The heyday of Chrysler seems lengthy gone.
A sequence of mergers has turned the once-ubiquitous Chrysler Company into a chunk of the bigger Euro-American automaker Stellantis. As soon as a comparatively diversified model, with sedans, SUVs and even a convertible, Chrysler now has solely two fashions, each of them totally different variations of the identical minivan.
The Chrysler model offered practically 600,000 automobiles in 2005. In 2024, it offered fewer than 125,000 — an 80% decline in twenty years.
“Chrysler as a model has been very, very, underinvested in for a lot of, a few years now,” mentioned Ed Kim, president and chief analyst of AutoPacific, an automotive advertising analysis and product-consulting agency.
In July 2024, Stellantis mentioned it could think about killing manufacturers that weren’t making a living.
That alarmed Frank Rhodes Jr., a descendant of Walter P. Chrysler, who based the corporate in 1925.
“The CEO mentioned that they had been going to presumably dump some manufacturers that weren’t performing,” Rhodes mentioned. “And I would heard that earlier than and I simply mentioned, ‘I’ve had sufficient.'”
In August, Rhodes proposed placing collectively an investor group to buy the Chrysler and Dodge manufacturers from Stellantis.
However the firm mentioned none of its manufacturers are on the market.
“I feel he was planting a seed or making a suggestion that if the intention was to not put money into Chrysler or Dodge going ahead, that maybe one other path could possibly be an investor group buying the manufacturers from Stellantis and ensuring that they stay on for the long run,” mentioned Chrysler model CEO Christine Feuell. “However I can guarantee you that each manufacturers have a extremely vivid future within the Stellantis portfolio.”
It is not the primary time there have been rumors of Chrysler’s demise. Experiences the model is on the chopping block have surfaced many instances earlier than.
“Chrysler model is right here to remain,” Feuell mentioned. “It’s being effectively invested in. The model is just not on the desk for elimination, and it has a really vivid future.”
This future features a new model of its minivan, which as of January 2025 was its solely automobile, offered below two names. The Voyager is the lower-priced mannequin, and the Pacifica is a extra premium choice. A refreshed Pacifica is slated for 2026, with a brand new exterior design and new powertrain choices.
Chrysler can also be planning to launch a big SUV and a coupe or sedan based mostly on the Halcyon idea it unveiled in 2024.
It may’t come quickly sufficient for followers of the model, together with Rhodes.
“I do know there’s individuals on the market that need to carry this model, these manufacturers again, and so they should be saved,” he mentioned. “It is a part of our American heritage.”
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