You are here:
Auto News >
Gilles: Chrysler done with 'Edge' look, going 'Organic'

Gilles: Chrysler done with 'Edge' look, going 'Organic'

Posted Aug 20th 2008 12:01PM

CommentsAdd

We're already encouraged by the fact that Ralph Gilles has ascended to the top of Chrysler's design department, as the past vehicles penned under his supervision have all been some of Chrysler's best. Say what you want about the reborn 300 now, but when it was first introduced, it's styling set in motion a major tidal wave of accolades and was a fresh direction for Detroit's number 3. The 'Edge' look, as Gilles calls it, though, is getting a bit stale these days and Chrysler needs a new direction -- Sebring anyone? According to the new design chief, ChryCo's new look will be 'Organic', which Gilles says will get "our cars to be sexy again." Remember "cab forward"? That moniker could make a comeback along with the more stylish interiors that Chrysler so desperately needs.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Category: Classics, Trends, Chrysler

Tags: cab forward, CabForward, chrysler design, ChryslerDesign, edge styling, EdgeStyling, organic styling, OrganicStyling, ralph gilles, RalphGilles

Chrysler

2012 Chrysler
Chrysler Sedans
Chrysler Minivans

Chrysler Cars

Add a Comment

Sign in »

59 Comments

Filter by:

Ken X-Chrysler

Actually, regarding the Avenger - it replaced the Dodge Stratus. I have no faith in Chrysler what-so-ever. Ever since the Daimler Chrysler merger, the company has been in the dumper if you ask me. So many good talented people have left, voluntarily and involuntarily.
How else could this guy Gilles be elevated to high so quick? Because he's a yes man. Trevor Creed was no better. I could care less, and I predict Chrysler goes under, or is parted out to other companies, but not until my severance is fully paid!! I'm driving a Cadillac now after 15 years of crummy Chryslers, and Dodges (and a few Jeeps in there too).. Never again!! My dad had to stop for oil twice when he took his last Chrysler to the junkyard in 1964.

September 03 2008 at 2:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Steven Myers

About darn time! Cab forward would be fantastic again!

August 20 2008 at 11:15 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

cray

Looking at the commentary, it looks like the majority of complaints are aimed at Chrysler's interior design. As most have noted it to be cheap looking and bland compared to other high-end American models.

If they really want separate themselves from the pack of interiors they are going to have to step up the quality.

August 20 2008 at 6:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jason

I really hope we see another Dodge Stealth R/T Twin Turbo. Those were great. And the styling was great. Has anyone here read of a new Mitsubishi GTO in the works?

August 20 2008 at 5:22 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Jason's comment

Nightcrawler

While I admit these kind of things seem cool, a Dodge Stealth twin-turbo type car is not going to help them become profitable again. I even wonder if the Challenger was misguided. Don't get me wrong, i love the look and think "I wish I had one of those", but when the time comes to buy a car I won't even be considering it. I'll be buying something more practical like most other people.

August 21 2008 at 4:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

MK275

Chrysler needs to wake up, one of the best production cars of post muscle car era were the LH models. I own a Concorde and with my own personalization I get comments all the time with how great it looks. My only gripe is some of the cheap plastic and the poor fuel economy, I maintain it very well and still manage 17-19 mpg mostly city driving, thats not too great. Otherwise its great, one of the best interiors I've seen in a production car.

Aside from Chrysler's crappy quality issues and the ever famous 2.7 those cars looked great both inside and out. With a better transmission and some more power and better quality the LH cars would have been one of the best selling american cars.

Now lets go forward to the current Chrysler sedans... You have boxy wannabee retro, heavy chunks of metal with cheap plastic interiors that either old people or middle life crisis adults, or the "ballers" would buy and throw some D's on that cheap junk.

Now Chrysler is starting to grow a brain, people like sleek modern looking sedans, not boxy heavy sedans with cheap interiors and poor fuel economy. If they could bring back the LH and add todays design standards, they would still be hot sellers, well that is if they can make the cars not so heavy and improve fuel economy which Chrysler just isn't good at.

August 20 2008 at 4:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

A&W

The Nassau concept would be a good direction for the 300C. Something more organic than this would be too big of a change. The Cab-Forward look was cool and I would not mind seeing it again, just not on the 300 and its platform mates. http://www.autoblog.com/2006/12/28/chrysler-nassau-concept-ready-to-go-for-detroit/

August 20 2008 at 3:54 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to A&W's comment

azzo45

No it would NOT! That concept uses "edge" design that Ralph says has played itself out

August 21 2008 at 11:53 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

300Kid

The front end of the Nassau would look cool as the front of the new 300 or a smaller car perhaps (Sebring?). Especially now that LED headlights are FINALLY coming into regular use, they can make it look similar to that. The downside to the Nassau is, to me anyway, that aside from the front end it's boring. It's also not a true sedan, it's a wagon/hatch thing which is probably not what Chrysler needs since historically those don't sell very well.

August 21 2008 at 10:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Iridium

The problem with "edge" styling is you can only do so much with it. However it is a very American style and looks good for American cars.

The 300 is one of the best looking american sedans of the past 30 years because it looks like a proper american sedan. While the 300M and others from the previous generation looked good in shwo trim they never looked all that good on the road. The proportions of the cars were just off.

The problem with organic styling is that if one element is off it throws off the entire design. When I think of sexy design I think of european cars from Alfa and Lotus. Sexy organic design just doesn't play well with a car that is meant to be a volume seller, or a $14k econocar.

The current 300 is a design you just can't do much to unless you change the entire look of the car. I'm sure that is why they want to change the design direction of the company. Designing a followup 300 has been giving the designers fits. They just can't change it without it looking like a mild refresh. Still there is a place for the car just like the PT. If you change it it has to be a different car.

Also say what you will about the Sebring but it isn't a bad looking car. There are very nice design elements and far more desing than you find on a Camry. Problem is that it is built on a compact platform and trying to be sold in a full size market segment.

August 20 2008 at 3:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

snakecharmer

@tanooki
The problem is not with the 300c, it sells just fine. The profit problem comes with the rest of Chrysler's lineup and theres not much there besides Jeeps, Trucks and SUV's. They're all very good, but Chrysler needs to have a broader portfolio, and adjust production of the vehicles as needed. Do not dilute the cars.
You wan't people to become attached to the brand through unique and superior products, even if you sell less cars you will sell them at higher margins i.e. Bmw etc.. Chrysler has found a niche with these cars and i'm pretty sure the 300c is their only car that they even have a margin on any more, the rest have to be given away, like I said not everyone wants a lexus/ camry lookalike or a lame ass intrepid..

August 20 2008 at 2:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

300Kid

This info. was in a press release back in like April in "Chrysler Magazine" which I receive as an owner. There was at least half a page dedicated to everything they had done wrong with the interiors and how they're correcting it.

I have to say though, I hope cab-forward doesn't come back. At least not for Chrysler itself. Dodge needs a good line of FWD cars to battle the compacts & midsizers from everyone else. Chrysler should go all RWD & AWD and battle Caddy, Lincoln, Lexus & now the Hyundai Gensis. I had a 300M and I always remember feeling it would've been perfect if it were rwd. My current 300 drives far better. The 300M wasn't even supposed to be a Chrysler, it was supposed to be the Eagle Vision replacement, which is why elements like the headlights were inspired by the Eagle Jazz concept. At least the current 300 looks like a real 300 (like a '57) and the Chronos concept.

Chrysler needs to follow the same formula as the Japanese. Let buyers start at Dodge and graduate to a Chrysler, the same way Honda buyers go for an Acura, Toyota to Lexus, etc. Something that is seemingly harder (more expensive) to have is more attractive. It eliminates blatant model overlap. And none of those upscale brands would be caught dead w/fwd or cabforward (they leave that for CamCords). Think about it, Chrysler!

August 20 2008 at 2:43 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to 300Kid's comment

azzo45

Chrysler will NEVER be Acura... keep dreaming!

Chrysler/ Dodge dumped cab forward because they said the public wanted "something new"... then how come Honda picked up the "old" cab forward look on their cars? Its working just fine for them

Chrysler's continued crap-tastic quality & cheap interiors, killed cab forward... They have always seduced people with attractive & new design themes. They lost people when the poor quality/ cheap materials wasn't worth living with any longer. Other car companies adopted their design philosophy (& wrapped it up with a better engineered platform).

August 21 2008 at 9:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

300Kid

Firstly, I never said Chrysler "would be Acura". All I'm saying is they need an upscale brand (Chrysler) a fighter for the Japanese and Korean mainstream names (Dodge) and Jeep can keep doing its thing. The only thing stopping them from doing it is your kind of thinking. Look at the extreme product overlap (and look how badly that's working for the Lincoln & Mercury branches at Ford). It's almost essential that they do it! What also works just fine for Toyota, Nissan and Honda is that hey have upscale brands (why do you think Hyundai considered following in their lead?) Ideally: Chrysler itself would be a lower volume brand with more exclusive models (no stupid minivans or PT Cruisers). Unlike say Hyundai, they already have a name with a long heritage (scarred as it may be). So there's no expense in doing that. Dodge would be the volume player battling Honda, Toyota & Chevy. All they need is one really great RWD platform for 2 or 3 Chrysler cars (and maybe some alternative fuel model) and one really great FWD platform for all of Dodges models (from small cars to minivans and crossovers, just like Nissan does it) + the trucks for what little market there is left. Plus all of this would work now that all 3 brands are at the same dealers, since there'd be very little model overlap - unlike now (which is partly why they're eliminating certain models)

I don't see how Chrysler's "crap-tastic quality" and "cheap interiors" had anything to do with the demise of cab-forward. Those cars weren't any better than the LX's they preceded, in fact they were much worse in many ways including quality & saftey (and their interiors weren't that great either - trust me I had a 300M and grew up being carted around in an LHS). And, even without incentives, Honda/Toyota still outsold them before they copied cab-forward.

The LX's have been extremely successful for Chrysler, there's room for improvement, sure, and I have total confidence we'll see that improvement with the new models around 2010. Reread my original post please.

August 21 2008 at 10:10 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

J. D. Billiford

>>> It looks as though Chrysler has picked the right man for the job.

August 20 2008 at 2:22 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply