Pacifica future

No, the Le Baron coupe was definitely a higher-line vehicle than a
Plymouth. The J-Body Cordoba probably shouldn't have happened; it was
much, much too similar to the Mirada to be either a Chrysler or a
Plymouth.

Sounds like a plan to me... except when the "premium" Chryslers
coming down the pike seem to be over-styled, under-powered horror
shows. There's also the problem that all those former
Chrysler-Plymouth dealers want a volume brand. While the obvious
answer to the latter problem is to offer Dodge franchises to the
Chrysler dealers, that's likely to have a really bad taste for the
existing Dodge dealers.

 

Well, I don't know all of the details of automotive history, but I think
that is somewhat how the brands started out as they were assembled into
Chrysler Corporation. I think Plymouth was originally the economy
brand, Dodge was the sporty brand and truck line and Chrysler was the
luxury line. I think that was all lost in the late 70s/early 80s when
many of the models were sold in two or more of the three brands with
nothing more to differentiate them than the grill. GM did the same
thing and really killed their brand identity as well. They have been
working for more than a decade to undo that damage (remember the law
suits about the lowly Chevy engine in the Oldsmobiles). There is a fine
line between the economies of scaled gained by sharing major components
vs. the loss of aggregate sales when all of your brands become virtually
identical in the minds of your customers and they go elsewhere for
differentiation.


Matt

 

That's the problem - how do you erase the memory of 200,000,000 people
who remember the K-Car based New Yorker, or "Fine Corinthian Leather?"

They aren't affordable and they are wrapped in packages that are as
bland as a 20K Camry.

Ed

 

When I was young enough to be beguiled by marketing, I though of Dodge
as equivalent to Mercury, Plymouth was equal to Ford, and Chrysler was
equivalent to Buick. Unfortunately 30+ year of mediocrity has reduced
Chrysler to the being Plymouth. Dodge is equivalent to Plymouth too. No
wonder they killed Plymouth - they didn't have room for three brands
that were all the same.

Name me the last "great" Chrysler - I bet I was too young to drive when
it was built.

To little, too late. You can easily take a brand down scale, hauling it
up scale is hard. I doubt the people running DC have the will.

Ed

 

| Name me the last "great" Chrysler - I bet I was too young to drive when
| it was built.

Probably the Imperial?

 

It did get a very nice review by Consumer Reports.

 

Actually, it was not a troll.

I posted the message. I read the article, which was one of the many
articles about Chrysler's recent plant downtimes.

I hope that Pacifica sales do pick up. I am considering buying one
myself. I have some reservations, though -- power, low serrial number
issues (like the window motors on my 99 300m), and so on, and reading
about poor sales and possible discontinuance is one of them, which is
why it was on my mind.

 

Why, the volare station wagon of course. Just kidding.

Chrysler veered off the path in the 50's, way before I was born. The styling
went first (Virgil Exner's insane period), followed by the quality in the
60's. I think 55 was the last really good styling year. One could argue
that some muscle car was great (like the Daytona), but really what they make
now is far better. They still have a long way to go to catch up to the rest
of the world, but they have been there forever. They simply didn't have the
resources of GM and Ford.

 

But identical to the Dodge Diplomat -- the start of making Chrysler and Dodge
equivalent.

Are there any Chrysler dealers left that don't also sell another product,
either Dodge of Jeep?

 

In the 60s, it was similar to:

Plymouth = Ford = Chevrolet
Dodge = Mercury = Pontiac
Chrysler = (no Ford equivalent) = Buick and Olds
Imperial = Lincoln = Cadillac

But Imperial was never a sales success, and became a Chrysler instead of its
own division. Then Chrysler got Cordoba and LeBaron, and became just restyled
Dodges.

 

An SL600? An CL55? Bland? Try looking at them!

 

Which year? It's been a D-body luxury sedan (and its own division), a C-body
"gussied-up" New Yorker, a J-body coupe ("gussied-up" Cordoba), and a Y-body
sedan ("gussied-up" Fifth Avenue).

Now 65-66 were very good years for the Imperial...

 

Interestingly, their main criticism was the powertrain and lack of power,
something all the CR bashers here have criticized about it too...

 

Look at the acceleration times though.

 

Ah, OK -- we were talking about different cars. When you said "small
Cordoba" I thought you meant the J-Body Cordoba as opposed to the
B-Body Cordoba, not the Cordoba itself, and the FWD (J-Body, in a
confusing bit of terminology reuse) Le Baron.

The problem with the Cordoba was that the "Charger" was too similar to
it, not the other way around. Yes, it was the first (and technically
only) B-body Chrysler, but having a Chrysler personal-luxury car of
that size made perfect sense. You're right about the late-70s (don't
remember the designation) Le Baron: shouldn't have been a Chrysler.
Made a great Dodge, should have made a really good Plymouth.

I think they've all got Jeep now, but that's also not a volume brand
in the sense Plymouth should have been either (or if it's become one,
we can launch another thread on screwing up Jeep's identity!).

 

The prosecution rests.

 

My favorite Chrysler (besides my 300M) is the space frame model that
they threw down the cliff to show the doors would still open after a
crash. One of the cable channels did a show on the 100 best American
cars a while back and that was a feature. Chrysler used the cliff
throw for a commercial and it is still shown often as a gag when
someone needs a car going off the cliff scene for a comedy skit.
Don't remember the model but it did not sell well. Only an engineer
type could love it.

 

They weren't thrilled by the 2x2x2 seating. Also although the text of
the review indicate unhappiness with the power, check out the shaded
circles. Either a typo or it was competitive.

 

Do you remember where you found the article?

The 300M power windows was (is) a true debacle. I've had motors,
weatherstripping, and regulators replaced on all windows..... some
multiple times..... but the other day both front windows stuck for a
few seconds. I cleaned off the film left from the earlier
weatherstripping. Hope that finishes it.

 

Airflow.