I truly believe we have all made some very valid points here. It is true that the brand has been on a really rough ride the last few years and I think it has been rough for all of us. While Stellantis & Carlos Tavares may not have completely been a good match for the brand, with Carlos Tavares doing a terrible job in the management of Stellantis as a whole. There were other factors that really didn't help the Mopars brands throughout the last several years. One of the main issues was the heavy reliance on V8 engines along with long periods of time with no really model changes and a complete lack of diversity. The brand's resilience to change along with its loyal followers, is a huge part of the reason as to why the brand is in the situation it is in. The Stellantis North American brands pigeonholed themselves into a position with a few models that have been the same pretty much since 2011 and after 2015, there were only tweaks here and there but that was about it. They gave themselves no room to move and pretty soon, we ended up here. Chrysler has one model, Dodge pretty much has one model right now, Jeep is in a weird spot and Ram is really the only one that is semi ok at the moment. Moving forward, I think both the leadership of stellantis, along with it's customers, need to realize that a V8 biased lineup is doomed to fail and that each brand needs to be diverse but, as I've said before, repurposed for what that particular brand is about. It's not about not having V8s but about sensibly having a portfolio that can balance out the brand without them having to do the knee-jerk reactions that they've been doing for the past several years.
To me, the excitement of Tim Kuniskis returning to the brand is alot deeper than just the thought of the return of the V8 to the Mopar brands. It's the hope that excitement will continue in this brand and that we will have something to look forward to with this brand. It's the hope that with Tim's return that the rebellious spirit of Dodge will live on with or without the V8 engine. Right now, we're seeing a bit of light when we thought all hope was lost. There's the huge potential of the EV mandates being relaxed and pushed back, gas powered models in Stellantis are being pushed forward, the former CEO is no longer with us which leaves room for someone who is better qualified to run the company to be at the helm and we now have a person back with the brand who is passionate about the brand. I genuinely hope that TK will get a shot at the throne and I hope that if he does that he will bring that passion with him and breathe life back into the brands. As it stands Stellantis has all of the tools that they need to be successful and move forward from this slump but it needs to be done right. Stellantis has for platforms, small, medium, large and frame and to be perfectly honest, only three of them are really needed. Long story short, we have the tools and now we have the talent and the brand has an opportunity to use what we have to diversify the brands while still allowing them to keep their core missions and identities in tack and if they're smart, they'll start pulling from alot of different avenues of what the Mopar brands really are and not just sinking everything into one direction. There is still GLH & SRT4/SRT6, Inline-6 Jeeps and other stuff beyond the V8 engine. Hopefully this time, things will work out better. All that to say welcome back Tim and I wish you the best of luck!
moparinsiders.com
