Chrysler did a HELL OF A LOT OF THINGS RIGHT in the 1990s with ALL of
their product lines. Then here came Daimler and tampered with it to
their liking, doing more harm than good. The 300 was already too far
along to change the styling, but they added "last-gen" Mercedes chassis
stuff to it, Mercedes electronics, and other "hidden" things to
"Mercedes-ize" Chryslers. Unfortunately, even when GM added
Asian/Euro-style cruise control switches on some of their cars, a few
years later they went back to buttons on the steering wheel.

Then they took the Chrysler Citadel concept and made it into the
Pacifica "wagon". The Citadel led to the Buick Centienne concept
"wagon". IF Chrysler had went with the Citadel, it would have been the
FIRST car-based crossover utility on the market, plus at a lower cost
due to the shared chassis with the LH cars. Instead, Daimler wanted it
on the full size van platform, which added weight and such. The
Pacifica is a great vehicle, but too bulky and heavy for good fuel
economy.

Then here came Cerberus, with grand plans of "Rebuilding an Ameican
Icon" . . . along with many high-priced former Toyota/Lexus people who
obviously didn't know a whole heck of a lot about the car business . . .
and it's history. The best thing Cerberus did was to get the former
Chrysler people from the LH car days to come back. But too little, too
late. I suspect that Cerberus didn't really know how much Daimler had
"meddled" in Chrysler's product mix and such to create "dull" cars from
potentially great ones. Thank heavens the new Ram pickup happened!

In many respect, "stale product lines" is an over-used phrase. "Stale"
can be variable in its interpretation. In reality, many high volume
vehicles are "stale", but nobody seems to notice. Kind of like all
modern engines allegedly needing to be overhead camshaft engines.
Anything else is "anitique", except that you never head that "antique
architecture" comment about Corvettes or Vipers, which have the same
"cam-in-block" architecture as prior engine designs did.

There are usually few things that can be changed quickly and easily from
one model year to the next. I still believe that there are many more
STALE designs and vehicles in the import brands than anybody would
really admit to! Still, you only see that word attached to USA brand
vehicles!

Regards,

C-BODY

C-BODY (AT) webtv (DOT) net wrote:

You got that right.

You got that wrong.

Chrysler was showing the 300N concept car at the 2000 Detroit Auto
show. It was a gorgeous car, based on the LH platform, with a V8 and
RWD as the top-end model. It would have been in production for the 2005
model year had it not been for Daimler, who rushed the piece-of-shit
LX-based 300 cars into production - stuffing them full of Mercedes
suspension and transmissions, making them weigh 2 tons.

The Germans at Daimler wrecked Chrysler, and now the Italians at Fiat
are going to bury it.

But it was Bob Eaton and the criminal Chrysler board of directors, circa
late 1998, that deserve a special place in hell for putting Chrysler on
the road to death while giving themselves golden parachutes.

The only thing that can save Chrysler (and this is assuming they're
still alive in a few years time) is some combination of Kerkorian,
Iacocca, and Magna.