Home » The New Dodge Charger Cannot Fail Or Stellantis Will Have Another Lost Brand

The New Dodge Charger Cannot Fail Or Stellantis Will Have Another Lost Brand

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The new Dodge Charger will be showing up on the internet on Tuesday morning, and it’s a huge deal for Stellantis, which finds itself with far too many brands undergoing identity crises. Dodge is on the verge of becoming one of those brands, which is why there is simply no room for failure of the new Dodge Charger. It has to succeed, because it is the Dodge brand.

You may have read in the news last week that Stellantis killed off the “Wagoneer” brand, and will roll the models into the Jeep lineup. The Detroit News quoted Jeep Brand CEO Antonio Filosa and wrote about why Jeep is giving up on “Wagoneer”:

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“We understood that the story about the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer was not a very fluent story. So we want to give more fluency to that,” said Filosa, on Friday from the Stellantis U.S. headquarters in Auburn Hills.

[…]

Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, which are assembled at Stellantis’ Warren Truck Assembly north of Detroit, were the company’s attempt at a premium and luxury sub-brand. On Friday, Filosa made clear that effort is dead and the two high-end SUVs will be “converging” into the Jeep brand, long considered one of the most valuable names in the automotive industry.

I get what Jeep was trying to do with the Wagoneer brand — basically offer a brand like Land Rover’s upscale “Range Rover” — but that Range Rover brand earned its reputation over decades, and it offered an SUV that was truly novel in its day. It was early to the luxo-SUV craze, and that made it a household name. Was creating a brand based on a 30 year-old name and two body-on-frame SUVs that are not that different than a Cadillac Escalade really going to work for Stellantis? Maybe over time, and with a few more models, it could have gained traction. Maybe.

Regardless, let’s forget about Wagoneer, as there’s more trouble in the Stellantis brand-verse. Look at Chrysler:

Screen Shot 2024 03 04 At 11.09.26 Pm

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The brand offers one car.

Yes, the entire brand consists of a single vehicle  in either gas or plug-in hybrid form. That’s it. Chrysler is the Pacifica.

Now let’s look at Ram’s lineup:

Screen Shot 2024 03 04 At 11.10.53 Pm

The offerings amount to, basically, just a couple of models. There are some pickup trucks (1500, 1500 Classic, and the heavy duty trucks) and there’s a van.

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In my eyes, and in many folks’ eyes, the Ram brand is weak even 15 years after it spun off of Dodge back in 2009. Sure, the trucks still sell in huge numbers, but let’s be honest: Most folks are still calling these Dodge Rams.

That “Ram” is the brand name and the model is just a boring number shared with Chevy — “1500” or “2500” — is so absurdly silly that the general public hasn’t really gotten a grip on the whole naming convention. In fact, I recently saw a car journalist in the secret “Automotive Media Professionals” Facebook group write this post:

Really MotorTrend? Dodge?! It’s been Ram for more than a decade and yes the post they reference is the new 2025 Ram 1500 first drive. They have it right in the title within this newsletter.

This was in reference to Motor Trend’s newsletter, which apparently came out at about the same time as the new Ram 1500 reviews hit the web:

Screen Shot 2024 03 04 At 11.26.24 Pm

 

The journalist writing the post on the Facebook page seemed to think that Motor Trend was calling the Ram 1500 a Dodge. This led to a whole discussion among auto media professionals about the Ram brand. Here are a few quotes:

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I always thought that the RAM brand name was a dumb idea. Like, why?
15 years after the creation of the Ram brand, literally everyone outside of automotive (and some in automotive) still call these trucks Dodge. They could change the name back to Dodge and no one would notice because they have been Dodges all along to every layperson. Even owners do, since they went to a dealer selling Dodges to get their Rams.
At cnet we would put Dodge in the url of Ram articles for SEO.

It’s the least successful name change since Navistar

Clearly they didn’t learn a thing from 20+ years of Imperials not being Chrysler models. I still think it was foolish to spin off Ram. Combined Dodge+Ram sales for CY23 would have put it in the top 10. And it would have given Stellantis two brands in the top 10, something GM and Ford couldn’t claim.

I still call it a Dodge Ram when talking about the Chevy Silverado and Ford F-150. If I say F-150 and Silverado I never say Dodge. But if I’m using the brand and model then I pretty much always slip and say Dodge Ram.
Plus, let’s be real: it should still be the Dodge Ram.
Yes, the Ram brand — like Chrysler and Wagoneer — is weak. Spinning it off of Dodge still seems silly, not just because “Dodge Ram” clearly has lots of staying power that should be leveraged but also because having an entire brand based on essentially just a couple models (a van and various version of the full-size pickup) is absurd.
Stellantis clearly knows about this to some degree. If you hop over to Dodge’s website, you’ll see — right at the bottom of the “all vehicles” pull-down — a link for Ram Trucks:
Screen Shot 2024 03 04 At 11.45.22 Pm
Like Wagoneer, Chrysler, and (to a lesser extent) Ram (and Fiat, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo, if we’re being honest; though I don’t have time to get into those), Dodge is on the verge of losing itself. As recently as 2016 it offered a Dart small sedan, a relatively-fresh Durango big-SUV, a Charger sedan, a Challenger coupe, a Caravan minivan, a Journey small SUV, and a Viper supercar. That’s a pretty damn extensive lineup — still not at the level of, say, Toyota, Ford, or Chevy, but that’s a pretty solid range of offerings.

But let’s fast forward to early 2024, and Dodge literally only has two cars in production:

1. Dodge Durango

2. Dodge Hornet
That’s all! There’s the Durango, which has been out since the 2011 model year (14 years!), there’s the Dodge Hornet (whose owners have been struggling with all sorts of issues that one might expect of a car sharing an Alfa Romeo platform), and now here comes the Charger, for which Stellantis put out a press release yesterday titled “Dodge Set to Reveal Brand’s Next-generation Charger Muscle Car.” That press release describes the Dodge brand thusly:

For more than 100 years, the Dodge brand has carried on the spirit of brothers John and Horace Dodge. Their influence continues today as Dodge shifts into high gear with a lineup that delivers unrivaled performance in each of the segments where they compete.

Dodge drives forward as a pure performance brand, offering SRT Hellcat versions of the Dodge Challenger, Dodge Charger and Dodge Durango, as well as an R/T performance hybrid version of the all-new Dodge Hornet, representing the brand’s first-ever electrified performance vehicle. Dodge delivers the drag-strip dominating 807-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock; the 797-horsepower Dodge Charger SRT Redeye, the most powerful and fastest mass-produced sedan in the world; and the 710-horsepower Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat, the most powerful SUV ever; and best-in-class standard performance in the compact utility vehicle segment with the Dodge Hornet. Combined, these four muscle vehicles make Dodge the industry’s most powerful brand, offering more horsepower than any other American brand across its entire lineup.

Look at all of those references to the now-dead Charger and Challenger, and you’ll see what I mean by my headline. Especially after the death of the Viper and other models, Dodge built pretty much its entire brand-identity on that L-car platform, and now the L-car platform is gone. So you can see how, if Dodge wants the world to see it as a performance brand, the new Charger simply cannot fail, or else Dodge will fall into the same spiral facing Chrysler, Ram, Wagoneer, Alfa, Fiat, and Maserati.
The old-boned Durango — even “the most powerful SUV ever” SRT Hellcat version — and the slow-selling and fast-breaking Hornet — with its “best-in-class standard performance” (whatever the hell that means) — aren’t enough to prop Dodge up as a “performance” brand. You can surround that Hornet with all the V8 Chargers and Challengers in the world, but you’re not fooling anyone:

It has to be the Charger that rightens this listing ship. And the good news is that every indication of what the new Charger will be looks fairly promising. Here’s the Charger Daytona SRT concept car from 2022:
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300010172 10160209511969485 5746094724705742088 N
300203336 10160209512014485 8428457213776960758 N
The new Charger will be a high-horsepower EV, though Car and Driver states that a gasoline version may also be on the horizon. So it sounds like Dodge might hedge its bets on powertrain offerings, a move that I think will please many old-school “gasoline or bust” folks.
I thought the Daytona concept car looked great, but I also mentioned in my article when that concept car story broke back in 2022 that I had concerns about Dodge of all brands going EV, especially given how Dodge markets itself as a rough-and-tumble, loud machine. From my review:
Dodge is in a bit of a pickle. The brand has built its name, in part, on raucously loud, powerful internal combustion engines, and now has to pivot to electric propulsion like the rest of the industry. Many of the brand’s customers are EV skeptics, believing that the only proper engine for a motor car is the V8. I don’t fault them for this; V8s are great. (And, to be fair, many people outside of Dodge’s customer base are are EV skeptics). But getting those skeptics onboard with Dodge’s new EV direction is going to be tricky, and it seems Dodge’s strategy is to acknowledge those customers’ skepticism, commiserate a bit, and then use that commiseration to build trust that gets customers to buy into electrification. At least, that’s what the strategy looks like to me based on this quote from Dodge’s CEO Tim Kuniskis, who showed off the new Daytona concept at the company’s annual drag race-filled event on Detroit’s fabled Woodward Avenue:
““We didn’t ask for the rules to change. We didn’t want them to change, but they did. And we can try to outrun them, but that would be a nine second pass straight into extinction. Or we can do what we did: read their rules. Study their rules. Find their gray areas, then unleash the Banshee. Trust me, this is not the EV they want you to have. This is the way Dodge does EVs.”
Will absurd acceleration and artificial sound have the same effect as a revving gas engine? Will the alleged gas variant offer the same thrill as a Hemi V8 (which we know won’t be sticking around)? Will the new Charger be significantly more expensive than the outgoing one, which brought lots of loud and ferocious horses to the masses for cheap? Who knows.
The Smoke Will Clear On March 5 — That’s The Date Dodge Is Set To Electrify Performance Lovers Around The Word With The Reveal Of The Brand’s All New, Groundbreaking Dodge Charger Muscle Car. The Global Debut Of The Next Era Of Dodge Muscle Can Be Viewed Online At Dodge.com On March 5, 2024, Starting At 11 A.m. Et.
The smoke will clear on March 5 — that’s the date Dodge is set to electrify performance lovers around the word with the reveal of the brand’s all-new, groundbreaking Dodge Charger muscle car. The global debut of the next era of Dodge muscle can be viewed online at dodge.com on March 5, 2024, starting at 11 a.m. ET.
To be sure, there are (apparently) future products that will come later (maybe a Stealth?), so it’s not like Dodge couldn’t re-find an identity should something somehow go wrong with the Charger debut. It’s also worth mentioning that these issues of brand identity aren’t unique to Stellantis. You could argue that Ford’s Lincoln and GM’s Buick and Cadillac brands have been “lost” for decades. I’m hoping Dodge stays away from that company.

We’ll have a better idea at 11 A.M. Eastern time on Tuesday, when every car site (including this one) out there publishes its “first look” at the new Charger.

Images: Stellantis

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Matt Gasper
Matt Gasper
8 months ago

“Trust me, this is not the EV they want you to have.”

This alone makes me want the Charger to fail.

D-dub
D-dub
8 months ago
Reply to  Matt Gasper

It’s a total bullseye for their target demographic though.

Vanillasludge
Vanillasludge
8 months ago

If you can Dodge a wrench you can Dodge a dodgeball.

I have read the word “Dodge” so many times that it now is just a sound.

Spectre6000
Spectre6000
8 months ago

Two car lineup? All I see is an I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-a-minivan and a cute-ute. Zero cars.

Jj
Jj
8 months ago

Can this succeed?

Who is this for? It’s going to be an EV with the look and quality of the outgoing Charger. It’s new tech from a company not very good at that (see Hornet).

Are they planning to drag Hellcat shoppers reluctantly to EVs, or do they think there’s a huge un-tapped market of people who really wanted terrible expanses of bad plastic trim and a chassis that remembers the first Iraq war but only if it had electric propulsion?

I am shopping for cars. I am looking at this segment. I doubt I will even bother looking at the Dodge website in the process.

MaximillianMeen
MaximillianMeen
8 months ago
Reply to  Jj

Well, in the sea of EV CUVs, sedans, and hatchbacks, a big, ridiculous, overpowered, muscle-coupe EV certainly stands out. I personally would be very interested if it manages to avoid being over-priced and under-engineered (yeah, I know, it totally will be both of those).

Jj
Jj
8 months ago

Will it really? We’ve had 2 second 0-60 EVs for a while now.

Those tend to have nice interior spaces – so there’s a place the Charger can / will stand out.

Maybe things work out differently, but feel like a used Model S is a safer reliability bet than a new first model year Charger. As a non-stan it hurts me to think this.

MaximillianMeen
MaximillianMeen
8 months ago
Reply to  Jj

I’m not saying it will standout performance-wise to the likes of the Model S plaid or Rimac, but simply by being a 2-door/4 passenger body style that should at least terrorize average ICE equipped muscle in the 1/4 mile.

Jj
Jj
8 months ago

This is what Teslas have been doing for a decade.

Pupmeow
Pupmeow
8 months ago
Reply to  Jj

True, but due to marketing/emotional reasons, I am guessing the overlap between people who would buy a Tesla and people who would buy a Dodge is very small.

Jj
Jj
8 months ago
Reply to  Pupmeow

So is the overlap of people who would buy any electric car and people who would buy a Dodge.

Pupmeow
Pupmeow
7 months ago
Reply to  Jj

Ha, I agree and I should have added more to my comment. I was just referring to what Dodge marketing is going for here, not necessary what I think they will be successful in achieving.

Jj
Jj
7 months ago
Reply to  Pupmeow

I don’t know if the people Dodge marketing expects to reach really exist in numbers large enough for their sales.

I think pricing will be a big factor. If the Hornet is any indicator, I doubt they will be where they need to be for this to work.

Gary Lynch
Gary Lynch
8 months ago

Back in the day, Iacocca wanted to kill the “Dodge Ram” marketing campaign. Ram tough, for those old enough to remember. But consultants said no, it was still getting attention.

Insert heavy sigh.

agree, to me the trucks are still Dodge. And Ram always seems stupid.

Huja Shaw
Huja Shaw
8 months ago

Shitty branding and a limited selection of long-in-the-tooth cars . . .

Rollin Hand
Rollin Hand
8 months ago

You know, seeing how Stellantis is running things, I am starting to see why David left Jeep and moved into automotive journalism.

Totally not a robot
Totally not a robot
8 months ago
Reply to  Rollin Hand

Sadly enough, Stellantis is the only thing that can make automotive journalism seem stable with upward growth.

Jj
Jj
8 months ago
Reply to  Rollin Hand

He chose to leave? I assumed there was an incident.

I figured he was removing drain holes from the body tooling to encourage his beloved rust.

Canopysaurus
Canopysaurus
8 months ago

The Hornet, Durango and Charger: that’s it for once mighty Dodge Talk about putting all your dregs in one gasket …

Ranwhenparked
Ranwhenparked
8 months ago

What would have helped is if they had given the pickups a new collective model name back in ’09, called them the Ram R-Series or something, with the R1500, R2500, etc

Still would have had trouble winning public acceptance, but it would have had an easier time establishing itself at least. They turned the model name into the brand name and never came up with a new model name to slot in underneath, the spin off job was only ever half finished.

V10omous
V10omous
8 months ago
Reply to  Ranwhenparked

Yeah, this led to an awkward year or two of the “Ram Dakota”.

Uninformed Fucknugget
Uninformed Fucknugget
8 months ago
Reply to  Ranwhenparked

This would have been so easy to implement by looking to the old dodge trucks.

D150-two wheel drive half ton
W150- 4×4 half ton

Ecsta C3PO
Ecsta C3PO
8 months ago
Reply to  Ranwhenparked

Absolutely, they were never serious about RAM as a standalone brand because of that.
Essentially 1 model with different trim packages, named the exact same as before and sold in the same place.

Imagine if Honda tried that with the Civic but still named all the models R, Si, EX, etc.

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
8 months ago

I wonder if it might end up being the F-150 Lightning of the Dodge lineup.

As in, everyone will agree it’s cool, innovative, and “the way forward,” but once the dust settles (the charge dissipates?), it’ll turn out that buyers aren’t necessarily going to camp out overnight in line to get one.

Nsane In The MembraNe
Nsane In The MembraNe
8 months ago
Reply to  Jack Trade

I think that’s a spot on assessment. It’ll be interesting and move the ball down the playing field but I imagine that it’ll wind up being too expensive like all EVs are, which will take some wind out of its sails. Add in the fact that I don’t think the core audience that buys the L platform is super excited about EVs (to put it lightly) and I’m just not sure who this is for.

I’m not sure if they’re at the point that emissions have forced this to be a BEV, but if they haven’t I also think that going in this direction was needlessly bold. If they could have gotten away with starting with the straight 6 and maybe offering a hybrid I think it would be better received…especially considering automotive journalists are absolutely heaping praise on the Hurricane right now.

I just don’t see this ending well. But who knows…someone has to take swings at injecting personality into EVs or car enthusiasm will wind up on life support. Maybe Dodge is about to pull it off. We’ll see.

V10omous
V10omous
8 months ago

I’m not sure if they’re at the point that emissions have forced this to be a BEV

I doubt it, simply because the Charger doesn’t sell that many units compared to Jeeps, Rams, etc.

My somewhat cynical take is that the real purpose of showing the I6 + hybrid off as a performance engine in the Charger is mostly to increase Ram sales/take away the sting of discontinuing the Hemi there.

Tim R
Tim R
8 months ago
Reply to  Jack Trade

How many legacy Charger buyers are in the market for an more expensive all-electric version? I don’t understand why they didn’t keep around the gas ones. Just refresh the existing one a bit, maybe add a hybrid at some point and keep printing money.

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
8 months ago

I have no idea where Stellantis thinks rednecks are going to plug in their cars.
Gramma’s old house in the woods already shorts out when the microwave and the dryer are on at the same time.

Jj
Jj
8 months ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

If you knew anything about rednecks, you’d know there is no functioning dryer.

Turbeaux
Turbeaux
8 months ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

I’ve honestly had this same thought. There’s no way my electrical panel can handle adding a 240v circuit, and if I hired an electrician, he’d want to rewire the entire house.

I have mostly gas appliances. Is there a natural gas car charger?

Last edited 8 months ago by Turbeaux
No Kids, Just Bikes
No Kids, Just Bikes
7 months ago
Reply to  Turbeaux

No, but the house backup is on a diesel generator. Plug in to that. Green.

Is there a natural gas car charger?

Marty Densch
Marty Densch
8 months ago

“We understood that the story about the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer was not a very fluent story. So we want to give more fluency to that,”

Wow! Taking PR gobbledygook to breathtaking new levels.

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
8 months ago
Reply to  Marty Densch

Ha! The way I read it was “you morons didn’t understand what we were doing…we were trying to give you a ‘lifestyle’ you could be proud of. So FINE it’s a Jeep again, now will you buy one?!”

Pit-Smoked Clutch
Pit-Smoked Clutch
8 months ago
Reply to  Jack Trade

“At that price, I thought you wanted me to buy two.”

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
8 months ago

My father was a dyed in the wool, OG Wagoneer owner/fan from the days of fake wood paneling and SUVs just being called “trucks.” He was initially excited when he heard the new one was coming out, but when the price tag was revealed, he was aghast.

Last edited 8 months ago by Jack Trade
PlatinumZJ
PlatinumZJ
8 months ago
Reply to  Marty Densch

A vision board would have elevated their paradigm and transcended the imperative for story fluency.

EmotionalSupportBMW
EmotionalSupportBMW
8 months ago

I still don’t get how marketing convinced the powers that be, that micro-brands should be a thing. Automotive is the only comparable industry that for some reason continues down this path. Trek isn’t spinning off Madones as their own line, Kawasaki isn’t spinning off the H2, Tracker isn’t spinning off Bass Tracker. Unless your purpose in life is forcing dealers to buy new signs, what are you even doing? Who looked at the possibility of having Dan Fousey’s Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep/Ram/Wagoner/SRT/Maybe Fiat if you really want one, and went “This is easily understood by average American consumer and I have no notes.”

Bjorn A. Payne Diaz
Bjorn A. Payne Diaz
8 months ago

MBA’s like to make more jobs for other MBA’s. All those brands now need “managing” to be successful; duplicative roles across the brands. It’s ridiculous.

EmotionalSupportBMW
EmotionalSupportBMW
8 months ago

We have been compromised by a sinister cabal of MBAs.

Mechjaz
Mechjaz
8 months ago

+1 to this. I never understood what it was supposed to be in the first place – single models became entire “brands” and the gain or goal was what, exactly? Tbh, I still get Range and Land Rover mixed up. I think Range is a brand but Land is the company, but there are also Land Rover branded vehicles.

Just because you learned how to split or merge cells in a spreadsheet doesn’t mean you have to use it on your brand portfolio.

Exception-ish: performance sub brands like M, AMG, S-Works. Counter-exception: Stellantis has so many already it’d be meaningless without cleaning house first. It could be SRT though – Dodge Ram SRT, Dodge Challenger/Charger SRT, Jeep Wagoneer SRT, Chrysler Pacifica SRT.

Sounds like it’s time to kill Chrysler though, unless they’ve got a crossover rabbit in a hat they’re waiting to pull out. I would wish for a couple or sedan but I’ve ridden in a Sebring and a 300 and I’m fine, thanks.

Ecsta C3PO
Ecsta C3PO
8 months ago
Reply to  Mechjaz

The 300 saved Chrysler in the 2000s, but then they sat on their thumbs for 20 years without anything new.

If an EV 300 based on the new Charger isn’t made then we know for sure that the only reason Chrysler is alive is because they ordered too many badges and are using them up before turning the Pacifica back into the Caravan.

Ecsta C3PO
Ecsta C3PO
8 months ago

I’m pretty plugged in to automotive news through websites like this, and until this article I totally forgot that they were trying to launch Wagoneer as it’s own brand.

I imagine that this marketing strategy hit a max of 0.01% of the North American population, and only 1% of people that actually walked into their (JEEP) dealership and bought one.

Mantis Toboggan, MD
Mantis Toboggan, MD
8 months ago

So was the writer on the FB group who was upset that someone said Dodge Ram just a pedant or someone employed by RAM (fuck Stellantis for all caps edginess, btw)? I can’t think of why else someone would be concerned about a near universal practice. We all know what company/brand is being referred to. I bet they bitch at people for saying ATM machine and PIN number. You internally wince and move on, dammit. It’s like when people correct pronunciation. If you knew what they were going for why do you care?

Anyway if Dodge can’t keep their market of petrolheads (not British but it fits here) happy with EV muscle cars and refuses to recognize that they remain a truck brand they’re toast. Hell, really they’re a big engine brand. If it takes a big engine Dodge should make it. That’s their current image.

How that translates into an EV future I have no idea. Marketing campaigns to get people jazzed about better electric motors and batteries? There had to have been something like that back in the day. Everyone and his brother didn’t start talking about overhead cams, turbos and fuel injection out of the blue. Companies got people excited about their high performance options by teaching them through advertisement and motorsports. So they can handle advertising but motorsports have to go electric. Here’s looking at you F1. NASCAR isn’t going to be able to do it without a viewer revolt for years if ever.

Pupmeow
Pupmeow
8 months ago

I agree with this comment. But mostly I just wanted to say thanks for making me laugh with the username, Doctor.

Ecsta C3PO
Ecsta C3PO
8 months ago

Dodge’s only goal with EVs, and I mean only, should be to offer better power for less money. All other aspects are secondary.

Their market base has proven that it doesn’t care about track handling, interior quality, or even reliability. Even range can be a secondary concern.

Mantis Toboggan, MD
Mantis Toboggan, MD
8 months ago
Reply to  Ecsta C3PO

I agree but I think they need to market a language of performance for EVs like there is for ICE cars. People need to be talking about different battery/motor setups like they did the double four barrel Hemi vs the six pack 440. Supercapacitors should be as discussed as superchargers once were. Assuming supercapacitors can function as an EV power-adder like boost does for ICE cars. I don’t know and someone should be telling me to convince me to buy their car.

V10omous
V10omous
8 months ago

As presumably the only commenter here with an SRT-branded vehicle, I’m disappointed they didn’t get a mention.

Also, the Ram 1500 and HD do not share cabs. That is true for Ford and (I believe) GM, but the Ram HD cab is much older and different.

Darnon
Darnon
8 months ago
Reply to  V10omous

And the Classic technically being its own thing/previous generation versus the regular 1500.

Ecsta C3PO
Ecsta C3PO
8 months ago
Reply to  V10omous

Do you get any quirks of ownership from having the sole vehicle sold by a company that only existed as a manufacturer for 2 years? Or does the DMV just call it a Dodge?

V10omous
V10omous
8 months ago
Reply to  Ecsta C3PO

The quirks are mostly negative. Website dropdowns don’t have SRT as a brand and there is no entry for 2013 Dodge Viper either. So buying parts can be weird, but pretty much everything is the same on a 2015, so I just use that.

BMV, insurance, etc just call it a Dodge.

Baron Usurper
Baron Usurper
8 months ago

If they’re bringing back the Charger, they should also bring back the Chrysler 300 since it was almost the same thing with shades of luxury.
Stellantis is floundering and it’s embarrassing. As someone who grew up with a slobbering love of all things Dodge (in a Honda household), I cannot for the life of me understand what the hell happened. It feels like Death by MBA, chasing profits to make line go up. Only in this case, line ain’t going up for them.

Ecsta C3PO
Ecsta C3PO
8 months ago
Reply to  Baron Usurper

Just bring in John Taffer or Gordon Ramsey. This restaurant (Stellantis) is split into too many different sub brands and you can’t functionally serve or market all of them at once.

Not sure where this metaphor goes from here but something something signature cocktail and clean the kitchen.

David Reynolds
David Reynolds
8 months ago
Reply to  Baron Usurper

“I cannot for the life of me understand what the hell happened.”

Three words: Merger of equals. It’s been a sinking spiral ever since. I do like the phrase Death by MBA also.

Nsane In The MembraNe
Nsane In The MembraNe
8 months ago

Not going to lie, I didn’t even realize Ram spun off in 2009. I thought it was in the last couple of years. Turns out it was when I was in goddamn high school. If that doesn’t show how weak the branding is I’m not sure what will.

Anyhoo, we’re all watching this release a bit anxiously. The Charger isn’t just going to be a pivotal car for Dodge, it’s going to be pivotal for the entire industry. Will muscle cars survive electrification? Will they be able to capture our hearts like big ole V8s do? Will Dodge survive?

As of now the Hornet has been a disaster and they had a lot riding on that car. If this doesn’t resonate they’re in huge trouble. It’s not an enviable position to be in, either. I have no idea how you capture the magic of decades of V8s with an EV…and even though ICE versions are essentially confirmed at this point, how can you capture it with an inline six?

Don’t get me wrong-I love straight sixes (praised be the B58)…but in a muscle car? I don’t know, man. We’ll have to wait and see, but I’m not holding my breath.

No Kids, Just Bikes
No Kids, Just Bikes
7 months ago

Wasn’t a lot of Aussie muscle of the inline 6 variety? Seems people still love the ‘barra’ ford there.

Vic Vinegar
Vic Vinegar
8 months ago

I don’t see there being a lot of overlap between “Potential EV sports car buyers” and “People who would consider Dodge”.

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
8 months ago
Reply to  Vic Vinegar

The venn diagram of those groups are a lot like the fratzog.
The circles don’t intersect at all.

Camp Fire
Camp Fire
8 months ago
Reply to  Urban Runabout

COTD!

Cool Dave
Cool Dave
8 months ago

Even my three year old son calls them “Dodge Ram”s.

The Charger is going to be good, the Hurricane is going to be good. The EV will slowly fade into obscurity and it’ll all be 500hp HO motors.. I have hope!

Ariel E Jones
Ariel E Jones
8 months ago

There’s a lot here to go over. First, everything you said about Dodge trucks becoming Ram, yes, yes and yes. This was a level of stupid on par with Infinity renaming all of their models “Q”. Legendary dumbassery. When i mentioned to my wife, who is admittedly not a car girl, that Dodge trucks aren’t Dodge and haven’t been for 15 years she was completely unaware. I do wonder though did it have something to with CAFE and fuel economy etc.

As for the Chrysler and Dodge product lineup. To me, it seems that it is the result of typical corporate shortsightedness. They saw trucks and SUVs flying off the shelves, so they understandably threw R+D dollars at Trucks (Ram) and SUVs (Jeep) and noone thought that, hey, maybe we should show some love to Chrysler or Dodge for that matter. How hard would it have been to do some good old fashioned rebadging? Take a Grand Cherokee, make it less “trail rated” and give it a Chrysler front end. And yes, grabbing a CUV platform from one of the other brands for Dodge sounds like a good idea, but that undercooked meatball the Hornet wasn’t.

And lastly, piping any kind of artificial sound into a cabin, wether it’s an EV or ICE is stupid.

Vic Vinegar
Vic Vinegar
8 months ago
Reply to  Ariel E Jones

I always thought the Ram thing was for CAFE too. Can’t have gas guzzling cars and gas guzzling trucks. So now they aren’t “Dodge” trucks anymore.

Chronometric
Chronometric
8 months ago

Wow that Kuniski quote is cringe-worthy. Those liberal/government/tree-hugger/elite hall monitors don’t want you to have any fun. Buy a Charger because “they” don’t want you to have it! We’ll show them that we can still annoy people at cars and coffee, even with an artificially noisy EV.

Acting like attempts to save our planet are somehow a plot to steal your toys is playing into the “other side is evil” narrative that is tearing us apart. I love fast cars and our planet. Maybe the Charger is a way to have both.

Pupmeow
Pupmeow
8 months ago
Reply to  Chronometric

This was my biggest takeaway as well. “[T]his is not the EV they want you to have.” What a lame ass mindset. If you are basing major life purchases on the deluded idea that you are some badass contrarian because you … bought a Dodge EV (??) … I don’t know what to tell you.

Man With A Reliable Jeep
Man With A Reliable Jeep
8 months ago
Reply to  Pupmeow

Yeah, but…they know their audience.

Buzz
Buzz
8 months ago
Reply to  Chronometric

I am painting with an extremely broad brush here, but isn’t appealing to dickheads what Dodge is all about? Lendingtree says RAM has the worst drivers in the nation, they are the worst in 23 states, and 2nd overall in DUIs after BMW. Being antisocial is part of the brand.

https://www.lendingtree.com/insurance/brand-incidents-study/

Mechjaz
Mechjaz
8 months ago
Reply to  Buzz

It’s funny that the least-accident-involved brands are all dead brands. Pontiac, Mercury, and Saturn. It is normalized per 1000 drivers, so it’s statistically fair, but 16.62 accidents per 1000 Mercury drivers means there were (pokes calculator) 8.31 actual accidents across all 500 Mercury drivers.

Pit-Smoked Clutch
Pit-Smoked Clutch
8 months ago
Reply to  Mechjaz

I bet there’s still some selection bias there. It’s been a long time since Pontiac got the axe. I bet the average Pontiac owner has had their Pontiac for a long time, and you can’t have a car for a long time if you’re prone to crashing into things.

Mechjaz
Mechjaz
8 months ago
Reply to  Chronometric

“One word: thundercougarfalconbird”

https://youtu.be/RE06lhDqHkE?si=Extm8OAeGX9qcFwC

Zeppelopod
Zeppelopod
7 months ago
Reply to  Mechjaz

“No dog food for Veektor tonight!”

Angrycat Meowmeow
Angrycat Meowmeow
8 months ago

The Charger is a winner on looks alone, at least the concept is, and Dodge can be pretty good at staying true to the concept. I actually wouldn’t mind that car with the new I6. The late model “hemi” was nothing more than a name, it was just another V8. I wouldn’t mind a turbocharged inline six at all, but I’m not really Dodge’s target demo either.

Also, I had absolutely no idea that “Wagoneer” was a brand. I thought they were Jeeps all along.

Nsane In The MembraNe
Nsane In The MembraNe
8 months ago

That’s where I’m at too. I’m not opposed to a straight six at all, but I drive over caffeinated front wheel drive hot hatches.

Ariel E Jones
Ariel E Jones
8 months ago

Agreed. V8 sound, yes there’s that, but a silky smooth I6 is nothing to sneeze at either. Not to mention the Hurricane has more base power and with two turbos, should be easy to tune. I don’t see it as a step back, I see it as a definite step up.

Ariel E Jones
Ariel E Jones
8 months ago

I think Stellantis has been getting loopy with how much money they think the public is willing to pay for a Jeep. “Hey, let’s call it Wagoneer and skies the limit!” Luckily, it seems like cooler heads have taken them back down to earth.

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
8 months ago
Reply to  Ariel E Jones

Luckily, it seems like cooler heads have taken them back down to earth.”
By cooler heads, I suppose you mean customers.
Or the lack thereof.

Isaac
Isaac
8 months ago

Move the Pacifica and Ram truck back under the Dodge umbrella, that makes the most sense.

Chronometric
Chronometric
8 months ago
Reply to  Isaac

That might save some advertising money but most dealers carry Chrysler Dodge Jeep and RAM already so combining them won’t help consolidate to get critical mass in the market.

Silent But Deadly
Silent But Deadly
8 months ago

As a non-American reader, this strikes me as a largely American problem that relies entirely on an American solution in a company that is not American.

Dodge and Chrysler are dead brands most everywhere outside North America. There’s no product so they’re history.

RAM or whatever it is is certainly familiar in my market in Oz due to the factory supported local RHD conversions being offered of the bling level 1500 and 2500 things. Trying to call them a Dodge now would be a waste of time and money.

If the Challenger were to come Down Under then simply marketing it as Challenger might be a better bet. GM have certainly tried it with the Corvette and the local RHD converted Silverado… mostly because we forgot that GM is a brand and no-one can pronounce Chevrolet (or spell it!).

I’ll bet that Stellantis has no problem with maintaining the Chrysler, Dodge, RAM and Jeep brands in the US if all the popular vehicle classes are covered by the group. History be damned.

Captain Zoll
Captain Zoll
8 months ago

I think if they could stick some Chrysler badges on the new charger coupe, spec’d with the turbo inline 6, and just happen to paint them orange, they could sell quite a few here in Aus.

Urban Runabout
Urban Runabout
8 months ago
Reply to  Captain Zoll

Might sell at few at Cooters Place Free Museum & RV Park too
But only if there is a Confederate Flag decal option for the roof.

Last edited 8 months ago by Urban Runabout
Goose
Goose
8 months ago

I’ll bet that Stellantis has no problem with maintaining the Chrysler, Dodge, RAM and Jeep brands in the US if all the popular vehicle classes are covered by the group. History be damned.

I’m sure plenty of people said the same thing about other Chrysler (or Chrysler related) brands like Plymouth, DeSoto, SRT, DSM, Eagle, AMC, Kaiser, Imperial….. and lets check wikipedia to see how many I missed…. holy smokes there are a ton more… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler#Brands

Ronan McGrath
Ronan McGrath
8 months ago

Excellent article. The demise of the V8s is a huge challenge for the brand identity. I recognize the emergence of the EVs but it seems a few years too early to make the switch. The fact that they are allowing that they “may” release a gas version suggests that they are not fully confident either.
Interesting to see what the Highway patrols do .- silent chases through Arkansas for instance?

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