Chrysler Preview Four Mopar Image Vehicles

Two Dodge and two Jeep custom jobs will be wheeled out by their parent company, Chrysler Group LLC, at the Specialty Equipment Market Association show next month in Las Vegas. Topping the four vehicles is the Mopar Dodge Challenger 1320 Image Vehicle, a straight-line racer with an all-aluminum V8 Hemi pushing out 556 horsepower and up to 540 ft-lb of torque.

The Challenger features the Drag Pak option, which strips the Challenger of a substantial amount of weight. Gone are the center console, radio, and rear seats. Normally meant for race cars only, this Challenger features the package while maintaining a street-legal status. It uses wheels meant for cop cars, street-legal-yet-race-ready tires, an adjustable coil-over kit, and an ARB locking differential.

The other Dodge is a luxe version of their signature pickup truck. Painted in Arctic Ice, the Mopar Dodge Ram Bianco Image Vehicle is meant to convey an upper-class look on what is supposed to be a blue collar truck. Built off of a 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 Sport using a 5.7-liter V8 engine. Inside the truck bed is a plush, easy-to-clean rug. Although they added 22-inch contrasting wheels, the vehicle has been lowered using a Ground Force kit. Performance upgrades include a cold-air intake and dual-exhaust. Inside, Arctic Ice and Piano Black contrasts are augmented by Katzkin white and black seats. The truck also features an upgraded audio system.

Being able to use a "normal" ride as a camping shelter has been toyed with for decades. Likewise, the Mopar Jeep Wrangler Overland Image Vehicle is meant to be a "stop-anywhere, camp-anywhere Jeep." Based on a 2009 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon, the special edition has no rear seats, a rubber floor, and a roof-mounted two-person tent with awning. The Jeep has been modified to be more water resistant, with a three-inch raised suspension and 35-inch tires to be more off-road capable. Added lighting and steel bumpers has been included for this purpose.

Last is the Jeep Lower Forty Image Vehicle, a heavily stripped version of the Jeep Wrangler. Meant for "extreme trail" driving, the vehicle gets 20-inch aluminum wheels wrapped in 40x13.5-inch tires. Fenders are wider and higher, and three inches has been cut off the windshield frame. Despite the stripped look, the interior was color matched and the seats were covered in leather. The truck also takes advantage of a new, 5.7-liter V8 Hemi with a Getrag 238 six-speed manual transmission.

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Analyst Forecasts New Chrysler and Fiat Models Until 2012 Including Jeep based Alfa GTX SUV

Research firm IHS Global Insight (GI) has released a new analysis forecasting a variety of Chrysler and Fiat Group models to be built in North America between 2011 and 2012. Before we say anything else, we'd advise to pay attention to the words 'analysis' and 'forecast'. That said, don't take everything you read as a fact. The report begins with the Alfa Romeo 169, a BMW 5-Series rival that is said to be built at Chrysler's Ontario factory in Canada with the first models rolling off the assembly line as early as November 2011.

The analyst predicts that the 169 will be based on Chrysler's LX platform which underpins the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger models. While it makes sense for the Italians to use the LX platform, unless Fiat is planning to simply re-skin / re-mask the next-generation Chrysler 300 into an Alfa, in which case, we're talking about a mistake from Fiat's behalf, saying that that the Alfa Romeo 169 will be ready to enter production in about two years time, is quite optimistic. Plus, as you can see in one of Fiat's previous product plans, Alfa was supposedly scheduling to introduce a self-developed 169 in 2009 - what happened to that?

Talking about the LX platform, the forecaster said that due to the bankruptcy of Chrysler LLC and the plant closures, the start of production of the new 2011 Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 have been delayed to November 2010 and January 2011 respectively.

Continuing with the North American-built Fiat models, Global Insight said that the highly successful in Europe, 500 mini, will be made in Toluca, Mexico with U.S. sales starting in July 2011.

The MINI-rivaling 500 will be the only Fiat-badged model to be sold in the States. Since the 500 is based on Fiat's 169 platform, the Toluca plant will also produce the Jeep Panda 4x4, again from July 2011. We're guessing that the Jeep variant will most likely be a remasked version of the European market Panda 4x4.

Next up we have an array of models based on the Fiat Group's C-EVO platform that underpins C-segment cars like the Lancia Delta and Fiat Bravo. The report says that the C-EVO will be used on the next-generation Dodge Journey crossover, Dodge Caliber crossover and Chrysler Sebring sedan. Production is slated to begin for the Journey and Caliber in July 2012 at the Belvidere Assembly Plant, and for the Sebring, in June 2011 at the Toluca assembly plant.

In addition to the above models, the C-EVO platform is also reported to form the base for an Alfa Romeo compact SUV (no date) and weirdly enough, for the successor of the Jeep Liberty (July 2012) with both SUVs said to be produced at the Toledo plant in Ohio.

But the report gets even better as it is predicted that Fiat will produce a larger Alfa Romeo SUV model called the GTX at Chrysler's Jefferson North Assembly Plant beginning in July 2011. The GTX is said to be based on Jeep's WL platform that underpins the 2011 Grand Cherokee. However, bear in mind that the Grand Cherokee's WL platform is derived from Mercedes-Benz (it was developed during Daimler's reign over the company) so we're not entirely sure if Fiat has the rights to use the platform for one of its own models.

The paper ends with two subcompact hatches, the Dodge Hornet and Alfa Romeo MiTo that will share the same hardware- aka Fiat's 199 B-segment platform. Both cars are reported to be built for the American market at Chrysler's Belvidere assembly plant in Illinois with production slated to begin in March 2011 for the Hornet and July 2011 for the MiTo.

Call us skeptics, but if you want our opinion, we find the forecast extremely optimistic in the sense that Fiat will not only have to develop, design, engineer and test a whole bunch of new cars but also revamp Chrysler's North American factories to build the vehicles and all this in just two years from now.

[Source: Carsoop]

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Chrysler to Reopen Seven More Assembly Plants by end of June

About a week after emerging from bankruptcy protection and finalizing a deal with the Fiat Group, Chrysler Group LLC confirmed today that in addition to the reopening of the Dodge Viper's Conner Avenue factory in Detroit on Monday, the firm plans to resume production of vehicles at seven more assembly plants in North America by the end of June. According to Chrysler, two factories are in Michigan, one is in Missouri and one in Ohio, while the automaker will also restart production at its assembly plants in Windsor and Brampton, Canada and in Toluca, Mexico.

"A restart of production at other Chrysler Group assembly plants will be announced at a later date," the company said in a statement. Chrysler had shut down all of its North American operations for a period of two months when it entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May, 2009.

• Plants That Will Reopen by June 29:
  
• Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (Sterling Heights, Mich.) – Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger
  
• Warren Truck Assembly Plant (Warren, Mich) – Dodge Ram and Dodge Dakota
  
• St. Louis North Assembly Plant(Fenton, Mo) – Dodge Ram
  
• Toledo Supplier Park (Toledo, Ohio) – Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Wrangler Unlimited
  
• Brampton Assembly Plant (Brampton, Ontario) – Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger and Challenger
  
• Windsor Assembly Plant (Windsor, Ontario, Canada ) – Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan
  
• Toluca Assembly Plant (Toluca, Mexico) – Dodge Journey and Chrysler PT Cruiser

[Source: Carscoop]

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Chrysler: A Roller-Coaster Tale of Corporate Hits and Misses

The 1980's: Chrysler's heyday. Lee Iacocca said, "If you can find a better car, buy it." Nowadays that's one hell of a dangerous ad campaign to try. Counting the number of manufacturers presently building cars better than Chrysler involves counting toes... not a good sign. Chrysler; My God, what happened? For the past thirty years the smallest of the Big Three has endured a roller-coaster ride of successes and failures. Looking at the Cerberus-owned Chrysler of today and the Chrysler of 1979, not much has changed.

1979 saw Chrysler begging the government for money, and now we see that history does indeed appear to be cyclical. Over three decades the company has not done much more than get sucked toward bankruptcy, come back up for a brief moment, and then immediately get sucked under again like that poor girl in the opening scene of Jaws.

It is hard to pinpoint the exact "uh-oh" moment for Chrysler; there are a few. After what appeared to be the end of troubled times with the introduction of the LH-Series cars (nicknamed the Last Hope), Daimler-Benz swooped in to buy Chrysler (for a moment forget that "merger of equals" mumbo-jumbo). This entire period, however, was a bit of a mess for both parties. While Chrysler offered relatively attractive models at the time, poor fuel economy and poorer quality of materials led to lackluster sales.

Then Mercedes tried rummaging through its own closet, first for parts and then entire platforms. Even this could not rejuvenate Chrysler in consumers' eyes, leading to Chrysler's unceremonious sale into the hands of its current owners, Cerberus Capital Management. Under Cerberus one could argue that Chrysler is at rock bottom, still hemorrhaging money and now with no magic closet to rummage through other than its own. Where did everything go wrong?

Ages ago Chrysler was a brand known for its radical designs. The boys from Chrysler would appear on the show circuit brandishing their weapons of choice: insane concepts never meant to appear on public roads. Then, when dared to build these absurdities, they actually did! The executives (apparently fans of Field of Dreams) realized that if they built them, buyers would come. That was fifteen years ago, and I can still remember going down to the Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealership as a child to sit in a Viper or Prowler. These were the cars that brought people into showrooms.

Today, the thought of walking into a Chrysler dealership is just depressing. The excitement options have dwindled, along with the money to build them. Chrysler LLC'S best-selling product is a Dodge Ram, and the brand's best–selling vehicle a minivan. Thrilling. This is a company not only with boring models, but a company that has seemed to lose its originality as well.

Once upon a time the question on everyone's mind was, "What craziness is Chrysler bringing to the show this year?" Now, all that goes through peoples' minds at a Chrysler booth is a collective groan of disappointment. One such groan came last year, when Chrysler rolled out some not-so-revolutionary electric vehicles based on – gasp - a Town & Country minivan, a Jeep Wrangler, and a Europa borrowed from Lotus. Hardly the cream of the automotive crop.

If it makes it through the next year, Cerberus will need to get some new ideas. As in, yesterday. The lesson to learn from the bungled and ill-received Sebring/Avenger failure is this: when trying to make a vehicle appealing to consumers, design by committee is not an option. No offense to the top-tier management-types versed in finance and economics, but you did not go to design school. Stick to your quarterly reports and let the professionals do their jobs. In fact, think of the design studio as a shark-infested pool. Do not go in the water.

But there is a ray of light yet; the Italians are coming! Hopefully this supposed partnership with Fiat will buy Chrysler some time (and that small car platform everyone is dreaming about), something it desperately needs to bring some flavor back into its brands. Chrysler, it's time to get out of the boardroom and hit the pavement. It's time to find out what consumers are looking for and to bring it to them. Trust me. If you build it, they will come.

By Phil Alex,Via Carscoop

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