes to Chrysler.

It certainly is hitting it's stride. The 300 seems to be paving the way to a positive reception for upper end Chrysler vehicles. It seems a shame we haven't heard anything about a vehicle placed above the 300 (ala Imperial). It seems like Chrysler is nearing a position where this could be a legitimately viable car. I don't know that they should quite go for the Equus, I'd say something starting at the bottom of 40 might be a good starting place.

 

[MoparNorm]

When Chrysler starts to make money from their improved products, and mgmt. starts to roll in the bonuses, someone gets greedy and cuts corners for short term profits instead of improving on their improvements for long term profitably. At least that is how it seems to me.

From the Bloomberg article; "The Turin, Italy-based carmaker would have lost 1.04 billion- euro ($1.34 billion) in 2012 without Chrysler."

 

[IMPERIAL4EVER]

It's certainly never been as bad as the public likes to think. But certainly, they've done something to earn it (I don't know that they've done any more than Ford and GM, they too have attempted corner cutting measure carelessly that created issues). I'd really say the domestics as a whole earned a bad rap to a degree. The annoying thing is how slow people are to see it, especially when it comes to Chrysler.

It certainly is hitting it's stride. The 300 seems to be paving the way to a positive reception for upper end Chrysler vehicles. It seems a shame we haven't heard anything about a vehicle placed above the 300 (ala Imperial). It seems like Chrysler is nearing a position where this could be a legitimately viable car. I don't know that they should quite go for the Equus, I'd say something starting at the bottom of 40 might be a good starting place.

I have zero complaints with my new 300C with the HEMI. When I drive the car I think to myself this is too nice to have just a 300 badge. Definitely room for an Imperial utilizing the 300 chassis as seen on the beautiful 2006 Imperial concept. That was a functional concept. They could price it @ $50K more or less? Do we still own the "Imperial" name?? If we bring back the Imp, do we use the Imperial bird or just the Imperial script? Come on Fiat, help us out here.

 

[UN4GTBL]

Great to hear!

 

[Charger Red]

1st few years of the Neon, Grand Cherokee transmission issues back in the 90s, the whole DBAG era. The products they are putting out now are head and shoulders above just a few years ago. I have had 0 issues with my 200 so far with over 26K on the clock. I drove it from Florida to CT and back and not even a peep of trouble.

A 200 with 26K miles is a new car. Try towing a 10,000 GVW 24 foot enclosed trailer (loaded) with a 1993 360 Magnum Ramcharger 150 over the same distance (in August) twice with no issues.

I was told a long time ago by an old racer that as long as you maintain them and don't do anything stupid, Mopars will never let you down. Durability has most often not been an issue - just the peripheral "fluff stuff."

Unfortunately, people's expectations are that their vehicles endure despite giving them reasonable care.

 

[PCRMike]

And people expected them to never have to be touched like torqueflites and slant sixes of old, instead of reading their owners manuals and performing routine maintenance, like tranny flushes at 50K, etc. Correct fluid, anyone?

 

[UN4GTBL]

A 200 with 26K miles is a new car. Try towing a 10,000 GVW 24 foot enclosed trailer (loaded) with a 1993 360 Magnum Ramcharger 150 over the same distance (in August) twice with no issues.

I was told a long time ago by an old racer that as long as you maintain them and don't do anything stupid, Mopars will never let you down. Durability has most often not been an issue - just the peripheral "fluff stuff."

Unfortunately, people's expectations are that their vehicles endure despite giving them reasonable care.

Agreed.

My Caliber has never left me stranded or died on me. But, that doesn't mean that the constant replacing of my front suspension, or other parts is a good thing either. That falls under durability for me. A 6 year old vehicle with less than 70,000km should not have had the front suspension replaced twice, nor should it need it a third time, as it sounds mine does now.

None of our other Chrysler vehicles have ever left us stranded, or just died, but it's the little things that get annoying (and expensive) after a while.

 

[willy4110]

In my circle I've only known two Chrysler vehicles to be what I would call lemons; both were from the 80s, my brother-in-law's an 81 K-Car and my sister's Daytona. Both of them had constant erratic electrical issues. But, some of my friends have put well over 200k miles on their Chryc vehicles (70/80/90s) without any issues. I have put on well over 100k miles on some of my Chryc vehicles without any issues at all. I had over 140k miles on my 73 Plymouth Fury and I didn't even so much as put in a carb kit on it. What I have noticed is people who don't have and never had Chryc products, seem to do the most complaining about Chrysler. Interestingly, the 73 Plymouth was on Consumer Riffraff's do not buy list and that car turned out to be excellent. I have had a number of Fords and even one GM car, (on that last one I plead temporary insanity).

 

[Charger Red]

Agreed.

My Caliber has never left me stranded or died on me. But, that doesn't mean that the constant replacing of my front suspension, or other parts is a good thing either. That falls under durability for me. A 6 year old vehicle with less than 70,000km should not have had the front suspension replaced twice, nor should it need it a third time, as it sounds mine does now.

None of our other Chrysler vehicles have ever left us stranded, or just died, but it's the little things that get annoying (and expensive) after a while.

Since the cost of repair is so expensive nowadays (nothing is cheap anymore!) you get killed even on the small things. Thanks to the Daimler effect (affect), there were alot of things like this that went wrong. This is why the whole DBAG with Cerberus follow-up was probably the worst thing that could have happenened. It's amazing that were still around but this is what Mopar is all about - doing more with less.

 

[UN4GTBL]

Since the cost of repair is so expensive nowadays (nothing is cheap anymore!) you get killed even on the small things. Thanks to the Daimler effect (affect), there were alot of things like this that went wrong. This is why the whole DBAG with Cerberus follow-up was probably the worst thing that could have happenened. It's amazing that were still around but this is what Mopar is all about - doing more with less.

Absolutely.

The ironic thing is that our '07 Caravan that we had for about the same mileage (over 4 years though) didn't have a single problem. Granted that was a vehicle that was at the end of it's life, unlike my Caliber which was a first-year vehicle.

I was told that the Lancer uses similar suspension parts as the Caliber, and the ones that constantly fail on the Caliber are stamped steel, where the ones on the Lancer are all aluminum, and don't have the same issues. It's this penny pinching under dumbler that really ruins a vehicle. I would have gladly spent an extra $1-2k on my Caliber if it had better quality parts.

 

[jerseyjoe]

They need to build some of those types of vehicles in the more affordable $30 - 40,000 range, which is what the average car buyer is paying these days. That would put the company at the top of the "affordable" muscle cars, like back in the muscle car era. Then they need to support teams in Nascar (and Nascar trucks), NHRA, ARCA, Sprint cars & Outlaws, K&N East/West and other short track & off road series to win back their performance reputation. They are basically still living off the performance reputation that they achieved in the 60s and 70s.

$30K is out of MY affordable range.

 

[W Bohannon]

Someone mentioned Chrysler having a $40k car below the 300 and from from what I'm reading on this forum, that will be the new 200. I'm kind of glad that the 100 was dropped. What would you all think of the 200 having an upgrade model 250 that would fit into the $40k slot aimed at the 3 series, of course I would prefer rwd. If the New yorker or Imperial were then seated at the top of the range with a CUV or SUV for country club status all at the plus $50k range. Sorry, too much free time!

 

[MoparNorm]

$30K is out of MY affordable range.

Which is why you have a Plymouth as your avatar...