Chrysler As A Luxury Brand?

Auto sites across the web have been almost universally coming down on Chrysler CEO Peter Fong’s revelation to Business Week that they will be positioning the brand as a true luxury make, his exact words being “a notch above Lincoln, a notch above Cadillac”.  Regardless of who is giving Business Week the interview, its clear that Chrysler’s new bosses at Fiat are starting off down the same road that previous owner Daimler AG did:  come up with a luxury image as opposed to a luxury car.

The old DaimlerChrysler, effectively run out of Stuttgart, hatched a plan for Chrysler to recycle Mercedes-Benz’s retired platforms and turn them into luxury cars beyond what Chrysler was making.  It was a reluctant exchange as Mercedes didn’t want to be associated with a lowly volume brand like Chrysler.  Ultimately, the exchange brought the 300, Charger, Challenger, and Crossfire, with the Pacifica rounding out the attempt at premium status.  Luxury staples such as V8 power and rear-wheel drive hadn’t been seen from an American maker in a long time, but ultimately these were not enough to overcome a declining economy, stale product, and hit and miss design.

Now that Fiat is running the show, they want another shot at the luxury thing.  Except that they don’t have rear-wheel drive, or V8s, or a superior reputation for quality.  The plan, apparently, is to take Chrysler’s existing line-up, slap a couple extra chrome stickers on the dash, and use the word luxury more in TV and print ads.  Good luck with that.  Its completely inconsistent with the reality that Fiat has too little money, small car tech, and a bankrupt Chrysler to fix.

Not that it can’t be done, just probably not by Fiat and definitely not with the resources they seem to be bringing to the table.  A clear plan outlining at least three generations of cars over 9-10 years with a consistent message, and all the money that such a plan entails, is the only real formula for completely turning around a brand.

Cadillac is in the process now and is just barely making it into the same breath as more traditional luxury makes.  Several billion dollars and two CTS generations later, along with the missteps like the STS and XLR, Cadillac is on its way back.  No ad campaign alone is going to do half of that, and Cadillac has quite a ways to go.  A better case would be Hyundai.

No brand was more maligned than Hyundai when it debuted back in the 1980s, and rightfully so.  They were cheap, poorly made, and an embarrassment to whom ever was seen in one.  But they kept at it and the 90s saw Hyundai become a budget alternative to Toyota and Honda.  Now here we are at the end of this decade and they’ve moved up a whole other notch:  Genesis.  A real luxury alternative that is being reviewed favorably against cars like the BMW 5 series.  Proof that any brand can be turned around, given enough time and money.

So Chrysler, once a legitimate luxury brand, can absolutely be viewed as a real luxury car.  It’s just going to take more than a few weeks of advertising.