Chrysler looking for partners for mid-size car
Chrysler's Project D is in full swing, and the automaker has targeted an end-of-winter date for its decision on how to proceed. As a refresher, Chrysler has set up a team consisting of people from every facet of vehicle design and marketing with the goal of coming up with a suitable replacement for the Pentastar's mid-sized Sebring and Dodge Avenger, which we'll charitably describe as non-competitive. Possibilities for their replacements include creating a completely new vehicle architecture in-house or partnering up with another automaker that already has a well-designed sedan that Chrysler could use as a base for its next mid-sizer. Chrysler's not saying, but we've heard that discussions have taken place with Nissan/Renault, Fiat and, lest we forget, possibly even General Motors. According to the most recent reports, the automaker would actually prefer to partner-up on the project. In the mean time, we'd hope that Chrysler can perform a bit of mid-cycle magic on its Sebring and Avenger to make them just a wee bit more palatable.
[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
xspeedy 9:09AM (10/13/2008)
Here comes the Eagle Premier.
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1337 11:44AM (10/13/2008)
I'd forgotten that Eagle ever existed.
Flashpoint 9:13AM (10/13/2008)
If Chrysler could just give you a car as decent as the Honda Accord or the Sonata without charging you more than $30,000 (loaded) they'd be able to pull themselve's out of their hole.
Their problem is, the only cars they got worth a damn is the Chrysler 300 V6 touring and the Town & Country.
They could make a better Pacifica and drop the Aspen entirely.
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elindiano 9:39AM (10/13/2008)
exactly. its easy.
you dont need a focus group to solve this. the work has already been done by honda. just build a car better and cheaper than the accord.
of course, this is chrysler we are talking about.
oh one more thing, it shouldn't look like a donkey's ass.
jv2k 10:11AM (10/13/2008)
Oh please, get your logic out of here.
Consumers are fickle and dislike chrysler products for no reason at all. The only way to fix the problem is to use another companies superior platform and rebadge it.
Gary 1:09PM (10/13/2008)
It seems that as soon as the media and bloggers made one peep about the Sebring being awful, all the yes-men came out of the woodwork and started agreeing.
The Sebring isn't really THAT bad. It looks as much as a donkey's ass as the new Accord or RL.
A&W 9:23AM (10/13/2008)
At this point anything they do is probably a bonus. They could bring back the LX platform and get better reviews than they are getting with the current car, and save a lot of money too. Like SEAT did with the Audi A4. http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/03/paris-2008-strike-previous-gen-audi-a4-strike-seat-exeo/
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Crackberry Addict 9:36AM (10/13/2008)
isn't the LX platform the 300/charger platform? so what ru talking about?
xspeedy 9:50AM (10/13/2008)
I think he means the cab forward cars (Dodge Intrepid, Chrysler Concord...)
TJ 10:26AM (10/13/2008)
Repeat after me:
LH - 300M, LHS, Concord, Intrepid
LX - 300, 300C, Magnum, Charger
LY - Future of the LX.
JA - 1st gen cloud cars
JX - 1st gen cloud convert.
JR - 2001-06 strat/sebr.
Judy Zik 1:10PM (10/13/2008)
Problem #1 as everyone else has pointed out it is the LH platform you are talking about.
Problem #2 the LH platform (Intrepid, 300M) is one size too big. It is a large car platform.
Problem #3 It was good for it's day when it came out in 1993 but was a bit long in the tooth by the end in 2004. In 2010 it would be even less competitive than the Sebring.
Problem #4 It is not like they can just flip a switch and restart the building of a 5 year old product. That plant (Brampton) has moved on to building the LX cars and it is doubtful that they have all the LH dies sitting around in a warehouse. Not to mention the parts suppliers. So you would be looking at building a whole new vehicle and fresh production setup at another plant anyway. It would be different if someone had wanted to do this at the time they were discontinuing the LH cars.
The end result is it would be cheaper to improve the Sebring that they have in production than retool and restart the production of a car that is 5 years out of production.
The next model will probably be a rebadge of someone else's if Chrysler is still around then. Which seems doubtful. Cerberus is trying to off load them by any means possible. My bet would be Nissan/Renault will buy them and either kill the Sebring or make the next one a rebadge of one of their platforms.
P.V. 5:41PM (10/13/2008)
I don't think you understand.
The LX platform is CURRENTLY in use for the CURRENT 300/Charger.
A&W 9:54AM (10/13/2008)
It is not technically the same platform. It is true Charger/300 replaced the LX but they are different platforms. Also true that the LX platform is not currently underpinning any vehicles, but the engineering is done. Charger/300/Challenger are rear wheel drive, the LXs were front. Read the article that is linked to my comment. SEAT is a subsidiary of VW/Audi. They could not afford to build a car from scratch so they used the previous generation Audi A4 platform to create the SEAT Exeo. What I am talking about is Chrysler could use the LX platform to create a replacement for the Sebring and/or Avenger.
Ryan Jackson 9:50AM (10/13/2008)
I agree with Flashpoint. They make a good mid-sized car and make it reliable for about 18,500 then they will be in sweet bliss. I really think they should TRY and bring back the successful Intrepid, 300M, Concorde platform but it may be to late for that! At another blog I was reading someone else post and they were saying that they should bring back the Eagle and Plymouth division why would they do that?
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Quattroporte 9:58AM (10/13/2008)
"They make a good mid-sized car and make it reliable for about 18,500..."
You should clarify, reliable for 18,500 miles or $18,500.
tanooki2003 10:18AM (10/13/2008)
That would be the LHS platform, not the LX
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TJ 10:33AM (10/13/2008)
LHS was the name of a vehicle built on the LH platform.
A&W 10:19PM (10/13/2008)
OK. Ok. Ok. I muffed up the LX/LH thing. Turns out the whole premise is out dated as mentioned as well, so I stunk up the place today, my apologies to all. I guess a little Wiki work was in order there.
cxv 10:51AM (10/13/2008)
Replace the current Sebring with the new Renault Laguna.
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Torrent 11:00AM (10/13/2008)
totally look @ Suzuki. Their quality is really surprising- especially in the SX4- and for the price and standard nav, it can't be beat
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