http://www.autonews.com/article/2014...880A7262467D6Y

 

That title makes it sound like Ralph is being shown the door...my understanding is SRT is going BACK under Dodge...and therefore would fall under the purview of the Dodge CEO, Kuniskis.

Ralph will still be there in his role as VP of Product Design. I think this is a good move for Chrysler...as they can help re-establish the Dodge/SRT lineup...instead of making SRT develop their own cars from scratch as they were discussing doing after the Viper was launched.

 

Well, I would expect the "S" to disappear...... The Dodge RT is old school and has been around long before SRT became known. But who knows. Maybe putting all the performance cars under one roof will save them money....

 

Well there is huge restructuring plans going on under FIAT.. Dodge is going to be almost entirely a performance brand... Chrysler is going to be the more "mainstream" brand and less the luxury brand.. closer to Chevy than Cadillac... and then FIAT/Alfa/Maserati are the steps up in the luxury side of the organization

 

That would make sense, given how they're thinning the Dodge product offerings.

 

Regardless of the justification, it's this type of "shuffling" that cheapens the brand and destroys the value.

SRT as a standalone brand was a bad call from the get-go... but having SRT models within Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep was smart. It allowed EACH brand to have a performance version, not necessarily force any brand to adopt sport/luxury as a whole. To wit... Jeeps were known as "trail ready"... but the SRT Jeep became a legend and gave the brand some caffeine. Chrysler was all but inconsequential, but the 300C SRT-8 gave the brand some teeth again. Sadly, our cars weren't much impact.

This sounds like a silly idea from new management that simply wants to put his/her name in the company timeline.

Playing musical chairs with the platforms (Viper was Dodge, then SRT, now Dodge again...) simply confuses the market and destroys credibility of the brand.

A Mustang will still be a Ford in ten years... a Camaro, will still be a Chevy... But a Viper? WHO KNOWS!

 

IMO Ralph is the best "car guy" they have had in decades and one of the best in the
industry. As far as SRT being a separate brand I am not to sure very many people other than SRT enthusiast realized that. No matter what generation Viper people look at or see they usually refer to it as a Dodge.

 

Easy, Viper will be nonexistent because they've priced themselves out of the market.

 

How's that working for the Corvette?

Also, remember the GT-R... it used to be $75,000 when it was first released. Now it's north of $100K, and people are snapping them up like candy.

The "market" is exactly what someone is willing to pay.

 

I thought I read recently that they closed the factory because they had too many cars on dealer lots. Corvette is in a much lower price bracket and when they do have a model that is north of $100,000 they're exclusive special editions.

 

It's true that they aren't selling well.

But, regarding the price, the Viper was meant to go head-to-head with the ZR-1 (when the car magazines did comparos, it was with the top-tier Vette, not the base model). So, you have to compare apples to apples. The ZR-1 is a special Vette, but the Viper's numbers put it right in the target.

The market's definition of "value" was always a funny one to me. Remember when the Challenger brought $10K over MSRP? It was a brief period of time, but people wanted them because they were fresh. My, how times have changed.

The new Z28 Camaro is the most expensive offering in the model's lineup. One could easily argue that the Z28 is pricing itself out of the Camaro's target market -- yet it's already sold out.

The Viper became an instant legend in the 90's, and this current version is the most drivable one yet produced, and social media was raving about it two years ago -- but it's selling at a snail's pace, and SRT is now a dead brand.

This is the hell that is automotive marketing.

 

The Z-28 has an old following like myself. There will be old enthusiasts willing to pay to get this machine. In fact, if I didn't have my 2 cars, I would have ordered already. Vette guys aren't Camaro guy in any way shape or form. We old Camaro guys were the black sheep to the Vette crowd....lol. But I have owned both. I like the Camaro crowd better. WE shall see what happens, as none of it affects me. I still like my XF's for now. But if I can't get the coupe finished the way I want it, I will put them both up for sale and move on to the Camaro. At least I know how to work on a bowtie. I'm still learning the with the Xf's or I should say still hitting dead ends....

 

In the same boat on that last comment, my friend.

I've generally preferred the Camaro crowd over the Vette crowd... less pretentious.

 

By and large, that's an easy one to figure out, they've gotten slower. With the exception of the Super Bee and Viper, there's been no real justification for the inflated price tag other than looks.

I laughed at my buddy for dropping 70k on a Mustang when he traded his 1st gen SRT Jeep for a '13 GT500. -Laughed then, but now the 70k pony car is a real market. I just cannot fathom spending that on any domestic label lacking real racing pedigree.

 

I thought SRT as a separate brand was a bad idea from the start, since consolidation a few years earlier dropped the Plymouth line it made no sense to me to spin off SRT and Ram as separate divisions. Just meant more money spent on salaries that were not needed. We will have to wait and see where this new move leaves all the legacy chrysler brands...