Stellantis and Ford are out with their quarterly financial reports and neither are great, but only one CEO is out here threatening to murder brands. Can you guess the company and the CEO? You and I both know it’s Stellantis and our buddy Carlos Tavares.
I’ll keep this in some kind of logical order this morning, so let’s kick it off with a quick dip into the Stellantis numbers and why they’re so bad. We’ll then follow it up with all the brands that Tavares is threatening to knock off, ranked by how likely that’ll happen.
How’s Ford doing? Ford is doing fine. It’s still losing money on electric cars, but its commercial vehicle unit is killing it right now.
And, finally, Volvo is rethinking its plans to go all-EV and instead is thinking about those hybrids. Alright, let’s dump!
Stellantis Is Either In A Rough Transition Or Boned
It’s almost as if trying to squeeze as much money as you can out of old product, making your suppliers hate you, and firing a bunch of engineers doesn’t always work. I wrote at the end of the first quarter that I was concerned that Stellantis couldn’t stick the landing and, so far, Stellantis has not stuck the landing.
This was always going to be a rough year for the company as it starts to roll out new cars while, at the same time, trying to sell a backlog of its older models. The pandemic years were great for the Stellantis, as it was able to book huge profits because of vehicle scarcity and low interest rates. That wasn’t going to last forever.
Still, it feels like they’re doing worse than I’d have guessed. This isn’t to say that it’s hopeless or that Carlos Tavares, pictured, doesn’t have a plan. He does seem to have a plan, it’s just I’m not convinced that plan will work.
You can look at the whole first half presentation here and see how the company tries to rah rah the weak results. Stellantis as a whole made a net profit of $6 billion in the first half of the year, which sounds good until you consider that’s down a lot compared to the $8.3 billion they did in the first six months of 2023. Revenues are down 14% and the company’s margin dropped to 10%, which isn’t the worst in the industry but is bad for Stellantis.
Here’s how Tavares put it:
The Company’s performance in the first half of 2024 fell short of our expectations, reflecting both a challenging industry context as well as our own operational issues. While corrective actions were needed and are being taken to address these issues, we also have initiated an exciting product blitz, with no fewer than 20 new vehicles launching this year, and with that brings bigger opportunities when we execute well. We have significant work to do, especially in North America, to maximize our long-term potential. I want to thank every employee for their teamwork and commitment during this very consequential chapter of our story.
What’s the product, exactly, that’ll take them to the next level? This is what I want to know. The new Dodge Charger is interesting, I’m super excited about the Ramcharger, but that’s about it right now.
Ok, So Then What Should Stellantis Kill?
I’m not saying Stellantis should kill any brands, but Tavares, pictured above, is suggesting that this is what’s going to happen if certain brands can’t keep up.
This comes from Reuters:
“If they don’t make money, we’ll shut them down,” Carlos Tavares told reporters after the world’s No. 4 automaker delivered worse-than-expected first-half results, sending its shares down as much as 10%.
“We cannot afford to have brands that do not make money.”
Wasn’t this the same guy who, like, three years ago said that all these brands had ten years to prove their worth? Yes, it’s the same guy.
“For the time being, we love them all,” Tavares said from his home in Portugal during an Automotive News World Congress webinar. “Each (brand) CEO has 10 years for which I am telling him or her that he has the funding, the ability to build his long-term business plan and plan for the different product launches and technologies to make the brand grow or rebound and create value for the company.”
Ok, so he doesn’t quite feel that way now that the pandemic is over and he’s not raking in money. So here is, I think, a list of brands they’ll cut in order from least to most likely.
SAFE BRANDS
- Jeep – That’s where the money is, at least for now. The company’s one true global brand.
- Leapmotor – This isn’t a first-in/first-out situation. Leapmotor is the most recent brand in the portfolio and cheap Chinese-built EVs are seen as the future so it would be wild to cut it just after bringing it on board.
- Peugeot – Stellantis is at least partially owned by the French state, so good luck with that.
- Fiat – Over Agnelli/Exor’s dead body right? The Italians are never gonna let this happen.
- Ram – That’s where a lot of money is, at least in the Americas.
- Citroën – The value of this brand is questionable, but I don’t see the French government supporting this.
- Dodge – It’s too American to cut. A Stellantis without Dodge is not the same company.
PROBABLY SAFE BRANDS
- Opel – It’s a strong, recognizable European brand with a decent portfolio.
- Vauxhall – I guess the same as above, but take about 25% off there.
- Abarth – If you’ve got Fiat you might as well keep Abarth.
- Alfa Romeo – It’s not a great brand in the United States, but there’s enough European appeal that it’s hard to see this going away.
HARDER TO MAKE AN ARGUMENT FOR
- Maserati – Someone wants Maserati, but it cost the company $90 million this year in losses, so maybe that someone is not Stellantis.
THE REDUNDANCIES
- Chrysler – Chrysler has a minivan and… that’s it. Nothing else. We know that it’ll get more, but does America need two different car brands? This would suck.
- DS – Hey, DS! France’s Chrysler. I love the DS brand and there was a time when the former-PSA did a good job of making unique DS cars. Those days are behind us now.
- Lancia – Hey, it’s Italy’s DS! Why does this brand still exist?
That’s my guess, at least.
[Ed Note: I think Maserati is the first to go. And if we’re using our brains and not our hearts, Alfa is right there after it. I also think Ram should just be Dodge again. -DT].
Ford’s Quarter Was Not Great, Not Terrible
Ford’s Q2 report is also out and the company saw revenues of about $48 billion, which was higher than what was expected, but its net income of $1.8 billion and EPS (earnings per share) were a little lower than expected.
What’s going on with Ford? Quality, quality, quality. All those warranty claims are starting to pile up and weigh down the automaker’s profits according to the press release:
Profitability was affected by an increase in warranty reserves, though efforts to lift the quality of new products are starting to pay off, with positive implications for customer satisfaction and Ford’s operating performance.
Ford split itself into three big divisions: Ford Blue (regular cars/hybrids), Ford Model e (electric cars), and Ford Pro (commercial vehicles/trucks). Ford Pro is killing it, making a 15.1% margin and bringing in $17 billion in revenue in Q2. Ford Blue made more in revenue at $26.7 billion, but with a much lower margin of 4.4%, so it’s less profitable overall.
And Ford Model e? It lost $400 million less than it had a year prior, but pricing pressure resulted in a -99.5% margin, which is real bad.
Volvo: Let’s Make Some More Hybrids
Year of the Hybrid? More like Decade of the Hybrid. Volvo has been the most militant of the major brands about going fully electric after 2030.
Let’s check in with Automotive News to see how that’s going:
Volvo Chief Commercial Officer Bjorn Annwall vowed last year that the automaker would not “sell a single car” globally that is not fully electric after 2030.
“There’s no ifs, no buts,” Annwall told Automotive News in June 2023.
Now, faced with slumping EV sales in key markets such as China and the U.S., Volvo’s leadership could be reconsidering going all-in on battery power.
Automotive News checked in with an unnamed dealer, who said the following:
“We will have to, or we will die,” said a dealer who requested not to be identified. “Volvo has gotten way out over their skis with this EV-only strategy.”
In the next decade, Volvo will focus on supplying plug-in hybrids while the EV market matures in the U.S. and elsewhere, said a person familiar with the company’s plans.
“They are keeping their fingers crossed that PHEVs will start to be looked at favorably by the different governments,” said the person, who asked not to be identified while speaking about internal matters.
Life comes at ya fast.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I will once again restate my belief that every Fiona Apple album is better than the last, but her debut “Tidal” is 28 years old this week and it’s worth revisiting how earth-shatteringly wonderful that album was. The video for “Never is a Promise” is also intense in a good way. What a talent!
The Big Question
You gotta kill five Stellantis brands. Who you picking?
“Tidal” is such a good record. I prefer “When the Pawn”, but “Tidal” is good. It’s a shame that Apple’s biggest hit from it was “Criminal”, which is probably the worst song. Now that I think about it, Apple has had some great videos, too. “Never is a promise” is great, as highlighted here, and I think previously we covered “Paper Bag”. I’d also say “Hot Knife” is a good video and was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
From how often this topic is discussed, part of me hopes they kill Dodge, Chrysler, and Ram out of spite for the weird obsession among you lot with how unreliable Alfas used to be and how they must be punished for it.
Also weird how we can’t kill Dodge because it’s the American performance brand even though that’s a pretty recent rebranding. Not too long ago Dodge sold stuff like the Stratus, Caliber, Spirit, Shadow, Caravan, and other cars for people who don’t care about cars. They even tried to rebrand the Stratus as a performance car in the Avenger by giving it circular taillights and… that’s it. Some of them got racing stripes I guess? Water under the bridge though for Dodge but post-international conglomerate Alfa must pay for the woes that pre-international conglomerate Alfa had for some reason..
A pretty recent rebranding?
The Caliber SRT4, Spirit R/T, Shelby CSX, and a handful of five-speed turbo Caravans existed. (While the latter three were in production, the Viper was being engineered.)
We can go back further. In the late ’70s, Dodge used an emissions loophole to offer you a “car” that could keep up with a new Camaro Z/28 while hauling a yard of mulch. Before that… well, I don’t need to give you a history of muscle cars.
Granted, their styling often hasn’t been Pontiac-exciting, but… did you see the sporty Pontiac in this morning’s Showdown?
Most brands have sold sporty versions of their basic cars. My point is they had basic cars. They were similar to Nissan, Honda, Chevy, Ford, etc. for a long time; a little something for everyone. And some of those basic cars were just not good stuff. But today they are representative of all things muscle car and must be saved regardless of other car brands who also have interesting histories.
Make Chrysler the highest Dodge trim level, roll Ram back into Dodge. Sell Maserati back to Ferrari, Maserati can be the not-sports-car Ferraris. Make DS the top trim level for Citroen and make Lancia the top trim level for Fiat and maybe even Alfa Romeo.
They keep their trademarks but streamline production lines.
We’re doing all of this blind – or at least I am, because I don’t want to download that PDF and am too depressed to Google even the rudiments of the necessary information after confirming that the Vauxhall brand really is UK-only (it’s been Opel in Ireland for some time), but what are the relative market shares and brand perceptions of each?
Forgot about the Hornet until it was too late to edit. You need to increase the breadth of your American product offerings, but not with something that’s not built here, not built well, and very overpriced even if it were both, even considering the generous room for incentives that seems to be part of the pricing structures of American carmakers.
If it’s true that Jeep is the only “global” brand, then I’m saving it from this game. The game is “Pick one” and it’s based on countries. Because having worked for several European based companies, this is NEVER really about brands, it’s about “our country’s heritage”. So Jeep gets a pass because it’s the only true “global” brand. From there, France, Italy, Germany, and the US each get to pick one. That’s it.
VW Group’s brands are Volkswagen, ŠKODA, SEAT, CUPRA, Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Porsche and Ducati. There is a ridiculous amount of component and platform sharing at each of these brands, but they make it work. So VW is the model that Stellantis should be following.
Stellantis has 14 “brands:” Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroën, Dodge, DS, Fiat, Jeep, Lancia, Maserati, Opel, Peugeot, Ram, and Vauxhall. But Abarth, DS, and Ram aren’t really even brands, just trim levels or spin-offs, so they really have 11. Here is my brand math:
All of these brands would share the same platforms, like VW does with Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, and Porsche:
All of these brands would share the same platforms, like VW does with SEAT, ŠKODA, or CUPRA:
Jeep is its own unique thing. Lancia is gone unless it becomes a sub-brand of Fiat.
Start some vicious platform consolidation, kill most of the ICE engines, badge-engineer like crazy, pull brands from certain markets (i.e. no more Fiat or Alfa in the US) and plan future platforms to be as customizable as VW’s and Stellantis may have a chance.
I don’t mean to be a jerk, but trying to position Chrysler as US Audi is some classic malaise-era wrongheaded thinking. Audi drivers are never going to look at a Chrysler. Chrysler drivers haven’t really existed for a generation, at least ones young enough to still drive.
Alfa *could* work in the US, but you have to do the kia/Hyundai thing of working hard to build a brand over time and slowly overcome perceptions of quality that may have little to do with present reality.
Fold Ram back into Dodge. Make the Pacifica a Dodge Caravan like it should have been. Kill Chrysler. Boom, your US product brands just became Jeep and Dodge. It’ll be sad, but it’ll make sense.
If you are feeling frisky and like losing a big pile of cash, bring Chrysler back every so often to release a limited edition, ultra-low-production run of super high end Imperial. I’m talking base price should be like $300k. Have it run for ~two years of production and then it ends. It won’t come back for another 10 years. It’ll be like lighting money on fire, but boy, would it be cool.
I would be fine with keeping Chrysler if they just stopped starving them of product to as other brands push into what should be Chrysler’s territory. For example, the Wagoneer should have been more rugged and Jeep-y; the luxury Grand Wagoneer really should have been a Chrysler and much more uniquely styled. The Wagoneer S should have been a Chrysler. A smoother riding and more comfort oriented version of the Tonale seems like it would have been a better idea than the Hornet. The upcoming Charger should have a Chrysler variant. Chrysler could have life if it wasn’t actively sabotaged by pretty much every other Stellantis brand sold in the US.
The only thing saving Lancia right now is that their market share is weirdly high in Italy, despite having only one model. The Ypsilon has 2.8% of the Italian market so far this year, vs all of Nissan with 2.5%, and it’s probably pretty cheap to support, given that the new Ypsilon is pretty much just badge engineering a corporate design
You could argue maybe it would do just as well with Fiat badges and lose the cost of a separate divisional management structure, but the extra brand probably isn’t actually costing that much to maintain and it has to be profitable.
Chrysler is just plain being starved of product. The 200 was the best selling midsize car in the history of the Chrysler brand, and was killed without a replacement. The 300 was also dropped with no replacement, and the Pacifica is decent, but aging, and with no replacement in sight. That electric car that’s maybe coming/not coming/maybe after all sounds like it’s been a total mess in the development process and someone from senior management should have stepped in and overruled some decisions there to get it out faster
At Dodge, the Durango is elderly and way beyond overdue for replacement, the Hornet is a total flop, and the new Charger is interesting, but unlikely to sell in the same volumes as it’s two predecessors, and there doesn’t seem to be anything else coming?
If appointed CEO, I’m going ADD five brands! I’m buying Alpha Motors, Canoo, Elio, Fisker and Aptera. If this ship is going down, I’m setting it on fire with thermite while going full speed into iceberg filled waters at night without anyone on watch.
Found the Carlos Tavares burner account.
I think it’s funny (in a sad kinda way..) that almost every single commenter here who has opinions about which Stellantis brands should be killed has never ever driven or even been in one of these brands’ cars. Maybe not even seen one in person.
I want a show of hands of people who’ve driven a Citroen, a Maserati, an Alfa, an Opel and a Peugeot. If you haven’t, then maybe talk about something you know at least something about.. but I guess that would be un-american LOL.
[/end rant]
I’ve driven and owned all of those at some point in my life, but they were all ages ago and in no way reflect the current offerings. But that absolutely does not matter – the worth of these brands is currently driven by their sales and profitability – period. And in those areas, they suck.
Hmm.. let me then introduce you to Opel.
You might be familiar with the brand, but just as a quick refresher on its history, it was owned by GM for almost a century, and despite having a great R&D center churning out everything from ‘ok’ to ‘great’ cars over that long period, and having anything from ‘ok’ to ‘great’ sales and marketshare in Europe, hasn’t turned a profit since the 90’s (estimated to have lost GM about $20 bil since then). Also GM had failed repeatedly to take advantage of Opel’s R&D and bring that tech over the pond (except for the miserable failure of the Cadillac Catera, which they poorly implemented, marketed and sold).
Now giving its history so far, GM was about to shut it down in 2017, a decision you would’ve likely wholeheartedly agreed to. But then Merkel got them to agree to sell it to PSA, and what do you know, the next year it turned a profit!
My point is management gross incompetence is a more likely cause of poor financials than crappy cars. To this day I’m convinced that Alfa would be doing way better here if they just cared enough to market it to enthusiasts more than as ‘luxury’, just having the manual trans Giulia (or any other manual car) on a dealership floor woudl’ve made a difference.
“But then Merkel got them to agree to sell it to PSA, and what do you know, the next year it turned a profit!
My point is management gross incompetence is a more likely cause of poor financials than crappy cars.”
I also suspect Opel turned a profit so quickly because GM was doing some things I’ve seen a lot of companies do… dump a lot of costs onto their subsidiaries by overcharging them for stuff through intercompany chargebacks to make the home office look better… and/or underpaying them for the stuff they produced, hence, causing “losses”
In the past when I worked for an American company in Canada, a subsidiary in the USA wanted to ship me a server and charge us Canadians US$20,000 for a server I could buy locally for CAD$7000…. and probably even less in the USA. I talked to the manager who controlled the budget and showed how they were trying to rip us off and I got that rip-off attempt vetoed.
But it’s shit like that large companies pull for a variety of reasons… sometimes financial, sometimes political and sometimes they’re just asshole moves.
Amen.
Owned a 1960 Maserati 3500 vignale spyder (paid $2000 in 1970 don’t get ideas) amazing car BTW
Drove an Opel Kadet for a weekend about the same time. Pretty awful actually.
Drove a friend’s Peugeot 504 diesel wagon a few times. I think they nailed the luxury truck thing with that.
A friend took me skiing a few times in a 1969 Alfa Romeo GTV , it seemed fine.
Got rides in a DS21 Pallas when i was a child, and have an irrational desire to own one.
All these brands have undergone an invasion of the body snatchers, with the possible exception of Peugeot, and are pod people versions of their former selves.
The Maseratis are just embarrassing. Maserati used to have a reputation in the 60s for remarkably robust design.
Haven’t seen any of the others in years, but that’s probably because I live in a farm town in the Central Valley. Remarkable numbers of Lamborghini and Maseratis SUVs in town though.
I’ll play
Citroen – nope. Neighbor growing up had an old DS he’d break out every now and then
Maserati – drove a friends Quatroporte. Followed him taking his Range Rover into the shop. Clearly he had more $ than sense. Felt laughably cheap for the price point.
Alfa – test drove a Guilia. Handled nicely. Between the useless back seat and reliability concerns, the rational side of my brain wasn’t letting that happen.
Opel – an 2006 9-3 VectraSwede was my DD for 5 years. Miss that car everyday
Peugoet – friend in HS inherited his dads old 505. Woof. I do have the salt and pepper mills in my kitchen – quality items.
“quality items”
Can confirm
Except for Maserati. What people tend to forget is that Stellantis is maybe the biggest light commercial vehicle manufacturer in the world, up to 3.5 tonnes
DS needs to be killed as it never made any sense from the start. I had a DS7 as a rental during summer and I’ve never experienced quite an interior with the same mix of fake chrome detailing, an abundance of uneven piano black surfaces and the most bewildering user interfaces I’ve experience in a while. DS is Stellantis trying to sell a premium experience but it’s all just a hoax. And while they’re at it, kill Lancia before they manage to destroy the brand equity even more. Judging by the Ypslion, they’re trying the same formula as with the DS, but no amount of Cassina textiles, nice though they are, can save it.
This is the world we live in…where $1.8 BILLION in profit is considered “not great.”
Alfas are gorgeous…they’d better be, or else local jurisdictions would force one to remove them from your property, as they’ve been sitting there for years not running (I know DT knows ALL about this). They are really quite the lookers, but they never work. Even Europeans make jokes about Alfas doing Alfa things, because its so common. In the States, we live and breathe cars for better or worse, and having a pretty lawn ornament doesn’t fly (or drive, I guess). There have been many unreliable US cars, but none with the brand cache of failure as Alfa Romeo.
Merge Dodge, Chrysler and Ram into the newly created DeSoto brand.
I love how there are a few DeSoto Stan posts in here
No… they should go under Maxwell!!!
First thought was to shut all of Stellantis down. Just stop. Divvy up the cash on hand between the shareholders, give the employees a nice severance, and go to the beach. But we all know that’s not gonna happen, so:
Everything Chrysler & Ram become Dodge, Chrysler & Ram go away.Abarth and DS become trim levels.Sell any brand that someone wants to buy (Maserati & Alfa?)
I’d keep Jeep, Leapmotor, both Peugeot and Citroën, Opel, Fiat, and Dodge. Jeep, Peugeot, and Fiat become global brands (with some exceptions), whereas Opel, Citroën, Dodge, and Leapmotor become regional brands.
Chrysler, Lancia, Vauxhall, and DS become retired brands. Abarth rejoins Fiat. Ram rejoins Dodge. Maserati gets sold back to Ferarri. Alfa Romeo can become a regional brand, or it can also be sold off. I would also stop selling Alfa Romeo in the US. Fiat may exit the US market, but stick around in Mexico and South America. In the place of Fiat in the US, I’d pick either Peugeot or Opel in two different formats: Peugeot would sell their cars as-is, whereas Opel would become a catch-all brand for importing other models (similar to what almost happened to Saturn at the end of its existence).
People really have been sleeping on Volvo’s hybrids. They have some fantastic ones and the cars are good.
Chrysler is gone. It’s the easiest to drop, they only have a minivan.
The Hit List:
Chrysler: The Pacifica becomes (again?) the Dodge Caravan
Maserati: Sell this to some well-heeled buyer in China who wants the name
Vauxhall: Ok I admit as an American I don’t care about this brand
Lancia: As far as I can tell they’re all about history even today. Time to make that permanent
DS: I had never heard of this brand until today
Bonus:
Abarth: No reason this needs to be a separate brand. That’d be like BMW making “M” a separate brand which is hilarious to think about
“Abarth: No reason this needs to be a separate brand. That’d be like BMW making “M” a separate brand which is hilarious to think about”
Agreed.
But then there’s also Polestar and Cupra that are brands created from performance trims. So a bit ridiculous, but not unique.
Get Cerberus to buy Chrysler again, put Toecutter at the helm, and get a proper Airflow.
If I’m the CEO of Stellantis, I killed Chrysler yesterday. I am killing off Abarth and DS immediately as well. I am selling Maserati to anyone stupid enough to buy it. I’ll kill off Lancia. I immediately pull Alfa out of North America if not sell it with Maserati. RAM is going back into the Dodge portfolio as I suspect the spinoff created some redundancies that could be absorbed.
The whole company feels like a mess with that many brands anyway. Why did they think this was a good idea?
Without knowing their internal structuring and distribution agreements as well as national political interests, it’s tough to make a call on what brands should be killed. That said, nobody would miss DS, Abarth should just be a trim level/tune like AMG used to be (or DS could be the same for Citroen except I think Citroen has run its course), and Maserati and Alfa Romeo probably still have value on the market to sell them off. Chrysler? Gone and who will really care when it’s basically been gone? If Vauxhall/Opel are separate at all, consolidate, but keep the badges. Do they already platform share with Peugeot/Citroen? If not, they should be working toward it (probably are since PC turned OV into a profitable firm soon after picking it up from GM who couldn’t figure out how to make money off them). Citroen and Lancia are similar in that they were once—long ago—highly innovative brands that no longer really have a purpose as the market has passed them by and opportunities to position them as EV innovators has been lost, plus Lancia barely has anything to sell, like Chrysler. Once again, I propose my question: why does every brand have to be a full brand with a full range to make its own money even when its identity is not conducive to do so and having badge engineered me-too models dividing a common market just to have them cannibalizes sales from other umbrella brand models? The umbrella is what matters, so if, say, Maserati is only good at selling a higher end sports car, then just sell that or two of them using the same platform McLaren style. When it/they runs its course and the market looks bad, let the marque be dormant. Reason to bring it back a few years later? Go ahead. Of course, the answer goes back to internal structure and existing distribution agreements, and so on, but I don’t know why I can’t think of any of these mega umbrellas trying to do such a thing. Perhaps it’s too much legacy baggage as these are generally built piecemeal or maybe there’s more investor interest with separate brands adding value on paper or just that they’re separate assets that can be leveraged or sold off as needed (though with platform sharing that already isn’t quite that simple). Then again, maybe it could work on a smaller scale with sub umbrellas sold through the same dealers, like Maserati-Alfa Romeo-Dodge (or whatever, just as an example) using common platforms and some parts, but making different vehicle types off of them.
“Abarth should just be a trim level/tune like AMG used to be”
I read that as AMC and thought that would be the ideal name for a decontented/detuned trim level.
Execute one brand or roll Dodge and Chrysler into one house ffs. Jeep and RAM stay. Roll all compacts into Abarth, NOT Fiat, and EV into Opel.
Serious posting: Throw Tavares off a mountain.
If their strategy is only SUVs and trucks: kill both Dodge and Chrysler. They bring nothing to the table.
Kill Vauxhall, and rebadge it as Opel. Nothing lost there.
Abarth costs them nothing, it can relegate itself to a trim package if this gives them warm feelings.
Love this game! haha
Kill List
Merge List:
Counterpoint: Kill Dodge and leave Ram.
They ignored non-SUV/Trucks for long enough that they’ve already done that along with Chrysler.
The Hornet is killing Dodge off quickly enough without further intervention.
ha Very fair.
Chrysler is interesting to me. Big 3 luxury is interesting. Cadillac appears to be fairly successful. Sneakily some of the best sports sedans on the market right now, and the Escalade is a force that hasn’t stopped in years.
But Lincoln mostly seems to be an also ran. So there isn’t a clear value in domestic luxury brands. But Hyundai made Genesis in only the last decade, and its doing great. Lexus and Acura continue to perform well for their non luxury parent companies. So there is also obviously space for well done luxury above and beyond a “standard line” brand.
Problem is for Chrysler and Dodge is they gotta start from scratch basically. Dodge needs to be compelling on its own in some fashion, then make it real nice for Chrysler. But Dodge isn’t really going anywhere right now. We know of one new model basically? And its not even a CUV, where all the volume is now. And the CUV they sell is known to be crap.
So yeah, I want Dodge and Chrysler to succeed. But I don’t think Carlos cares enough to give it the real investment they would need.
DS was a brand engineered for China that basically immediately died. It should roll back into Citroën, it has unique vehicles that cannibalize Citroen’s existing models for nearly zero additional marketshare.
Vauxhall and Opel should probably be reduced to badge-engineered Peugeots or Citroens — they don’t need unique vehicle engineering to sell in Germanic-language countries (UK, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark).
Chrysler and Ram should become like Hummer is to GMC — a subbrand with maybe a tiny badge. It’s not like Dodge has a unique logo identity these days anyway.