Following the FCA/PSA merger, the Chrysler brand may go the way of Plymouth, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac. https://www.topgear.com.ph/news/industry-news/fca-psa-merger-chrysler-cut-a4354-20210104
Not surprising, with only the 300 and the Pacifica now, no SUVs or CUVs. Iām guessing that FIAT in the US is on the way out, too.
Fiat is no big loss and was just a waste of money on their part . You cannot foister ugly and unreliable cars on the public and expect to sell many of them .
Ugly is in the eye of the beholder. Unreliable however, that is quite true. Personally, I like the Fiat 500 looks.
Like I said before, I think it is nuts to eliminate an established brand for something no one can remember. Eliminate the Fiat brand sure, no loss, they have a reputation for poor quality. But Chrysler has a long history of engineering that sure could use some sprucing up from the bad products, but Chrysler was mostly a management and money problem. Itās like Ford deciding to call themselves Enduro or something. Why? Even the Chinese kept the Volvo brand instead of changing the name to Woofu. Nuts.
1 Like
Agreed. The Chrysler brand is worth something. As for ugly, unreliable vehicles, people have been buying and selling them for years. 
The Pacificaās really all they hve left at this point, local dealer has both of their Launch edition AWD Pacificaās but otherwise is a Jeep dealer.
Nationalism from the Japanese, Italians, French, Germans and the US will make dropping marques very, very hard. Many of these manufacturers survive for that reason alone.
When is the last time Citroen sold cars in the US? Or Chryslers in Italy? Fiat failed yet again in the US but Italians still buy them just like the French buy Citroens.
This should be fun to watch. I predict chaos.
When we were in Rome it was surprising how many of those Fiat 500 types would go whizzing by. Some (many) were pretty well beat up so they were the older ones, but yeah common as Fords here.
When brands lose their identity and uniqueness, who cares if they disappear?
The days when there was much debate about the Pontiac Firebirdās fuel injected, dohc, straight 6 vs. the Chevy Camaroās V8 are long gone and ended when they became simply clones with different bumpers and badges. Likewise for the Saturn Sky/Chevy Solstice/Opel GT clones.
āRationalizationā, āGlobalizationā and āthe Bottom Lineā have won the war and Brand Loyalty was the loser.
Must have been interesting considering Pontiac never had such an engine. Maybe you are thinking of the single overhead cam 6 with a 4 barrel carb. The Sprint 6.
2 Likes
The Firebird and Camaro were always the same car with minor styling and suspension tweaks, different engine and transmission options.
As I remember, the Pontiac OHC six used the Chevy inline six block but added the OHC head. Either C&D or Hot Rod did a ābuildā of the OHC six employing three Webber carbs on a custom intake along with custom headers and internal modifications, produced quite a bit of HP.
1 Like
With a ā¦ gaspā¦ timing BELT! Pretty early use of a timing belt.
Iād love to have seen and heard that engine with a set of Webbers with headers!
You could be right, memory aināt what it used to be, but back in the late '60s / early 70ās any car with an overhead cam that wasnāt a Euro sports car (Jaguar XKE, MGA Twin Cam, etc.) was pretty unusual and really made that Pontiac Firebird stand out as different from the Chevy Camaro, which was my point.
Pontiac and Chevy were both made by GM and Iām sure shared many parts but they were sufficiently different that they each has their devoted brand loyalists but today the brand hardly matters.
The Plymouth and Chrysler minivans, the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice and the Pontiac Vibe and Toyota Matrix were all virtually identical so today who cares what badge the manufacturer puts on the car?
Even worse Iām driving a Chrysler, composed largely of Mercedes parts and built by Karmann in Germany so itās hard to tell what the heck is the actual brand. 
1 Like
Letās not forget the ultimate gag-inducing clone: Cadillac Cimmaron!
2 Likes
It would make sense to have only one car brand. I guess they will choose Dodge over Chrysler. Dodge is isnāt building the Grand Caravan anymore, and they can just blend the Pacifica into their lineup as a replacement. The FCA dealers near me sell Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep in the same storefront anyway. I doubt that there are any Chrysler only dealerships left with only one product to sell.
1 Like
Donāt forget Ram. The trucks are selling well under the Ram brand. The Dodge part of Dodge Ram was dropped a while ago.
I suspect either Chrysler or Dodge will remain in the US but not both. Likely bolstered by badge engineered cars sold as Fiats in Italy, Puegeots in France, Opels in Germany, Vauxhalls in the UK. All are very nationalistic brands. Vauxhall has done this for years in the UK with Opel products.
Nissans are sold worldwideā¦ so who knows how may outlets will remain.
I bet itās Dodge, the Challenger and Charger are selling well, and the Pacifica would fit right in. I canāt remember the last time I saw a Durango, but theyāre on the Dodge web site.
All three sell RAM as well.
OMG I forgot about that pimped out Chevy econobox parading as a Caddy but you just reminded me of that other branding nightmare, the Chrysler TC-Maserati!
Itās seems like during the 1980ās some evil genius was set loose in Detroit with a mission to destroy all the brand names! 
But the sad part is that it continued through the 2000ās with things like the Saab 9-7X SUV which was simply a rebrand of the discontinued Oldsmobile Bravada. The only logic I can come up with is, "Well we killed off any Olds brand loyalty by discontinuing the brand so maybe we can use this to kill off Saab brand loyalty too.