Death Knell Sounds For Chrysler In Europe
Continental Chryslers will become Lancias, but UK cars keep US badge
RIP Chrysler - but not in the UK...
The Chrysler name will survive in the UK and Ireland (where Lancia has no presence), but in continental Europe the marque will be subsumed into the Lancia brand, with its products rebadged as Lancias.
Fiat (Lancia and Chrysler's parent company) has written to 1150 Lancia and Chrysler dealers, telling them that their contracts will be dissolved at the end of May next year in order that Fiat can create a re-profiled dealer network.
"Our plan is to have in place by May 2011 a Lancia/Chrysler integrated network comprising about 800 dealers and over 1000 dealerships," Chrysler and Lancia CEO Olivier Francois told Automotive News Europe.
Lancia sells most of its cars in the domestic Italian market (102,000 of the 121,000 new cars it sold in Europe last year went to Italy), but it is still a significantly larger player in Europe than Chrysler - the US marque's European sales in 2009 were just 11,500 units.
Chrysler sister brand Dodge, meanwhile, will almost completely disappear from Europe - including the UK - and will concentrate instead on importing small-volume US muscle cars (which we rather like the sound of).
That does amuse me, but I always wonder (as with the endless fake M / M3 badges) who it's really aimed at?
I mean, if you don't know anything about cars then surely it won't mean a great deal to you in any case. But if you do know anything about cars (and are therefore more likely to notice car badges) then it's bloody obvious that it's not a Bentley / M3 / anything other than a poverty-spec diesel driven by a buffoon
Some people who run car companies may believe that cars are white goods and it matters nothing whether it is badged Daewoo, Chevrolet, Rover, Sterling etc.
The general public historically have never fully accepted that. Most of us have an attachment and give a meaning to our cars so clumsy swopping of name badges devalues the whole product. If you treat cars like white goods then this will devalue both Chrysler and Lancia. Is there anything more ridiculous than a yank tank crudely labelled a Lancia without even a fragment of Lancia DNA?
Some people who run car companies may believe that cars are white goods and it matters nothing whether it is badged Daewoo, Chevrolet, Rover, Sterling etc.
The general public historically have never fully accepted that. Most of us have an attachment and give a meaning to our cars so clumsy swopping of name badges devalues the whole product. If you treat cars like white goods then this will devalue both Chrysler and Lancia. Is there anything more ridiculous than a yank tank crudely labelled a Lancia without even a fragment of Lancia DNA?
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