Is a Single New Face Enough?

Chrysler has given its Pacifica minivan a facelift for the 2027 model year – but nothing more. More finely, nothing else. Chrysler is the only brand that sells just one model. How much longer will it be able to survive as a brand on that basis?

It is also the last V6 powered Chrysler – which brings us part of the way toward an understanding regarding why there is only one Chrysler left and why it’s not unlikely there will shortly be no more Chrysler.

Until 2023 you could buy a Chrysler sedan – the 300 – with the same 3.6 liter V6 that’s currently under the hood of the Pacifica. The 300C – which came with the 5.7 liter Hemi V8 – was the glamorous version of the 300 that got most of the attention, but it was the 300 with the standard V6 that sold the most. Probably because it had a base price of $34,295 (vs. $46,350 for the C with the Hemi).

Re-read that.

It was a mere three years ago – just barely – that Chrysler sold a large, rear-drive family sedan with a six cylinder engine that compared favorably with a Mercedes E-Class or BMW 5 Series sedan (both of which cost $20,000-plus more to start and come standard with emasculated 2.0 liter four cylinder engines) for about what it costs to buy a four-cylinder powered, FWD Honda Accord sedan today.

Unsurprisingly, the 300 sold very well.

It sold well for nearly 20 years, from 2005 all the way to 2023 and was singlehandedly responsible for resurrecting something that had disappeared: The American luxury car that middle-income Americans could afford.

Before the advent of the rear-drive, V6 standard (and V8 optional) 300 in 2005, the only vehicles on the market that fit that description were expensive European luxury-brand models like the Benz E-Class. Americans – working and middle income Americans – had been pushed into smaller FWD and four cylinder cars by the mid-late ’80s. Put another way, nice things that working and middle income Americans once commonly owned had become luxury items for the relative few who could afford them.

Then along came the 300, which was very similar – in part because it was related. Some will recall that, for a time, Chrysler was partnered with Mercedes (Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes) and on account of that, there was some cross-pollination. The original 300 sedan shared its underlying platform with the Mercedes E-Class, so people who bought a 300 were literally getting a Mercedes – just for a lot less than Mercedes money. When Mercedes (and BMW and Audi) began putting emasculated little fours in their (sic) luxury sedans, Chrysler buyers were getting more – literally.

Chrysler kept the V6 as standard and even offered a V8, something you had to move up to a Benz S-Class or BMW 7 (or one of their ultra performance AMG or M sub-models) to get and in that case, you’d be paying twice as much for one as what a 300 with the V8 cost.

It was a wonderful car. Past tense emphasis.

In the needless tragedy sense.

There was no good reason for Chrysler – for Stellantis, which currently owns Chrysler – to cancel the 300 or the Charger sedan it shared a platform with, because it was popular and making money for Chrysler (and Dodge). But it was also costing Stellantis money – because the V6 and V8 engines “emitted” too much carbon dioxide – as far as regulatory compliance requirements went – and that caused Stellantis to have to pay extortion to Elon Musk (via Tesla) for “carbon credits.” These operate kind of like income taxes in that you’re bled to pay for something you do not want to buy – or subsidize, as in this case. Elon Musk, the rent-seeker par excellence, has raked in billions extorting money from car companies such as Stellantis, thereby forcing them to finance his electric car grift. So-called “legacy” car companies such as Stellantis had to subsidize their government-mandated competition.

The chutzpah of this leaves one sputtering for words.

It was bleeding Stellantis white. Then-CEO Carlos Tavares decided it would cost the company less to stop selling engines – in cars like the 300 and the Charger sedan – and instead sell devices with batteries. Stellantis would be freed from having to fork over billions to Elon Musk as penance for manufacturing vehicles people wanted to buy, like the 300 and the Charger. But as became quickly evident, very few people wanted to buy a Charger that needed to be charged up. Sales cratered from what they had been before and for that reason, plans for Chrysler devices based on the Charger device were cancelled – which is why there’s only one Chrysler – the Pacifica minivan – left manning the fort.

It is a measure of what’s been lost. More precisely, what has been taken away.

It is a distinction that matters.

Maybe – hopefully – there are plans in the works to bring forth a new 300 based on the new Charger sedan, which has an engine again. Arguably, the new inline six that is available in the 2026 Charger would be better-suited in a new 300 because inline sixes are even more appropos in a luxury vehicle. They are smooth and sound wonderful. Both Mercedes and BMW offer them in their premium cars.

Imagine if Chrysler offered something similar – but for $20k less.

It could have the same effect as successfully defibrillating a flat-lined heart-attack victim.

. . .

If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.