Is Demon up the road in Belvidere?
| |
| The Dodge Demon will be on display at the Geneva (Switzerland) International Motor Show next month. |
Business: Manufacturing
The two-seater Dodge concept roadster will be on view at next month’s Geneva show.
DaimlerChrysler will unveil a two-seater concept roadster in March based on the Dodge Caliber platform, a Detroit-based online publication that covers the automotive industry reported Monday.
Thecarconnection.com said the Dodge Demon would compete with the sporty Mazda MX-5 Miata, the Saturn Sky and the Pontiac Solstice. The Demon will be displayed at the Geneva (Switzerland) International Motor Show March 8-18.
According to Thecarconnection.com, the car would be based on the Dodge Caliber platform with a shape similar to the Dodge Viper and includes the Dodge crosshair grille and 19-inch wheels to show off a “kicked-up tail and tough stance.”DaimlerChrysler officials weren’t commenting on the news release, and analysts said although the company needs an “image car,” a lot of questions have to be answered before a Demon ever sees the street.
“The pictures I’ve seen, the Demon is perfect for the image Dodge is trying to craft for its small cars, but it can’t be built in Belvidere,” said John Wolkonowicz, senior analyst at Massachusetts-based Global Automotive Group. “The Caliber platform is a front-wheel-drive platform, and if they try to turn the Demon into a front-wheel-drive car, it will look terrible and won’t be able to compete.”
The two-seater segment is a niche market. In 2006, the Pontiac Solstice was the top seller for the type with 19,710 U.S. sales. Mazda sold 16,897 MX-5 Miatas, while Saturn sold 8,671 Skys in its first year of production. Both Saturn and Pontiac are General Motors products. For comparison, the top-selling car in the U.S. again was the Toyota Camry with 448,445 in sales.
“Is there a market for another (two-seater)? There could be if they can build the car they’ve shown,” Wolkonowicz added. “They don’t really have a platform now for it. The rear-wheel-drive LX platform (for the Chrysler 300c, Dodge Charger and Dodge Magnum) is too big. They’d have to create a separate (assembly) line for it if they want to do it in Belvidere, and that might be too much cost for the amount of sales they would get.”
The 3,600 workers at Belvidere’s Chrysler assembly plant now turn out the Caliber, Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot on three shifts. DaimlerChrysler is the Rock River Valley’s largest private employer. The plant has the capacity to put together five vehicles off that platform. The Chrysler Group’s head of manufacturing, Frank Ewasyshyn, said workers have worked on prototypes for a fourth car, but he wouldn’t comment beyond that.
Paul Eisenstein, publisher of Thecarconnection.com, admitted “a lot of things still don’t add up” about the Demon.
“The fact (DaimlerChrysler) is going to show it in Geneva shows me they are very serious about building it,” Eisenstein said. “They put a lot of money into that Belvidere plant and keep talking about how flexible it is. Maybe they’ve figured out a manufacturing trick we don’t know about. That would be very big news.”
Eisenstein said the only way DaimlerChrysler could justify building the Demon is by finding a way to build it on an existing platform. Wednesday, the company will announce a restructuring plan that will include plant closures and buyout packages. DaimlerChrysler’s Chrysler Group lost $1.5 billion in the third quarter of 2006, and its sales were down 7 percent last year.
Erich Merkle of Michigan-based auto market research firm IRN Inc. said Chrysler might just be testing the waters.
“It’s a concept car. They haven’t committed to anything. They are probably just trying to get a reaction,” Merkle said. “Chrysler has a lot of financial issues right now, but I believe they will be much stronger next year thanks to their new pr
No comments:
Post a Comment