All too often, I talk about the importance of a car manufacturer’s attitude toward its customers. Well…when it’s said like that, it seems pretty obvious.
In these discussions, I usually group car makers into one of two groups; those who put as little effort/money into their product and then try to get the maximum amount of profit from it, and those who put in as much effort/money into the quality of each product as they can afford. It appears that the latter always incurs a better outcome for both the producer and the customer.
The recent past has been absolute hell for our own domestic Detroit monkeys. It was hopeless! Their misunderstanding seemed never ending.
Hopeless to everyone but Kaleb, that is. He believes that “chicks dig Taurus’s.”
Most of my information came from “Chrysler’s Comeback,” an article written by Angus Mackenzie in the February 2011 edition of Motor Trend Magazine. As usual, top quality stuff. You should check it out.
I agree with Mackenzie in his opinion that it’s Chrysler’s new management carrying the bacon and bringing new hope. Quotes like this one practically give me goosebumps;
“If you take a Chrysler and make it fun to drive, with European handling and absolutely over-the-top quality, you easily get a Lancia. Which is good news for the American consumer, by the way.”
No kidding.
That one comes from Oliver Francois, the CEO of both Chrysler and Lancia.
Conveniently, he couldn’t have reinforced my opinions on “attitude” in a more direct way. Mackenzie seems to attribute these changes to the new management’s relative youth compared with their predecessors.
I think my sister’s 90s Dodge Grand Caravan stranding us both several times as a toddler has caused an evolutionary process to occur in my body, in which all Chrysler products immediately bring distaste.
“Hot, yes. But not a suitable mate. I have a gut feeling that it may leave me to fend for myself against the highway predators in the near future.”
Or, is it really just me? “Dodge” is practically damning when used around most of my friends. Is the media the root cause of that? Well….that’s a discussion for another time.
My point is that fresh people tend to bring fresh ideas, and it seems that Detroit’s favorite wimpy kid is bringing it to the bullies with some great ideas from middle-aged men.
Negligent Operators 