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Reply With QuoteThe Jeep brand: the Hope Diamond of the automotive world. Hopefully Chrysler and Dodge can still stick around in one form or another as heritage brands for the small core of enthusiasts, or at least Mopar.
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http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/07/h...rysler-suitor/
On the same day that General Motors announced that it would be discontinuing talks with Cerberus over a possible purchase of Chrysler, news hits by way of Reuters that a new suitor has sprung up. Wow, that didn't take long. The latest partner is none other than Hyundai, Korea's largest automaker. Not surprisingly, it's the Jeep brand that is again taking center stage according to these initial rumors. Everybody wants Jeep, it seems. If true, the possibility of breaking Chrysler's automotive operations into bits and pieces once again seems like a distinct possibility. What's more, after acknowledging that GM is abandoning talks of a "strategic acquisition," Chrysler's Bob Nardelli may now be back on the phone with Carlos Ghosn, head of the Nissan/Renault juggernaut, along with, presumably, anybody else that's willing to listen and has a pulse. Ford's probably not interested, considering that it has got its own problems to worry about. Today was truly a tough day for all three of America's longstanding automakers.
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The Jeep brand: the Hope Diamond of the automotive world. Hopefully Chrysler and Dodge can still stick around in one form or another as heritage brands for the small core of enthusiasts, or at least Mopar.
42True true, there's a lot of legit heritage and cache in Jeep. Maybe Hyundai will have the sense to trim the Compass/Commander/Liberty/Patriot fat and stick to the lean Wrangler/Grand Cherokee meat.
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I think the Patriot and Liberty have their place but I agree about the Compass and Commander. Not that I particularly like either one, I just think that there is room in the lineup for an SUV above and below the Grand Cherokee.
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What I want to see is a return of the Cherokee Sport as a true die-hard offroader.
59Hyundai needs a luxury brand, so buying Chrysler could be the answer. No one is going to buy a $30k Hyundai Genesis, but if they rebadged it as Chrysler, it might fool some average buyer.
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HEMI Genesis coupe anyone?
370I approve.Originally Posted by Donington
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That would actually be quite impressive.
208Now this is weird. ...
129It is. But the implications of such a merger would be very interesting. Certainly Hyundai knows how to take a shit product and make money on it.
370Chrysler knew how to do that once too.
346And they were very very very good at it.
44 
Chrysler is already a fairly popular brand in Korea so this makes sense actually. There are a TON of 300C's rolling around over there as diplomatic cars. I would venture to say that outside of the Korean brands, Chrylser is second only to Mercedes in popularity... go figure!
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The only major difference now is that they're unable to make money on it :p
129Yep, because instead of making crappy cars that are extremely cheap to produce, they're building crappy cars that are expensive to produce. Thanks, Mercedes!
346Exactly. Cheap makes up for many sins; cheap and stupid fast can make up for almost any automotive sin.
Unfortunately, thanks to Mercedes, Chrysler is no longer cheap enough to qualify for that forgiveness.
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Jeep owned by Hyundai.
+ YouTube Video
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I wouldn't worry too much. Jeep has already been owned by 4 different companies (Willys-Overland, Kaiser, AMC, Chrysler) and none of them have screwed it up. The Wrangler still has solid axles front and rear and all of the 2-door ones are 4 wheel drive. Jeep has always been profitable, even though they like to make the same model for 10+ years (CJ7 76-86, CJ5 54-83, Wagoneer 63-92, etc.).
Jeep will live on, I don't think the Koreans are stupid enough to mess it up, heck, if anything, they will give the engineers some money and tell them to have at it.
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Let's face it, Jeep is pretty hard to screw up. Unless they make the Wrangler front-wheel drive on an extended Sonata platform with dual-zone climate controls, it's a hard formula to mess around with.
What's more interesting is to see what other models will be FUBAR'd later. Remember the Jeepster? Soon they'll be talking about the Commander, Compass, and Patriot along the same veins: interesting yet obscure footnotes in Jeep's history of trying to extend its market.
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