In a revelation which I am sure is shocking to nobody, it seems that possible fuel economy regulations were not necessarily what killed off the Chrysler Imperial. We openly pondered this question in a post a while back after we heard that the program was canceled. Now an article on the Detroit News confirms what many of you probably already were guessing. When Cerberus brought in Wolfgang Bernhard to oversee the company, it did not take him long to see that the Imperial didn't fit into the overall plan of revitalizing the Chrysler Group. On a vehicle with the hopeful profit margins that the Imperial would carry, a hybrid or diesel drivetrain could have been used to raise the fuel economy. Additionally, not enough Imperials would have been sold that even the standard Hemi really would have been a problem, because the mileage requirements apply to the entire fleet of cars sold by any given automaker. One car which sells in low numbers does not spell a death knell for your CAFE numbers. However, given Chrysler's love for the Hemi engine, using it in nearly every vehicle they sell definitely poses a problem. Anyway, don't you wish that automakers would just be honest when it comes to what is going on? Cancel a program because you don't think the car will sell... fine, done.
[Source: Detroit News]
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