I'm a ~1998 to 2005 Chrysler fan. My family has had a '99 300M, '99 T&C, 2005 Pacifica, and my SRT-6. Unfortunately, every vehicle in a Chrysler showroom now is a B- effort at best. There is nothing that would get us into a new Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep.

The Ram and Wrangler have their merits, but they are not what the public wants right now. The Challenger is an overweight, overpriced disappointment and the other LX cars are very long in the tooth. Nothing needs to be said for the Sebring/ Avenger, their sales numbers speak for themselves. The PaCalCo small cars are a white flag thrown up in the fight for a world class small car. The three large SUV's are already dead. The Nitro and Liberty really don't compete in a defined segment anymore and have long been forgotten. A new Grand Cherokee is on the way but again, that market is eroding. The Viper is cool, but has an interior that reminds me a lot of that 1998-2005 era of Chrysler design.

And finally, the minivans- long the breadwinners for Chrysler, these still sell well, but with huge discounts and much worse resale values than their competition from Honda,Toyota and Hyundai/ Kia.

All that being said, the current Grand Cherokee SRT-8 would be a pretty cool truck for 17 grand.

Edit: I completely forgot about the Dodge Journey... the market has too.

 

yeah the grand cherokee srt-8 is a nice looking ride.

 

Crossfire fan........mostly.

I dislike the Ram simply because of the front end. Placing a giant Rolls-Royce style grill on.....a.....truck never did make much sense to me. It's a truck.....made for utility work.

Then we began to see the new 'giant grill idea' start to percolate throughout the entire brand. IMO, bad idea.

 

When I was born, Dad drove me home from the hospital in a Mopar (not that I remember much) He sold Mopars for the next 15 years, and I was pretty much into Mopars until the early 70's. I liked the early 80's Cordoba, and Mirada but not much else since.
The only problem was, I found out at a very early age, 6 to be exact (thanks to a neighbor with a baby Bird) that I was a 2 seater guy. But as we all know Mopars didn't come in that configuration back then.
So even though I loved the Pentastar, and Ford and Chevy were the "enemy", I wound up embracing American Motors thanks to the AMX. (and my Dad managing an AMC Dealer).
It wasn't until the creation of the Viper GTS, that brought me around again to Chrysler, but I finally purchased my Crossfire in spite of the fact it was really a Mercedes in disguise.

 

Mopar fan here!

2004 Crossfire
1971 Plymouth 'Cuda
2003 Town & Country - (the wifes car)

 

'86 Aries (used-gift), twin turbo bungee chords, adequate and reliable.
'93 Concorde, new, 3.5l. very nice, wiring and A/C problems.
'94 LHS, used low mileage, 3.5l, best car I ever had until then, plenty of room and comfort.
'99 Cirrus, used low mileage, 2.5l reliable.
'04 Crossfire, new, my pet.
'07 300, new, not a patch on the LH cars, but not in the same price range really.

Would I buy Mopar again? will I have the chance?

 

always owned a jeep even before Chrysler bought them...got rid of an SRT8 jeep and bought the SRT6 Vert, now have a v8 blk Jeep Gran Cherokee...but not really a Chrysler fan...I like Dodge trucks, but wouldn't own one now...keeping my Jeep and my XF for good...last vehicles for me...now my wife????

 

Do you mean you are not keeping your wife or are you are trading her for a newer model? Better not let her see this until the deal is done.

 

I'm from a family where my dad worked for Chrysler his entire life, retired, and died under the Chrysler umbrella. As far as I was concerned, a car was a Chrysler product.

During the 60's they made some damn good cars for the time. Cudas, Chargers Hemis etc, but you have to remember all cars lasted about 50,000 miles and were in reality not terribly good. Good for their time, but.

Fortunatly, they were inexpensive. They rusted away, you got another one.

Now, the Chrysler of today is a different animal. The last "real" Chrysler product I purchased was a PT Cruiser for the wife. What a piece! We kept a box in the trunk to put the parts which fell off in for the dealer to reinstall while under warranty. I thought never again.....

Toyota products began appearing in my garage. Huh, no problems, change the oil and drive...

Then the D/C debacle... What we received was a car that neither Chrysler dealers, nor DB wanted.

I purchased one of the 07 Fire Sale units. $16,995 for a base coupe. THe dealer had about 50 on the lot, and he "just wanted to get rid of these damn things".. Nice sales pitch.. The Chrysler dealers I've been in contact with HATE the car. They don't know how to service it, and when they try, basically f**k things up. Even with something as simple as an oil change. How can you like the current Chrysler under the current situation. They are in deep dodo.

Gazing into my crystal ball, which is quite cloudy, here's what I see.

Chrysler will go into chapter 11 after selling off the Viper and Jeep lines.. DB has a 30% or so ownership in Chrysler which they now value at $0.00 on their balance sheet, Fiat is getting about 35% for no cash outlay. and Cerberus wants out soo bad.... All they really wanted was Chrysler Credit (and GMAC) they got a car company for free.. or so they thought.

Our warranties will be worthless. Basic or extended..

However, we still end up with great ( let me repeat GREAT) dependable cars servicable at independent Mercedes shops. For for those later buyers, we got a great deal due to inept marketing by D/C.

A long winded answer to a short question....

Chrysler Fan..... Which Chrysler.... When?
Crossfire Fan..... Damn Right.... I can't believe how lucky I am to have it in my garage.

Bruce

PS There are no Chrysler logos in my Black Pearl, (unless you count the glass etching), so there is a hint regarding my feelings.

 

I have no brand loyalty. I like all kinds of different cars/brands.

 

Once they came out with the drive train life time warranty, I think they started to come back to being a fan of their "unique" styles of meshing the old and new together. As a previous owner of the Plymouth mini van, I grew tired of the repeated problems I had with the transmission and while all were covered under warranty.

Now the real brunt of my problem with Chrysler outside the trans, was actually more with their service departments. Out of the half dozen or so I've dealt with from here, Colorado, and Utah, I only found one that I liked and trusted. Sure this can exist with just about any dealership, but they have by far been the worst I've dealt with.

 

I have never had a car that was not built by the Big Three, call me stupid but they are critical to the North American economy and I felt that buying a car from a foreign owned company was driving a nail into the coffin of our economy. I must admit the Crossfire is a borderline case, but hey it says Chrysler on it. It is one of the six Mopar cars I have owned.
Any worker at one of the Big Three who purchased a foreign car should have had his ar$e kicked, as he wanted others to fund his benefits and retirement package.
If I had worked for Ford I would have driven a Ford not a Toyota. The parking lot at the Chrysler plant down the road has no Toyota's on it today, Oh I forgot they are closed down for a while.

 

I have a long history of Ford muscle cars and Ford powered drag cars. I have always liked the Mopar guys because we had a common enemy (Chevy). Later I owned a couple of Jeeps and think the 4.0 straight six is one of the most durable eninges ever made. I gave up on Chysler afer having too many electrical isues with my '98 Grand Cherokee. I like Chrysler styling and Mercedes German build quality even more, so the Crossfire is perfect for me. I would not have bought the car if it had Chrysler parts in it but would have made an exception if they had made an SRT-8 Hemi version!

 

I've owned cars built by all of the Big Three and several of the Japanese brands as well ... each has had it's +s and -s ... 40-50 years ago, Chrysler built a really good car, but until the late 60's/early 70s, they were as ugly as anything ever built ... I thought that after their return from Chapter 11, the quality went down and they were no better than Ford or GM ... quality is the reason the Japanese brands have made such a huge inroad on the American market ...

But, for US carmakers, achieving quality at a price competetive with Japan has been a seemingly impossible hurdle to jump over ... and one of the reasons for that is unrealistic union conditions ... UAW workers have huge incomes and contract conditions imposed on the car makers have precluded building cars at modest prices ... small wonder the country has turned away from them in droves ...

IMO, it would be good for the Big Three to go bankrupt .... start over in Chapter 11 with new conditions and new rules ... no reason in the world that it couldn't be done and in the end, we'd all be better off, including the workers ... cars would never have been built in the first place if there had been a union like the UAW representing the buggy industry

 

For me it has been a bit of both
My new cars have been:
57 Plymouth Fury
66 Ford Custom
68 Plymouth Fury
74 Dodge Dart
77 Ford E150
81 Ford Mustang
88 Ford Taurus
92 Ford Explorer
00 Plymouth Breeze
05 CF

 

My first car was a 1977 Chevy Monza 2+2...............everything since has been MOPAR!!! To narrow it down even more all I've bought in the last 4 years is SRT cars other than my Ram 1500 5.7Hemi(SRT-10 Ram is useless in my mind).

55 Dodge C3 pickup
77 Dodge B200 van
87 Chrysler Conquest TSi black
87 Chrysler Conquest TSi red
89 Dodge D50 turbo pickup
95 Dodge Neon
04 Dodge Neon SRT-4
04 Dodge Ram 1500 Hemi
05 Dodge Neon SRT-4
05 Chrysler Crossfire SRT-6
06 Dodge Charger SRT-8



Ohh, I did have a near mint 1988 Nissan 300zx 2+2 T-Top for 2 years and I have to admit it was a GREAT cruiser.

 

i am a chrysler fan my first car was a 69 olds then 71 440 six pack cuda, 1970ply duster, 1971 hemi cuda
1969 dodge charger 318 a 1995 dodge stratus,1986 dynasty, 2003 pt cruiser and my lovley xf 2005 srt-6 chrysler products are the best

 

At one time Chrylser was the car company that set the trends for american car companies. THe prowler was one of my favorites but never really a chrysler fan.

However crossfire fan, absotively (positively absolutely), but its really a benz

 

Straight MOPAR MAN since birth. Slant6 to Hemi to SRT6.

 

I'm a fan of "not my neighbours" car and subsequently have had most makes/models you can think of. British, German, French, Italian, Swedish, American, Asian, etc. had 'em all, over the years. Even had another example of a "re-bodied" bad marriage, my Sterling 825SL. In the late 80's when I imported it to Canada (Transport Canada told me at the time I was the first to do so) I never saw another one north of the 49th......and I liked that! Every time I took it to the Acura dealer for service, it would draw a crowd. So yes, I am a Chrysler fan, Crossfire fan but most importantly a fan of what everybody else doesn't have.