Well, that headline isn’t exactly right. Stellantis – the parent company of Chrysler (as well as the Dodge, Jeep and Ram truck brands) – just killed Chrysler.
As you probably already know, Chrysler has been dying for the past three years. The brand is down to just one model – the Pacifica minivan – because Stellantis decided to cancel the 300 sedan that arguably was the Chrysler brand for many years. It went away at the end of the 2023 model year – which was when Stellantis pulled the plug (so to speak) on the Dodge Charger sedan, which was the shared-platform vehicle the 300 was based on and introduced an electric Charger coupe that literally had to be plugged in. It sold like leprosy, in part because not many people want to plug in and also because the thing had a base price that was about $20,000 higher to start than the last (2023) gas-engined Charger sedan. The fact that it was only available as a two-door compounded the problem because coupes are a harder sell, even when they have engines (because they are less practical than sedans and most people need a practical car).
Chrysler was left with nothing – other than the Pacifica. Which probably ought to have been a Dodge anyhow – because minivans are the most practical of all vehicles and so selling one with a luxury-badge (and price) limited the prospective market to older empty-nester types. The current Pacifica starts around $44k. Back when Dodge sold basic family-hauler minivans such as the Caravan – last available in ’07 or about $19k to start – Dodge sold a lot of them.
Anyhow, it looks like Stellantis is going to rebadge some Fiats (Stellantis also owns that brand) and try to sell them as Chryslers. This is what’s going to end Chrysler, probably – because these rebadged Fiats are crossovers. They are apparently going to be called the Arrow and the Arrow Cross and they are basically re-skinned iterations of the Fiat Grizzly, a small crossover that Fiat will sell in Europe.
Just what the market’s been clamoring for . . . another couple of small crossovers (that aren’t even Chryslers).
Has Stellantis learned nothing from the Hornet debacle over at Dodge? Does anyone remember the Hornet? It’s been dropped from the Dodge roster, in part because the cost of Trump’s tariffs (which made this rebadged Alfa – another brand under the Stellantis umbrella) too expensive to sell here) but also because it wasn’t selling. Not because it’s a bad little crossover – you can read my review of it here – but because it fits in the Dodge lineup like lederhosen on an Eskimo. Dodge’s brand identity is not “euro.” It is boldly, distinctly American. The Charger – not the device – defined that brand. It was so American it’s surprising its fasteners weren’t standard rather than metric. In any case, its big car, rear-drive/front engine layout and V6/V8 lineup certainly were as American as it gets.
And so was the 300, the luxury iteration of the same thing. It was the un-Camry. The big sedan for Americans who wanted a big – and luxurious – American sedan rather than a front-drive sedan from Japan (or an overpriced luxury sedan from Germany). The 300 – when it was last available back in 2023 – came standard with a 3.6 liter V6 for $34,295. A same year Mercedes-Benz E350 sedan came standard with a 2.0 liter four and stickered for $56,750. (It is worth noting that Mercedes did not alter the badging to reflect the downgrade; i.e., why not “E250” rather than E350? Of course everyone knows why. No one trying to sell you less for more advertises the fact.)
The 300 was both brash and a bargain. It was also arguably better in many ways than generally similar (but much more expensive) Euro-luxury brand sedans like the Benz E-Class and BMW 5 Series, etc. It was certainly – inarguably – different and that’s an advantage when you are trying to sell something. There’s not much advantage in trying to sell another crossover because everyone else already has a crossover to sell. Many of these are brands closely associated with crossovers. Chrysler has no history with crossovers. If Dodge can’t sell a rebadged Alfa crossover, what makes Stellantis believe that Chrysler can sell rebadged Fiat crossovers?
Meanwhile, there is a way to save Chrysler.
Dodge is in the process of trying to save itself, by offering the Charger as both a sedan and a coupe – and with an engine, too. Why not take the current Charger sedan, lux it up and sell it (with the new inline 3.0 liter straight six) as the new 300? The 3.0 liter inline six would be ideal in a Chrysler 300; much more so than under the hood of a Dodge Charger (which ought to come with a V8, because the Charger is supposed to be a muscle car and no matter how powerful a six is, it can never be the right engine for a muscle car). The six is smooth and quiet and powerful, too. It’s what’s available in the current Benz E-Class and BMW 5 Series. If Chrysler were to offer it as standard – and for $20k less than what Benz and BMW want for something similar – with that handsome new body draped over it, the thing would likely sell.
It could save Chrysler.
Instead, it looks like the last Chryslers will be reskinned/rebadged Fiat crossovers. It’s a sad way to go out.
. . .
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 - just killed Chrysler.){kind=link}
‘Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.’ — Samuel Johnson
To Sell Trucks, Break Out the Cowboys and Wrap Them in Old Glory
‘With fuel prices stubbornly high, it would seem a bad time to unleash new gas guzzlers [sic]. But Ram, Stellantis’s badge for brawny pickups, has introduced a line of muscle trucks [sic], betting that most buyers are more concerned about their manliness than the price of gas.
‘Tim Kuniskis, Ram’s chief executive, said premium models would cost north of $100,000, with gas mileage “that will be terrible.”
‘Ram released a chest-thumping commercial last year with an in-your-face title: “Never Stop Being American.” This year, it was “In Loud We Trust,” in which the U.F.C. president, Dana White, growls a voice-over extolling U.S. values with images of cowboys, a rock star, fighter jets, a bald eagle and other American kitsch.
‘The manosphere-adjacent swagger of muscle trucks overlaps elements of a political movement that is not universally popular. “It’s MAGA-coded all over the place,” Kelly O’Keefe of Brand Federation said.’ — NYT
https://archive.ph/IintJ#selection-5339.0-5339.179
After reading this article, I don’t know whether to shit or wind my watch. The Lügenpresse still echoes Hillary’s arch ‘basket of deplorables’ slur, even as European-owned companies such as Stellantis and Budweiser clothe themselves in fake patriotism.
But as much as I despise both auto makers and the press, they’ve got our number in one sense: dumb-f*ck, Bible-thumpin’ hillbillies — who would buy these ridiculous $100K trucks if only they had the dough — are still willing to go fight in some godforsaken oriental desert for little Shitrahell. Murica!
Amen, Jim –
How about a solid, V8-powered work truck for under $30k? No needless bullshit. Just a half-ton regular cab with a pushrod V8 and an eight foot bed. One that isn’t so high off the ground you need a got-damned ladder to get at what’s in the bed.
One of those is just down the street. Unfortunately, it’s a 1970 Chevrolet pickup, marooned in the weeds in someone’s back yard. 🙁
These cars will populate rental fleets, which will ruin any resale value they could have had. Maybe a decent value as used cars, if you can get it cheap enough.
Dodge website has 4 offerings, 2dr and 4dr Chargers, base MSRP $50K and $52K. Ouch! Forget a 300 version. BTW, all Chargers are AWD only, no doubt contributing to those ridiculous starting prices.
Durango base $39K.
Hornet (still shown) base $30K.
As the adage goes, “you can’t sell from an empty well.”
So long Dodge and Chrysler.
Hi Martin,
I’m betting you could probably find a brand-new ’25 Hornet for a good price… .
Maybe get it for the price IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN TO BEGIN WITH! AKA, much lower than what they had it listed for!
That’s how I became the owner of a “new” 2018 ford focus. MSRP 22k. No takers for over two years, even at the high volume Ford dealer. It was made oct 2017, and I got it “brand new” with 36 miles on it (people weren’t even TEST driving it) December 2019. For 14.5k. That is the price it should have been in 2017, and I should have asked for another 500 off. It would have sold at that price in a timely manner. But automakers and dealers are greedy.
Hornets should have not been more than 20k. The fact that most list for over 30k, is the reason they don’t sell.
THEY ARE TOO EXPENSIVE FOR WHAT THEY ARE!
A Fiat in Dodge drag. No thanks!
They made gas unafordable after they made cars/trucks unaffordible. If you look into who owns Dodge, it’s the same motherfuckers who own everything else. Blackrock, Vanguard, State street…aka jews. Monopoly does not give a fuck if products work or have integrity built into them…they serve an agenda. ZOG.
I’m waiting for the first automotive manufacturer to offer a factory rebuild service for old vehicles. Taking old cars and rebuilding them into an as-new condition.
Because the regulatory environment makes selling news cars impossible.
The next step is an industry intelligence network that collects blackmail videos of politicians, and then dictates sane legislation to them. Short of a revolution, this mess isn’t getting fixed any other way.
Ooh, smart! I like it!
Chrysler had an opportunity to be “affordable luxury” with its 300 sedan.
Chrysler could indeed do the same again with the new Charger platform with a sporty 300 and a luxurious New Yorker.
Chrysler could also reconfigure the Charger platform to be longer and make a new Imperial to fill the space vacated by Cadillac and Lincoln for a large luxury sedan.
They could have a fancier minivan or use the Dodge Durango platform for a new Town and Country.
But no…
I hope they make another 300. I liked my ’18 a lot.
I drove the new charger and it’s considerably better than the old charger/300.
I drove the new charger and it’s considerably better than the old charger/300.
Except for the over the air software
Except for the ADAS features
Except for the kill switch
Except for the higher price
Never mind. You enjoy the new spyware experience.
Modern cars are not just shit, they are tasty food for squirrels:
Suburban man says squirrels after plant-based parts caused $30K in damage to 3 cars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BObxowpbGFk&t=25s
I bought a speed aluminum floor jack from Harbor Freight, I have it stored outside in a metal file cabinet, the rat chewed off most of the foam rubber on the jack handle.
When corporations fill their organizations with people based on ideological alignment instead of merit and competence, expect sharply falling quality of decision-making and product.
Like a cancer, it eats through the body of the company until it withers into nothing.
RIP
The list is long, it could get longer, just wait until interest rates go up more.
List of defunct automobile manufacturers of the United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_automobile_manufacturers_of_the_United_States
During Covid, the Fed panicked, it jacks the M1 money supply overnight by a whopping 16 trillion. Here is the chart:
https://i.imgur.com/gUUoM48.png
This is like putting gasoline on the smoldering inflation fire, eventually such a huge increase in money is going to ignite inflation on a scale never witnessed in the United States.
It may be starting now. All the Fed funds rate decrease talk has been abandoned, the Fed talk is raising rates to combat increasing inflation.
Government auto bailouts have had their predictive effects, companies which should of went bankrupt are going to go bankrupt anyways, at a huge cost to the taxpayers. Chrysler has been hanging on by a thread, it is easy to see Dodge and Chrysler disappearing when gasoline goes to $10 a gallon and T-bonds going back to 7-8%.
People have no idea what a bad omen it was when gold shot up in the past year to $5000, it means oil/gasoline will follow.
You said: what is the ratio of gold to gasoline, and what price should gasoline be now?
“The current retail ratio is roughly 1,365 to 1,437 gallons of gasoline per ounce of gold, which is historically highly distorted. Historically, a stable, healthy relationship places the value of one ounce of gold closer to 100 to 220 gallons of retail gasoline.
If gasoline prices were to re-align with its strict historical baseline relative to gold, retail gasoline would need to cost between $14.00 and $31.00 per gallon”
Here is the famous “megaphone” T-Note chart I have been promoting for about a decade. The chart tells you a story, since the creation of the Federal Reserve, interest rates have gone unstable.
Note, the background chart was published back in 2017, before interest rates bottomed during Covid in 2020:
https://i.imgur.com/xXM1DvE.png
As soon as the Fed was created (in 1913) it started adding liquidity to a nation that was under the gold standard since inception. By the 1920’s people were giddy from new found wealth of cheap money which was fueling the biggest stock bubble of that time, the Roaring Twenties went bust, during the debt of the bust, the Jew banksters had their installed whore FDR confiscate gold.
Before Orange MIGAturd shabbos goy stooge, Jews had put in FDR to sell us out. FDR stole our gold, (got us into WW2 after promising not to), started Social Security and state welfare.
FDR was a traitor before the Trump traitor. You all really need to figure this out, how we are being played, and why participating in the 4 year humiliation ritual (voting) is demeaning and a waste of your time. Rich Jews are in control of the political masters, they own them, the Jews own and run the media, you are living in a Jewish Simulacrum, one of war, taxes, and megadeath.
Make no mistake what happened, Jews got our gold by a crisis they manufactured, they created the boom with their fiat money then confiscated real money when the bust came along. This was their plan all along. Goyim never figure out how they operate, they do this subterfuge to us at every turn.
Trump will eventually be replaced with another stooge. In the year 2028 the nation will be excited to vote again, for another set of Jew whore clowns who promise you everything but will just proceed with the Jew agenda once elected. While all this is happening, whatever once was Amerika and Amerikan brands like Chrysler, the nation is being rolled over into a grave, every value you have replaced with Jew values of death and destruction.
Now they are merging Israel with US Army. No one is publically saying, you know we ought to kill Trump. Good goyim slaves are not revolting, the God Lobby is cheering them on.
Meh, who cares. After they killed Pontiac and kept Buick (on our dime), I realized that it’s more fun to not be upset but just watch these assholes self immolate.
Well, there is that, Lord James!
Still – for me, a car guy who has worked in the car biz almost all of my adult life – there’s a sadness to all of this. I dislike stupidity, ugliness and destructiveness.
If you take a look from 50,000 feet or so at the trends of the last 20 or 30 years, there’s a lot more sadness coming. The only question: is western civ dying, or will the injection of ‘barbarians’ turn things around?
Don’t kid yourself. You don’t work in the car biz. You work in the propaganda biz.
Hi Billy,
Well, I work for myself – and because I do, I am able to write what I think. You may not agree with what I think – and I may be wrong about things, sometimes. But I’m honest about what I think. To accuse me of “propaganda” is risible.
Propaganda is the systematic spreading of information, ideas, or rumors—whether true, exaggerated, or false—with the deliberate intent to influence public opinion, beliefs, or behaviors.
That definition above is what all journalists do. Propaganda in and of itself is neutral – can be used for good or evil.
Why get your hackles up over a specific word? What is it that you believe you do that doesn’t fall within that definition?
What an unwarranted slur. It that you Gil? Eric provides value in the marketplace of ideas…plus he’s a decent human being.
Don’t understand English and the definition of words?
Bastiat was a propagandist.
Thomas Paine was a propagandist.
Funny how the meaning of words simply doesn’t matter in today’s world. People just driven by blind emotion.
Is it any wonder we are where we are?
Billy,
I’m a professional writer and have been a professional editor, so I think I can reasonably say I am conversant with meaning and usage. Bastiat was a writer, a philosopher; Paine a pamphleteer. “Progaganda” connotes agenda-pushing, with a negative (manipulative) cast. In other words, its usage us essentially derogatory. A good example is Dr. Josef Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda in National Socialist Germany. Contra Goebbels, we might reference any honest expositor of ideas. Emphasis on honest. Goebbels was malicious; his purpose was to mislead. Bastiat was attempting to educate. There is an important distinction there.
Well I stand corrected maybe you are in the car biz and don’t understand the propaganda biz at all.
That’s a shame because the marxists, the environmentalists, and all the others pushing a negative agenda really seem to understand the propaganda biz and use it to their advantage.
It is laughable how you and others here don’t car about labels like racist, antisemite, etc., but use the word propaganda in context and whoa . . . Everyone’s riled up.
Hi Bill,
Actually, I care a great deal about words, their use and their misuse. I regularly write about the latter. You’re new here, so I am guessing you have not read any of these. Here’s one from just a couple of days ago: https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2026/06/02/the-medical-marijuana-grift-2/
‘The Arrow and Arrow Cross are basically re-skinned iterations of the Fiat Grizzly’ — eric
… and are pictured in this article:
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/suvs/grrr-fiat-grizzly-looks-a-big-fat-softie
*YAWN*
For all I know, the Grizzly might be a fine little euro-go-cart. But calling a Fiat a Chrysler?? You’d have to be some kind of deluded fruitcake to imagine that’s even possible.
Death to Stellantis.
I was actually interested in the Hornet. It was such a flop though that I’ve only ever seen a single car in the wild and the CDJR dealer in my town never had one on their lot to go look at.
More crossovers are the last thing needed on Earth.
Hi NW,
Yup. I got to test-drive two of them. They’re not bad little crossovers. But Dodge thinking they could replace the Charger was foolish.
I rented one a year ago for about four days, good little car but yeah, the Dodge brand did not fit.
What is Stellantis hoping to accomplish with this?
Either let it go or make it viable. No point in taking half measures to keep a name alive.
Did y’all catch the puff piece Mary Barr interview? Apparently she’s on a PR tour and has been on multiple stations. Apart from the blathering nonsense, the only thing telling that she needs a refund from her plastic surgeon.
https://youtu.be/ywoqE6qdfYM?si=U6U943zNhQONaxhY
Amen, MH!
Of course, there’s only so much plastic surgery can do. After a certain point, age will have its way.
Yea its obvious her “handlers” are putting her “out there” the last few weeks. Last weekend she was the grand poobah at the Detroit GP and gave the “start your engines” command. I guess the aim was to show us how much of a motorsports enthusiast she is? The look was soooo much the opposite. Mark R has been very off the radar, I’d bet he’s already on the outs.
Perhaps the legendary reliability of Italian engineering will save Chrysler?
Oh, wait… Never mind.
Italian? More like French, there’s precious little left of Fiat technology these days in Stellantis. And the Fiat Grizzly is based on the Stellantis Smart Car platform, rumoured to be developed in India, and the car itself will be made in Morocco (not sure about the Chrysler derivatives).
So, let me get this straight.
Stellantis wanted to sell up up-market Alfa as an everyman Dodge. Now they want to sell the everyman Fiat as an up-market Chrysler.
Only an MBA could come up with that and think it was a good idea.
Mark, your last sentence is priceless and says everything!
I was about to say this. Only an academic, who believes he/she is selling transportation appliances to generic consumers, would think this a good idea. The same kind of smarty, smug academic who believes driving is a privilege and mass transit is a preferred option for Americans.
And no European company has ever “gotten” American cars. We are a vast place where the ability to reliably cruise many hundreds of miles, with the effortless ease of a big torquey V8, is the standard.
Yes, a lot of miles are put on in short driving where smaller, buzzier cars work fine. I always enjoyed my fours and sixes, the occasional five, or two on a bike. But for traveling in America, a V8 has been and remains the sweet spot.
Europeans, whose countries are the size of US states, will never get this.
And a Fiat, sold as a Chtysler? Kill Chrysler now, while she still has some dignity and good memories.
“ But for traveling in America, a V8 has been and remains the sweet spot “
Amen brother! The best road trip was 2015, drove the ‘05 Grand Cherokee from central WA to Sioux Falls SD. In that rig for 10 hour days never tired due to the smooth engine, quiet ride, comfortable seats. That Hemi V8 5.7 even with ‘05 era emissions compliance was a dandy motor. Motoring life would be so nice if the Feds had stopped screwing with mileage and emissions regs right then.
Yep. When I bought my last new vehicle, a 2015 F-150, the salesman tried every way possible to convince me the V-6 was preferable in every way. I was having none of it – I’m a V-8 man, and that’s what I drive today. It’s still a great truck.
Got that same pitch when buying a Grand Cherokee V8. Know-nothing dealer employee told me the six is more economical … which I knew already.
What kind of loser ‘sales’ person tries to talk a customer out of the product he already decided on? Probably one that has his own agenda.
I’ve always tended toward small, nimble manual transmission cars. However, I own an ’06 F150 SuperCrew with 6.5′ bed. It’s glorious on interstates pulling a trailer. My only other foray into V8s was a ’76 Olds Delta 88. You could land an ultra-light on the hood. That was the best highway car I ever owned. The wife hated driving it so we traded it on an ’86 GTI which she loved for over a quarter million miles.