The big Stellantis ‘Investor Day’ presentation just ended, and ‘platform utilization’ seems to be the most popular term as the company has to reposition itself from a company that was going to build a bunch of EVs to a company that doesn’t feel like it’s about to sink into the ocean.
I gotta say, Stellantis surprised me by announcing a lot of cars and giving us the names for said cars(Jeep Scrambler and Ram Dakota and Rampage), as well as a bunch of big curveballs and open questions. We’re all scrambling (pun!) to get those posts up, so you’re going to get a lot of Stellantis content this morning. What about Maserati? Believe it or not, Maserati will still exist.
Will Audi? Audi is taking it on the chin lately and it sounds like the current CEO is still in a lot of trouble as the Audi A4 gets more and more expensive. Also, what’s the European Ford Bronco going to be like? Probably a lot more like the Chinese Ford Bronco than the American Bronco Sport.
Chrysler Isn’t Dead Yet!
The big complaint from this website regarding the Chrysler brand has been that it’s just one freakin’ minivan. Guess who agrees? Longtime Chrysler/Stellantis/FCA brand boss Tim Kuniskis.
“Our plan for North America is very simple: get the product right–right for the market, right for the brand positioning, right for segment expansion, right for growth, and right for re-earning customer loyalty,” said Kuniskis earlier today.
While Chrysler is now just a regional brand, like Dodge, it’s the company’s most important region, so it isn’t being ignored.
“Can Chrysler be more than the minivan brand?” asked Kuniskis.
Here’s the answer, via Stellantis, about what’s coming from Chrysler. There will be three new crossovers and they’ll be affordable. The first one, which is probably going to be called the Airflow like the previously shown Airflow concept, will be built on the STLA One platform, and will be multi-energy (probably hyrbid and ICE, though possibly BEV as well).
The other two will be variants of one another based on “shared improvement platforms out of Europe.” Huh, what does that mean? Another slide gives us a little bit of a hint:
Basically, America will be getting a version of… something. Probably a Fiat or Peugeot platform. Maybe the same CMP platform that underpins the Peugeot 208 and 2008? I’m only guessing here, though there have reportedly been models shown to dealers. It’s also possible that it’ll be co-developed with Fiat or Peugeot and be STLA One-based.
Kuniskis did say that these are in the rare $25,000 cost space, where few compete anymore. It looks like the Arrow (by the way, can we believe they brought back that name? I love the callback) will come in two versions; clearly the Arrow will be the street version and the Arrow Cross will be some sort of either AWD or crossover. Actually, doing a 208 (hatch) and 2008 (crossover) version of the same platform is kind of a no-brainer, and something I’d love to see the company do.
Maserati Is Still Going To Be A Thing
The seemingly ignored and always rumored to be for sale Maserati brand isn’t dead yet, either!
“Maserati plays a very special role within Stellantis, as a pure luxury brand with a special customer and a unique legacy,” said Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa. “Looking ahead we plan to strengthen the future with two new E-Segment vehicle.”
What that looks like to me is a large luxury SUV and a large luxury sedan, probably a new Quattroporte. That ain’t nothing!
Filosa then said that “we will come back to Maserati in December in the beautiful Modena.”
Ok, so that’s it for now.
The New Baby Bronco For Europe Is Probably More Like The Chinese Bronco, Which Isn’t A Bad Thing
If I were just a little smarter, I’d have put together the news that Ford was going to have a Baby Bronco for Europe with the reality that Ford already makes a cool Baby Bronco in China. Instead, I absolutely forgot to look at the invite for my Ford Bronco announcement I was attending the very next day and so thought maybe Ford was going to show me a Baby Bronco in America.
I literally walked all the way to the Filson store in Manhattan, got to the door, and realized I was a dummy and that, of course, Ford was showing a preview of the Ford Bronco Filson. That’s cool! I’m interested in the Bronco Filson. I just think if I’d have looked closer at the invite first I’d have not made the mental leap in my head.
So what is this European Bronco? Automotive News Europe has some more info:
“I can assure you that this Bronco will live up to its name. We will be truly authentic to what Bronco is,” Baumbick told Automotive News Europe in an interview.
The Bronco will be based on a Ford platform and will be “multi-energy,” which means at least a plug-in hybrid version, Baumbick said, without revealing if any other drivetrains would be available.
It’s likely that the Bronco will use the same C2 platform as Ford’s Kuga compact SUV, which offers all-wheel drive.
[…]
“I would say that the design constraints inspire innovation,” Baumbick said. “To bring what makes a Bronco a Bronco and marry that with multi-energy technology in a way that’s uniquely positioned and sized to win in the European market is an incredible opportunity for us,” he said.
Ok, got it.
The Redesigned Audi A4 e-Tron Is Already Reportedly Too Expensive
Whether fair or not, the knives are out for Audi CEO Gernot Döllner. The brand is in an impossibly difficult position, and while the company is working to fix that, the fixes might be adding to the problems, at least according to Manager Magazin.
The new electric A4 e-Tron platform was supposed to realize cost savings by being shared, but other parts of the company found it too expensive and decided not to adopt it. Why is it expensive?
[H]is critics say, Döllner is designing the model to be so expensive that it will not only miss internal profit targets but also have no chance in the market. Take, for example, the rear passenger compartment. To allow for comfortable seating in the back of the low-slung sedan, the A4—unlike its competitors from BMW and Mercedes—has a split battery. The battery modules are positioned differently; the car doesn’t use the “standardized cells” prepared for the group. To ensure crash safety, a stiffer frame is required. Within the company, they estimate the cost of this alone at around €2,000 extra per car. Added to this are the extra expenses for Döllner’s design preferences. The highly complex production process, it is said, ultimately costs about €1,000 more per vehicle than its competitors.
A report from January shows development costs for the A4 e-tron, including software expenses, of more than 4 billion euros; the total costs for the three Audi models on the platform are almost 10 billion.
It is a very big bet, especially for something that might not sell in China.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
It’s Skin Cancer Awareness Month and our friends at XPEL are celebrating with National Don’t Fry Day, so I’m going to do a week of beach songs. Today, it’s the Fresh Prince himself (and DJ Jazzy Jeff) with “Summertime.”
Observed annually on the Friday before Memorial Day, National Don’t Fry Day raises awareness about the dangers of ultraviolet (UV) radiation and promotes sun-safe habits as Americans head into summer. In recognition of the occasion, XPEL is offering 15% off automotive window tint installations at participating authorized dealers and company-owned stores across the U.S. on May 22 only.
The Big Question
What other famous Chrysler/Fiat/Pug/Citroën or any other Stellantis nameplate should come back?
Top photo: Stellantis
Based both on this statement and the looks of the recent concepts they have unveiled it seems Chrysler’s goal is to be Buick, but made by Stellantis.
You’re probably not far off the mark considering Buick’s recent seeming revival in sales. I have no data to back it up, but it seems like they’re doing pretty well for themselves in the “cheap crossover that’s kinda nice” category.
I’ll bet Chrysler saw that and realized they could/needed to make the same pivot as the US’s other sort-of-but-not-really-upscale-but-not-luxury brand.
Here’s what they could do:
Jeep:
Avenger
Renegade
Wrangler
Wrangler Safari (a 7-seat 3-row Wrangler on the Gladiator LWB chassis) perhaps it could even use the Wagoneer name
Cherokee (current SWB Grand CHerokee)
Grand Cherokee (current LWB GC)
Gladiator
**NOTE: the current Wagoneer would instead be a Dodge or Chrysler
The Commander/Meridian could fit in the Dodge or Chrysler lineup too https://opposite-lock.com/assets/plugins/nodebb-plugin-emoji/emoji/android/1f914.png?v=q27a268s04o
Dodge:
Panda
Neon (Tipo)
Stratus (508)
Charger/Challenger
Magnum
Rampage (Ram 700)
Dakota (Ram 1200/Triton)
Ram 1500/2500/3500
Doblo
Caravan (Scudo)
Ducato
Durango (Ram 1500 with a wagon body)
Ram: see Dodge
(no reason to be a separate brand)
Chrysler:
Topolino
Cirrus (308)
Concorde (luxury version of Charger/Magnum)
PT Cruiser (Grande Panda)
Pacifica (but with I4 engines instead of V6)
Crossland
Grandland
Aspen (current Wagoneer line)
BONUS: Plymouth
Mobi
Argo
Breeze (Peugeot 301)
Scamp (South American Ram Rampage/Toro)
Pulse
Landtrek
Too many models.
If they’re going to bring back Avenger and Arrow, they could add yet another brand to the stable and revive Hillman with a Minx and an Imp for a future Reform-governed Britain. Bonus points for Humber Super Snipes for government ministers and other officials.
You could revive the 300, Magnum with the Peugeot 508 and 508SW. The 5008 could fight in the three row crossover space.
Judging by the way they “re-styled” the Pacfica, I do not trust their revival of either of those cars. The 300 was the most attractive vehicle the brand made in at least the last 30+ years. They still look great imo.
Can Opel bring us a new Manta? Let’s get a Hurricane 4 (or 6, I won’t complain) in there, bring that stateside as a Crossfire/Conquest successor (use a new name starting with a C) and it could be a flagship for Chrysler if they’re aiming at the entry-level market, it doesn’t have to be lighter than a GR86 as long as it’s more powerful at a similar price.
Ah,
ChryslerStellantis, if there’s one thing that we all appreciate owning is aChryslerStellantis built to the lowest-price point.I’m sure it’ll be a nice Reliant automobile.
Barracuda! But not as some dumb jacked-up two-box POS. Make it a legit Mustang competitor. They’d sell dozens, but it would potentially be pretty cool.
But we live in the worst timeline, so I am seeing crossovers in tiny increments from small to Canyonero.
It’ll be a crossover. Any car that anyone names will just be another lame crossover.
Give Honda some kudos for the Integra in bucking that stupid trend.
Nah, that thing is absolute dogshit, it’s just an ILX with a different badge.
It’s actually a Civic with a different badge that replaced the ILX.
The OG Integra worship was just a civic with power and a handling package. It’s not like it was some magical built for purpose platform.
Hard disagree. You can call the integra “just a civic” all you want, and yeah it shared some parts, but the Integras run by realtime racing dominated touring car racing, and it’s still one of hte best handling FWD chassis to this day.
The new one is a bloated fat turd.
You’re coming across as the “well acktually” guy, but like… have you ever even owned a Honda/Acura from this time period? They were truly special, and the way you’re talking about them makes me guess you haven’t had any direct experience with them, and are instead repeating something you read on the internet.
You’ve got a lot of vitriol baked in there.
Perhaps a Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross or Ford Mustang Mach-e would chill your heels.
Sure do, it’s a friggin ILX with a badge on it, trying to recapture lost mojo. Not fooling me, boss
Were they capable and worthy of the praise they got? Absolutely. But it’s not like they deviated from the formula for today’s Integra. It’s just the reality that modern platforms are heavy and laden with safety equipment.
Aka dogshit aka does not live up to the Integra name imho. It’s an ILX. Take the badges off, show 100 people, and 99 of them are not going to be able to tell which is which.
Except it’s not an ILX, it’s the civic chassis. Which is not shared with the ILX.
They already have the challeneger, which was always the same thing as the Cuda other than the grill and a few other details.
Too big and fat to be a real Mustang competitor. The Barracuda was much smaller, being based on the Valiant the same way the Mustang was based on the Falcon.
… dude the challenger and the cuda were the same exact chassis.
Not originally. The ’64-69 Barracuda 1st and 2nd gen was a much smaller car based on the A-body Valiant, as I said, the same way the Falcon begat the Mustang. And epically cool with the glass fastback. A brown ’66 fastback was my mother’s first car when I was a kid.
You are thinking of the big, fat, 3rd gen ’70+ E-body Barracuda, based on a completely different platform and sharing nothing with the Valiant. THAT is the car that was also the basis of the 1st gen Challenger, which also debuted in 1970. There was no Dodge equivalent of the 1st and 2nd gen Barracuda. But even then the Barracuda had a 2IN shorter wheelbase and completely different sheetmetal than the Challenger – they were not just rebadged.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Barracuda
I thought the first gen Cuda was an A body like a Dart?
But yeah I know most of the stuff you’re talking about, my first car was a 68 Charger and I was a hardcore mopar nerd for a long time. I just sorta forgot about the first gen Barracuda, imho the design wasn’t as successful and it looks sort awkward. The e-Body Cuda looked amazing…
To each his own. To me, that glass fastback Gen1 Barracuda was the epitome of 60’s cool, and the 2nd gen was pretty great too. Then they got fat.
I rented a Citroen C4 in the UK a couple of years ago and it was perfectly adequate and comfortable. Tweak the styling and remove some of the french UI weirdness and it would probably do just fine as a disposable Chrysler family crossover thing.
French UI weirdness is kinda endearing. I loved the little Peugeots I’ve rented and the tach and speedometer needles rotating in opposite directions was kinda fun and only took a few minutes to get used to.
Honestly my core complaint was the digital instrument panel. They had a fair amount of real estate to use but instead it was something like a 5″ x 8″ display panel that told you only the most basic of information and wasn’t customizable to become much more interesting. It reminded me of what we had in our campus GEM electric carts. The rest of the interior was ergonomically fine. If the display was simply _bigger_ and at least gave the option of some delightfully weird digital gauges then it would have been endearing.
I took a picture: https://i.imgur.com/VS1XhTp.jpeg
Even if they had insisted on something minimalist, but used a display panel to fit the space in the dashboard, that would have been better.
Oh wow that is terrible. Did they stumble on a container of LCDs from the 2000s and couldn’t pass up a deal
Glad Chrysler / Jeep / Dodge has fight left in them. No, I won’t call them Stellantis, sorry / not sorry. Also glad we were (most of us) wrong about nixing Maserati.
““Our plan for North America is very simple: get the product right–right for the market, right for the brand positioning, right for segment expansion, right for growth, and right for re-earning customer loyalty,” said Kuniskis earlier today.”
The fact that product quality is last on that list tracks.
At least Stellantis doesn’t pretend they care about quality unlike Ford.
“Stellantis: Get ready to suffer, but at least we’ll finance you!”
After owning a few Chrysler products and having no issues, I have a hypothesis:
Just a hunch….
Chrysler—like most OEMs—does not specify a service interval for ATF. ZF has publicly stated that they don’t agree with OEM statements on lifetime transmission fluid, but that’s not what goes in the owners manual. On the ZF transmission it’s also an expensive service as the filter is integrated into the transmission pan.
My hunch is not related to just ONE transmission, it’s applicable to all chryslers with automatics for the past few decades. I think the owners are lazy.
Yeah. My dad is Mopar thru and thru, owned many over the years. They’ve all been reliable for him, BUT he does proper maintenance and doesn’t drive like an American Altima owner.
Is this The Morning Dump? Because it *Feels* like TMD, but isn’t labelled in any way.
It is. The listening section says so.
Yes, somebody was asleep at the switch; see red circle logo in topshot. Probably will be corrected here momentarily.
I was just thinking the other night that Chrysler needs a new K-Car to revive the brand. Not in name or execution, but in concept. Right car, right time kind of thing. And right now, it seems that thing is a family of crossovers.
If they’re bringing back Airflow, they should lean into it and also bring back Cirrus, Stratus, and Breeze. Fireflite would be a good one too, as long as the cars themselves don’t have a tendency to ignite.
Well, they’ll be Stellantis vehicles with hybrid and PHEVs as an option, so the odds of self-immolation are statistically very high. They got stung by the Hornet, stubbed their toe with the Alfa Toenail, maybe they shouldn’t speak the “fire and flight risk” into existence.
TBQ: as far as just names go, Fury, Valiant, Spirit are decent names.
Bit of a non-sequitur, but I have tickets to see DJ Jazzy Jeff at the Montreal Jazz Fest in June. I already planned to take that Thursday and Friday off–now I have to see if the boss is amenable to me also taking the following Tuesday for the Autopian Track day.
My prediction for when the Arrow eventually makes it to dealers:
After longer than initially promised, it finally shows up at $29.995 and each dealer will get one at this price. The next cheapest one will be $36k. The following year the base model will be dropped due to ‘low demand’ and the new base price will be raised to $38k (likely with a $2200 delivery fee).
And they’re just rebadged Hornets.
TBG, Imperial, as either a flamboyant personal luxury coupe or range topping baby limousine; and a new 300 letter car as a luxury hot rod (also, let’s move forward in the alphabet again, they went from M all the way back to C and stayed there for two generations)
So Chrysler is just going to be Plymouth, complete with a former Plymouth model name.
Pretty much.
Because Maserati will be the new Chrysler. The TC comes full circle.
This makes absolutely no sense to me. They have an entry level brand with almost no product – Dodge. .
I heart the cognitive dissonance between Will Smith rapping “Two miles an hour, so everybody sees you” while wearing Speed Racer.
Hybridized affordable mainstream crossovers is an obvious and logical answer, but as always correct execution is key. The Dodge Hornet didn’t work out for them.
What other famous Chrysler/Fiat/Pug/Citroën or any other Stellantis nameplate should come back?
Sunbeam. Give us a 21st century Tiger.
I always liked Reliant. If Chrylser can do a Saturn here and make something affordable and decently made, could be a good choice.
Seeing as how it took them 10 years just to come up with a new grill for the Pacifica, I’m not expecting any of this will happen in my lifetime.
In the meantime, please enjoy a decade of a Durango, and Ram with yet another rehash with a Hemi as a “limited edition”
Are the Arrow and Arrow cross just low quality versions of toyotas or hondas that people who buy patriotism over quality going to buy because the Journey and Caliber are not around? (posted else ware)
For a suggestion out of left field, another PT Cruiser is exactly what Chrysler needs. Something cool, desirable, and inexpensive. It didn’t really matter that the PT was based on dubious ’90s compact bones, it looked awesome and didn’t cost much and that made it successful.
Just this time, update it/don’t let it wither to the point it becomes a sitcom punchline.
I’m willing to give them a pass on that, mid ’00s were not an easy time to be Chrysler (When is it easy, I guess?)
I always wonder what might have happened it Chrysler had slowly flattened it with a next gen, and if it’d have eventually synced up with the Dart.
Hell yeah. These are starting to become nostalgia-bait (and really didn’t deserve as much hate as they’ve gotten before now, either).
They need to give up on the name Airflow.
Chrysler Airflow was first announced in 2020. Then revealed in 2022. Have they hired a bunch of VW people?