9/25/2009

Fiat, the new parent to Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler, wants to shuffle the brands and bring Chrysler up-market. Fiat also plans to set paths for the Dodge and Jeep brands, including possibly adding a new “Ram” brand for trucks.

Peter Fong, CEO of the Chrysler brand and head of sales for the trio of divisions recently talked to Automotive News about the new strategy. He envisions Chrysler to be “a notch above Cadillac,” seeing the Chrysler brand as a new high-end luxury contender.

According to Fong, the first step would be to eliminate shared vehicles, also known as rebadging, across the company brands. Initially, it would appear that either the Dodge Avenger or the Chrysler Sebring would head to the graveyard.

In the new plan, the Chrysler brand would head up market and compete with other luxury automakers such as cross-town rival Cadillac, and the Dodge brand would focus on creating sporty cars, emphasizing driving dynamics and performance. With the Dodge brand going the sports-car route, this leaves the Ram truck and other SUVs in question, but Fiat Group brass have hinted at using the name “Ram” as a new brand name for trucks and possibly SUVs.

Dodge’s CEO, Michael Accavitti, used the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger as good examples of cars sharing the same platform but having completely different goals, one focusing on style and luxury, and the other focusing on performance.

Lastly is the Jeep brand, which hasn’t changed much over the last decade, and according to Michael Manley, brand chief at Jeep, it won’t change much for the next decade either. The Jeep suspensions are notoriously outdated compared to its competitors, so we hope that Fiat keeps a little R&D money available to Jeep to refresh its lineup that has become an icon for offroading.

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