CHALLENGER FACTORY BUILD Images
Challenger build spy pics - by ChallengerSRT
ITS ON THE WAY FOLKS!!!!!!!!!
Credit: http://www.newhemitech.com/showthread.php?tid=152&pid=558#pid558
Monday, April 30, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Dodge may be Chrysler's China winner
 | Alysha Webb is the China Bureau Chief of Automotive News. |
ALYSHA WEBB
Alysha Webb | Automotive News / April 26, 2007 - 1:00 am /
That was brought home by the Dodge launch party I attended before the start of the Shanghai auto show. It was held in one of Shanghai's hot new nightspots, at the top of a riverfront building.
Talking to Bill Russo, the Chrysler VP in charge of northeast Asia, and later with the Chrysler guys in charge of China marketing, I started to think Dodge might just be the most successful Chrysler brand here in China.
The Caravan luxury van is the first Dodge model Chrysler will introduce in China. It faces formidable opposition. GM's GL8 van rules the luxury van segment in China, with Honda's Odyssey in second place. GM has made the back seat of the GL8 a virtual living room, with comfortable seats, DVD players, and the like, to cater to the chauffeured businessmen who are the main buyers.
Russo agreed that GM had done a great job with the GL8. So Chrysler did its homework before bringing the Caravan here. They looked to Taiwan when designing the China Caravan interior, says Russo. One change: doing away with those expensive stow-and-go seats in favor of more comfortable and luxurious rear seats.
Chinese tend to buy local, and the Caravan will be produced under license in the east China province of Fujian, between Shanghai, home of the GL8, and Honda's Guangzhou home. Businesses in Fujian have plenty of money, and likely will go for the Caravan.
The next Dodge model Chinese consumers will see is the Caliber sedan. Imports are due to start next year.
Chrysler will have a marketing challenge on its hands in China. It must make sure it clearly differentiates the Chrysler brand and the Dodge brand. The Chrysler Sebring sedan will be produced in China beginning later this year. It will overlap with the Caliber somewhat.
I caught Chen Xiaoyu, vice secretary general of the China Automotive Dealer Association, sitting in a Dodge Caliber at the Shanghai auto show. He liked the car. "People will buy it," he said. He's the expert.
DCX Mulling Challenger-based Chrysler Cuda?
Could DaimlerChrysler be planning a Chrysler Cuda partner for the Dodge Challenger? The Detroit News seems to think it’s a possibility, after talking with custom-car icon Chip Foose, of all people.
We’re not exactly sure what connection Foose would have with DCX on this product, especially after his recently announced partnership with Ford for a high-performance F-150 variant, but he has been working to bring his own DCX-based Hemisfear hot rod to market, as well as consulting for the virtually everyone in Detroit.
Keen historians will note that the original Cuda was a Plymouth, but that nameplate went off to the Great Crusher In The Sky some years ago. These days, the Chrysler moniker isn’t exactly synonymous with high-performance (the sales failure of the Crossfire coupe being the company’s most recent foray into the world of enthusiast vehicles), though the 300C SRT-8 appears to have done quite well. All of which begs the question: Do you think Chrysler needs a performance-minded coupe?
Brenda Priddy’s people have worked up a Challenger-based CG rendering of a modern-day Cuda, which is available by clicking on the link below. Check it out, and then come back and leave a ‘Comment’ about the viability of this mooted musclecar.DaimlerChrysler Corporation Patent Updates
Chrysler's new owner will face a marketing quagmire
 | A consultant says Chrysler has ignored Jeep's "crown jewel," the Grand Cherokee. |
Want to buy the Chrysler group? You'll need a lot of marketing savvy, experts say.
The company faces a huge market-positioning challenge: how to define and distinguish its three brands. The group has failed to do that, according to industry analysts.
Vic Doolan, nonexecutive chairman of the Courland Automotive Practice LLP consulting firm, says overlapping Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler models compete too much with each other. As the Chrysler group works to curb that redundancy, Doolan says, it also must build its global presence in fast-growing markets such as China's.
John Morel, director of product and market planning at American Suzuki Motor Corp., agrees that Chrysler's marketing must concentrate on differentiating the group's brands. The group has too many similar models, he says, citing the Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen.
The Chrysler brand probably needs the most work, Morel says. Consumers perceive the brand as "vaguely premium," he says.
As the company has stretched the Jeep brand too far, Morel argues, the Jeep Commander is hurting the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Jeep Compass is competing directly with the Dodge Caliber.
"Jeep is an iconic brand," Morel says. "They need to keep it pure."
Automotive consultant Gordon Wangers says Chrysler has ignored Jeep's "crown jewel," the Grand Cherokee. The company also should redo the Dodge Ram, he says, to enable it to compete again as a key player in the full-sized pickup segment.
Wangers notes that the Ram last got a redesign in 2001.
Detroit Determined to Win Chinese Sales
Associated Press | ELAINE KURTENBACH - - Of all Detroit's sales pitches to China at this week's Shanghai auto show, Chrysler's was by far the most dramatic.
"The Jeep Commander is such an important product for us we wanted to come up with an exciting new way to bring it to market," Eric Ridenour, Chrysler's chief operating officer, declared as a video showed the vehicle being airdropped onto a grassy field, Ridenour said. "So, we let it fly."
Chrysler's China chief, Simon Elliott followed the airborne Commander by parachute, on the screen, and then walked onstage brushing dust off his orange parachute suit as if he had just arrived from the sky.
Detroit's determination to woo China - the auto market of the future - is abundantly evident in Shanghai, where parts makers and Michigan state officials have turned out in force hoping both to boost sales and to win investment from the Chinese.
It's one way of coming to grips with the plant closures and other growing pains of globalization wracking Detroit's "Big Three" - General Motors Corp. (nyse: GM - news - people ), Ford Motor Co. (nyse: F - news - people ) and DaimlerChrysler AG (nyse: DCX - news - people ).
Those working in the industry are unanimous in their belief that the future of the auto industry lies in the East, in emerging markets like China where sales are soaring and both foreign and local automakers are pouring billions of dollars into expanding capacity.
After years of wooing Japanese and Korean automakers, with mixed results, Michigan is going after Chinese business - with a vengeance.
A trade mission organized by the Center for Automotive Research brought in parts, machinery, testing and equipment makers, promising matchmaking meetings and counseling with U.S. Commerce Department auto specialists and other experts.
A "U.S. Pavilion" occupies a big chunk of one of the two main halls devoted to auto parts and components at the auto show, vying for attention with an even bigger German pavilion.
"We need to be in China. This is the only growing market in the world," said Luca Biagini, chief executive officer for Italian automotive systems designer and maker Magneti Marelli (China).
But the mission wasn't limited just to promoting exports to China's burgeoning market. A two-story Michigan display touted the state's attractions as North America's automotive capital as well as other industries such as high-tech.
"We realized that with the growth of the Chinese market and rise of China as an economic force that they will be looking at North America," said Charles Holmes, Asia-Pacific business development manager for Oakland County, which neighbors Detroit.
"Our job is to educate people to put our best foot forward so that they can consider us," he said.
So far, of the more than 3,600 foreign-invested operations in the Detroit area, only a handful are Chinese.
Chinese autos and auto-parts companies have made only limited investments abroad, and primarily in the developing countries that are the main markets for their low-cost buses, trucks and small passenger cars.
Any investments in the near future are unlikely to match such big projects as Toyota Motor Corp. (nyse: TM - news - people )'s US$150 million technical center under construction near Ann Arbor, Michigan.
A more typical potential investor would be Yu Shiming, chairman of Shanghai Jianlian Rubber Product Plant, a factory making oil seals, shock absorbers and other components.
Shanghai Jianlian is a supplier for several automakers including Shanghai GM, General Motors Corp.'s joint venture with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. But it also exports parts to the U.S. and Europe.
Yu hasn't made any commitments year.
"We're investigating the situation," he said.
But China's automakers are beginning to shop overseas for the technology and expertise they need to build up globally competitive Chinese automakers. They are buying design studios and looking ahead to the day when they may need distribution and service networks to sell in coveted top-tier markets like the U.S.
"We want to be the first in line," said Harry Whalen, director of international development for the Michigan Economic Development Corp. "We recognize the position of the Chinese industry in wanting to grow in the global marketplace."
This Day in Auto History: 26 APRIL
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 | Source: Automobile History Day By Day, by Douglas A. Wick |
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
American Motors Corporation (AMC)
Published by
American Motors Corporation (AMC) was an American automobile company formed on January 14, 1954 by the merger of the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and the Hudson Motor Car Company. At the time, it was the largest corporate merger in U.S. history, valued at $198,000,000. Declining sales and a fiercely competitive auto market in the United States forced AMC to seek a partner in the late 1970s, which led to a tie-up with France’s Renault in 1979. The arrangement lasted until March 2, 1987, when American Motors was purchased by the Chrysler Corporation, which discontinued the use of AMC and Renault brand names in the United States. The Jeep line was continued, as well as some of the models under the Eagle marque.
SPY PHOTOS: Mercedes GL Bluetec and GLK
More Photos
Text by Hans G. Lehmann
Copyright Lehmann Photo Syndication
edited April 25, 2007
Copyright Lehmann Photo Syndication
edited April 25, 2007
Expanding off-road line up
Mercedes is expanding their Off-road line up with two new models.GL Bluetec
First one out will be the Bluetec version of the GL 420. Revealed as a concept at the Detroit Auto Show, Mercedes is now testing the real car in cold weather conditions. The production GL 420 Bluetec will keep the same big grille as on the concept, but the wider fender flares and the 21 inch wheels are not planned for the production.With the GL 420 Bluetec Mercedes shows that even large high-performance SUVs can offer economical fuel consumption and extremely low emissions.
With its powerful V8 diesel delivering 290 bhp and 700 Nm of torque, the GL 420s anticipated fuel efficiency is just 9.8 litres per 100 km ( 24 mpg ). Seen here on these spy photos from Sweden, the bigger grille is disguised with some duct tape.
Mercedes Benz planning new F1 engine facility
The Brixworth, UK based company Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines, which designs and builds race engines for the McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team, is planning a new test centre in Northamptonshire.
According to a report in the Daventry Today newspaper HPE’s parent company Daimler-Chrysler is in the final stages of approval for a state-of-the-art development at Wood Park.
If the plans are approved backed it could see HPE operations moved to Wood Park and would involve 80 high-grade technical jobs being moved from the HPE's Stuttgart, Germany headquarters. It is thought that the new site could indirectly lead to hundreds of jobs being created. A formal planning application is shortly expected to be submitted to the local Daventry District Council.
Daimler Unions Tell Zetsche to Resist Chrysler Sale (Update2)
By Jeff Bennett |April 24 (Bloomberg) -- DaimlerChrysler AG's three biggest unions told Chief Executive Officer Dieter Zetsche to resist selling Chrysler or reject private-equity bidders in favor of a buyer who knows the auto industry, a labor official said.
``Our preference is that he keeps Chrysler,'' Canadian Automotive Workers representative Jerry Dias said after meeting with the automaker's labor committee in Stuttgart, Germany, today. ``If they choose to spin it off, we can live with Magna,'' he said, referring to Canada's biggest auto-parts supplier.
The committee may present the unions' views to DaimlerChrysler's 20-member supervisory board on April 26, Dias said. Today's meeting involved officials of the Detroit-based United Auto Workers and the German metalworkers union IG Metall.
Magna International Inc. and three U.S. private-equity firms are among the bidders for the U.S. Chrysler unit, people familiar with the offers have said. Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. announced its $4.5 billion offer for Chrysler on April 5.
``We also told him that we are opposed to Chrysler being sold to private equity, and we are absolutely against Kirk Kerorkian's bid,'' Dias said.
UAW spokesman Roger Kerson and DaimlerChrysler spokesman Han Tjan declined to comment.
Ruediger Grube, a DaimlerChrysler management board member who oversees corporate strategy, met with potential buyers two weeks ago in New York, people familiar with the talks have said. They included Magna and private-equity firms Cerberus Capital Management LP and a Blackstone Group LP-Centerbridge Capital Partners LLC partnership.
Gettelfinger
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, a member of the supervisory board and the labor committee, pledged last week to formally ask the panel to abandon any plans to sell Chrysler. The board is evenly split between investor and labor representatives.
Zetsche on Feb. 14 said the automaker is considering all options for Chrysler's future as he announced plans to cut costs following a $1.5 billion 2006 loss. Chrysler is planning to cut 13,000 workers and close a Delaware manufacturing plant by 2010.
The U.S. shares of DaimlerChrysler fell $1.01 to $79.30 at 4:18 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They've gained 23 percent since the day before Zetsche disclosed that Chrysler may be sold nine years after being acquired.
This Day in Auto History: 25 APRIL
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| Source: Automobile History Day By Day, by Douglas A. Wick |
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
SNEEKPEAK - Chrysler Cuda
Photo illustration by George Achorn / Brenda Pridd
Sneak peek: Chrysler Cuda
DETROITNEWS - - Our illustrator nearly fell off his feet when he heard mention of a possible Chrysler Cuda -- twin to the upcoming Dodge Challenger -- during an interview with Chip Foose, hot rodder, television talent and all-round good guy, at the New York auto show.Though Plymouth, the original brand to sell the Cuda, has long been out of business, Chrysler seems to be the apparent heir. Whether the market needs yet another muscle car remains to be seen. Chrysler could likely bring such a car to market with relative ease.
This photo illustration takes elements of the Cuda and adds them to the Challenger model. The six-opening grille was a '72 Cuda signature, as were the shaker hood and the lower driving lights. Single round headlights are more characteristic of the '70 Cuda, with Gatling gun LED design similar to those seen on the Challenger concept. Wheels from the Chrysler SRT8 complete the look and are more indicative of the badge that the new Cuda would now call home.
DaimlerChrysler AG Patent Updates
This Day in Auto History: 24 APRIL
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| Source: Automobile History Day By Day, by Douglas A. Wick |
Drifter Samuel Hübinette of Team Mopar Nominated for Taurus World Stunt Award
by Darren Jacobs | WHOWON.COPM| CENTER LINE, Mich. -- Samuel Hübinette of Team Mopar is no stranger to awards and trophies, with eight career Formula Drift Series wins and two championships to his name, but on May 20, 2007, the “Crazy Swede” may bring home an award unlike any of his previous honors. Hübinette has been nominated for a Taurus World Stunt Award for his work on the 2006 Universal Studios’ film “The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift.”
Hübinette, who on April 15 captured a Team Drift Formula D win in his Mopar Dodge Charger SRT8, was one of a number of Formula Drift stars who were honored for their work as stunt drivers on the film. “The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift” received two nominations in the Best Work With a Vehicle category. Hübinette will attend the awards ceremony, which will take place at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, Calif.
Hübinette talks about his Taurus World Stunt Award Nomination “It was very unexpected,” said Hübinette about the nomination. “I worked on the film about a year-and-a half ago, and then I got a phone call recently and was told I was nominated. I was very surprised. The Taurus Stunt Awards are like the Oscars for stunt professionals. Just to be nominated is an honor, and if we win it will be really amazing.”
Hübinette has worked as a stunt professional over the last few years as his racing schedule has allowed. He is part of L.A. Motorsports, a team made up of top stunt professionals who promote their talents for use in TV, film and commercial projects. “The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift” was the first film on which Hübinette worked.
“I’ve worked in a number of car commercials, doing everything from driving through mud and rocks in a Jeep®, to driving hill roads with a Dodge Ram truck while a helicopter filmed, to driving in snow with other DaimlerChrysler vehicles,” Hübinette said. “This was the first movie I worked on, so it’s supercool to get nominated.
“Things are going so fast, it’s hard to acknowledge all these amazing things that are happening. We’ve been so busy getting our Mopar Dodge Charger SRT8 ready for the Formula Drift series. It’s been a phenomenal journey, getting my name out there in the stunt driving industry. We’re going to roll into the show, with the red carpet and celebrities. It’s going to be a nice change of scenery.”
Taurus World Stunt Award information
The Taurus World Stunt Awards honor stunt professionals with their highest reward, the Taurus. The Taurus is awarded to stunt professionals for their work in categories such as Best Fight, Best Fire Stunt, Best High Work, Best Work with a Vehicle, Best Overall Stunt by a Stunt Woman, Hardest Hit, Best Specialty Stunt, and Best Stunt Coordinator and/or 2nd Unit Director.
Celebrities attending previous Taurus World Stunt Awards ceremonies have included film director Quentin Tarantino, California Gov. and former action film superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Hulk Hogan and Jennifer Love Hewitt. The May 20 ceremony will air on the AMC channel on May 25. For information on the Taurus World Stunt Awards, visit http://www.worldstuntawards.com.