suzq044
Member
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2025
- Messages
- 50
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- 75
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- 18
I dunno about that. I'm willing to bet it's more a market fluctuation issue. They weren't ready at first. Now they're ready but the ev market is becoming crowded, and now maybe they're worried they don't have enough to offer. The REV should have been out already. It would be making bank even if it's a basic b*tch pickup that happens to have this drivetrain in it. At this rate, VW / Scout is going to beat them to the market.Not surprised based on the way this vehicle has been handled - marked a year in advance. Some kind of marketing or launch experiment to see if you share the information enough in advance does it change the way people talk about it or show interest?
This has been generally a disaster of product planning and not knowing what the customer wants. Or ignoring it. Not to mention how social media is key these days. Whether they want to admit it or not. The big magazines don't have as much sway as they used to.
Charger should not have been called Charger or it should not have come out EV first. Anyone with common sense that lives in the US would have known that was a mistake once the LX's were gone. Especially with the marketing they've pounded into Dodge since ~2005, maybe as early as 2003 with SRT advertising and the Neon. The point is, Marketing painted them into the anti-ev corner. Replacing all the affordable cars with a huge, expensive EV was the answer to a question nobody was asking. If they were going to introduce EV to Dodge, it should have been with the cheap cars. YK, the ones that Daimler and then FCA cut out of the lineup. Neon, Dart, Caliber, Stratus, Sebring, 200, Journey, Magnum, Caravan.. until there was nothing left but Challenger, Charger & Durango until they introduced Hornet which is a flop. Generally speaking, not enough value for the price tag it's asking and not Dodge enough. Anyone with eyes can see that the Compass is a better deal. Sure, those cheaper cars weren't the best things on four wheels but they had enough value that people still bought them.
They made a mistake not bringing the 4xe here sooner. Maybe not as the Compass or Renegade, but a Chrysler on that same platform. God knows they've used the Compass platform for a lot already, why not a Chrysler EV? It already had the Pacifica PHEV. A Compass-sized Chrysler Concorde or something wouldn't have been so problematic to the brand that only had 2 cars at the time. Chrysler Conquest could've been the Hornet 4xe brought here, too. The Charger could've been a 300e with the fuselage styling cues. Could have even kept the R-wing and general profile. No need for the fauxonic exhaust, or to beat the sh*t out of every car that lines up with it at the nearest red light, either. The personality of Chrysler is different. Or was. Now it's a minivan that's trying to pretend to be three.
Dodge should be able to keep the ICE cars; while I'm not a huge fan of living in the past - not everything has to have a historical nameplate. Especially if it goes the way Hornet has so far lol. They can still offer the option of high-po EV's under Banshee moniker - if they stopped trying to cater to the Hemi-worshipers with the EVs; make them scream like a performance EV screams, let them hear the Banshee. They can have the ICE performance under the SRT Moniker. They can make their cheap cars ala' Neon - make it genuinely good to drive as a base model and then improve upon it, that's why the LX's were money-makers. They were invested in instead of chopped off. Their base prices were under 40k. But in all honesty, the only thing I can thank Daimler for, it's the LX platform. Because without the LX's Chrysler & Dodge would already be dead, Jeep and Ram sold off to the highest bidder.
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