While it’s not as bad as the 753-day supply of Jeep Renegades from earlier this year, the many Dodge Hornets for sale is another sign that Stellantis hasn’t quite found it yet. How many Stellantis products would you guess make the top ten list of vehicles by market day supply? Four? Six? More? Yes, the answer is more. Let’s take a look at a list of the vehicles filling up dealership lots these days.
It’s a Monday here in the land of The Morning Dump and I’m excited to talk to you about Mazda and its EV plan, because up until now the plan had all the coherence of the musical Cats, which is to say very little. Also, fun fact, the only time I’ve seen Cats live it was in German, but it didn’t make any more or less sense.
Tesla is still resistant to Northern European unions, causing more trouble for the company there in terms of backing from large investment funds. How long can Musk hold out? Probably forever.
And, finally, America is the absolute global leader in oil production and is otherwise crushing it, but we have a Democrat in The White House so it’s a little awkward to talk about.
So, So, So Many Dodge Hornets
The Dodge Hornet is a shortcut. Let’s be honest. It is an extremely lazy rebadge of the Alfa Romeo Tonale, which is already a second-string crossover (Car and Driver places the Hornet 12th out of 21 small crossovers). It is quick for a small crossover and comes with a PHEV version, which is cool, but this is an extremely competitive segment and a starting price higher than the CR-V is hard to swallow.
Just for funsies, I looked around to see what people are listing these things for and I found vehicles like this 2024 Dodge Hornet R/T Plus for $49,720. Yikes. If you’re a Hornet owner or fanboy and can justify that price to me I am all ears.
Looking at the CarEdge data on Market Day Supply for December, which takes the number of vehicles it sees listed across dealerships and the number that sell over 45 days and calculates the number of days it would take to sell, we can see a lot of Stellantis. Too much Stellantis.
The top of the mountain (or bottom, maybe) is the Ram 2500, but this is a small number of vehicles (1,602 for sale) and the vehicle has undergone numerous recalls this year so it’s a little harder to pin that down to low demand or oversupply.
What stands out to me is the Dodge Hornet, which went on sale earlier this year and had 10,781 for sale, but only moved (via this data) about 939 cars during the period at an average selling price of $39,931. Market day supply is 517. This lines up pretty well with the 1,753 Hornet sales that the company reported in Q3 of this year.
Obviously, it’s a new-ish vehicle, so production and availability could always be issues, but the disparity between the number of vehicles available and those sold seems a little too great for that. We’ll see when Stellantis reports quarterly sales in January.
The rest of the list is, woof, not great for Stellantis either. In #3 is the Dodge Charger, which everyone knows is on the way out, followed by the Dodge Challenger, which is also not long for the world in its current iteration. The good news is there are a ton for sale.
There are three non-Stellantis products on here, including the Mach-E (matching the Challenger in sales pace, though with slightly fewer for sale), the outgoing Jaguar F-Type (but there are only 657 of them for sale), and the Mercedes-Benz SL.
Looking at the list of cars with the lowest Market Day Supply shows a bunch of affordable-ish cars, some hybrids, and a few super in-demand vehicles.
With just seven days of Market Day Supply is the extremely popular RAV4 Hybrid, followed by the hybrid-only Toyota Sienna. Two cars I’m considering buying next, the Ford Maverick and Corolla Cross (also both available as hybrids), have a 31-day supply. Shout out to our awesome colleague Jessica Ray, who just picked one up:
After 15 months, I’m the proud owner of the cutest, cheapest, and most fuel efficient trucklet you can buy!
Meet my 2024 Ford Maverick XL Hybrid! I’m so happy she’s here 🥰🛻 pic.twitter.com/sqha36vXHS
— Jessica Ray (@jessicaray0) December 10, 2023
Both the Kia Rio and the Chevrolet Trax are on this list, with average selling prices of $19,091 and $24,430, respectively. The Land Rover Range Rover Sport, GLC-Class Mercedes, and BMW X5 are also here because those are popular vehicles people love.
Given the preponderance of crossovers and hybrids on the good list just highlights how awkward it is to have the Hornet on the bad list.
Mazda Is Going To Be An “Intentional Follower”
Mazda is hard for me to classify. The company’s cars look great. Most of them are among the best vehicles in each class. They’re still making the Miata! I intrinsically like Mazda and, yet, Kia and Hyundai are running laps around them by doing what I think we all suspect Mazda is capable of doing.
Like many other Japanese automakers, Mazda has been behind on EVs, offering only the super weird MX-30 thing. Given everyone freaking out about electric car demand, maybe that was the better plan?
The future of Mazda has been a little uncertain to me, but CEO Masahiro Moro talked to Automotive News and he’s got a strategy.
“One of the big issues for us is demand is uncertain,” Moro said. “In the current market, the reality for electrification, in particular for battery EVs, is the pace is not that high. So we may start a little slower in terms of the ramp-up. Not necessarily in terms of timing, but the ramp-up.
“That is why I call us an intentional follower on EVs.”
Mazda expects to derive 25 to 40 percent of its global sales from EVs in 2030. But Moro said EV demand, worldwide and in the U.S., is trending toward the lower end.
While EVs will be running slow, Mazda is joining the hybrid hype train with the rest of us:
Plug-ins account for half the volume of the CX-90 crossover in the U.S. That is about double the ratio the brand originally forecast, Moro said. And for the CX-50, Mazda expects a hybrid version to account for 20 to 25 percent of sales when it is added as an option.
The CX-70, expected to land stateside next year, will also get a plug-in hybrid.
Unlike the CX-90 and CX-70 plug-in systems, which Mazda developed in-house, the CX-50 will adopt a hybrid system from partner Toyota Motor Corp., Moro said. Toyota owns a 5.1 percent stake in Mazda, and Mazda makes the CX-50 at an Alabama plant jointly operated with Toyota.
2024. Year of the Hybrid!
Tesla, Unions, Nordic Pension Funds, Et Cetera
Tesla’s ongoing battle with unions in Northern Europe continues, with the latest twist being demands from Nordic pension funds that CEO Elon Musk just recognize the unions and move on to other things.
“Tesla’s attitude against the right to collective bargaining is of deep concern,” said a draft of the letter to the carmaker’s management provided by Norway’s largest pension fund KLP.
The Nordic region’s labour market model combines high job mobility with income security for the unemployed through a long tradition of dialogue between employer associations and labour unions.
“(This model) has enabled the Nordics to thrive as one of the most prosperous and harmonious regions worldwide,” the draft letter said.
Harmony. Love. Working together. Gløgg. Those Norwegians have it figured out.
Drill, Biden, Drill
“.. American oil production — already higher than any other country — is quietly setting new records and helping to push down gas prices.”@axios #OOTT ⛽️ https://t.co/FB5o9oZjax pic.twitter.com/IUl7Bd3Fw5
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) December 11, 2023
Raise your hand if you knew that America was the biggest oil producer in the world coming out of the pandemic. Raise your hand if you knew we’re hitting record amounts of oil production at 13.1 million barrels a day.
It’s ok if you didn’t know. If we had a Republican as the president then it’s quite possible that the president would be crowing about this fact. For a green-forward, climate-forward progressive like President Joe Biden, it’s a little more awkward.
This graphic comes from Axios and they make basically the same point:
Between the lines: The record drilling — and how to talk about it — has squeezed President Biden between young climate activists and persistent GOP attacks on his energy record.
Biden has remained relatively silent about U.S. oil strength. But he does like promoting lower gas prices, which this supply increase helps enable.
Some moderate Democrats want Biden to openly take credit for record production.
Making it even more awkward is that President Biden has only so much to do with this. There are a lot of places that the industry would like to drill and they can’t, which is why a lot of the boom is coming from private lands.
The Big Question
What do I have to do to get you, or anyone, into a Dodge Hornet today?
In all complete seriousness (and I live in Southern California where eventually you encounter just about every automobile ever made) I honestly don’t remember ever once seeing a Dodge Hornet on the road.
I cannot imagine spending more than $30k out the door for a Hornet.
I wish Dodge and Chrysler were just re-branded as Stellantis already so we wouldn’t keep accidentally remembering they existed.
I like the hornet, but not at the prices listed. Being a mechanical twin of an alfa shouldn’t be an issue as I doubt that alfa would be selling a whole lot in north America anyway. Just a way for auto makers to amortize development cost. They really need to keep the tonal in Europe and leave the hornet to north America. Perhaps open the hornet production in Mexico and not in Italy.
my problem is that Alfas have never had a great reputation for reliability and, like the Maserati, are being serviced by dealers and technicians who have little or no experience on the vehicle at all. It doesn’t instill confidence, especially at the price points you can get to with a Hornet, and also bearing in mind the very real possibility of parts availability issues where the dealers are very unlikely to stock parts for an “orphan” vehicle.
That is true, but if dodge took the platform and made it here it could be a volume car not just a boutique niche car.
I legit didn’t even know the Hornet was on the market. I haven’t seen a single one. I’m in the midwest. We’re lousy with Renegades and Compases and all that FCA … err Stellantis … garbage.
I haven’t seen one purchased. Our local Stellantis dealer has two or three sitting on its lot collecting dust, though.
I feel like Mazda should just partner with somebody do the old rebadge trick for an EV. Go back to Ford, hat in hand, and ask if they can rebadge the Mach-e as an MX-e or what not, they don’t have money to build EVs, that’s fine, just do like Toyaburu did with the busy forks and Solterra.
Dodge, ugh, when is Stellantis just gonna move the the Pacifica and Durango to the Ram truck lines(Ramvan?) and quit pretending Dodge and Chrysler are actually makes any more?
I’m not sure what’s worse, quick and painful death like Pontiac, or this slow heat death they’re doing with Chrysler/Dodge. At least GM was TOLD to kill off brands, nobody’s telling Stellantis to bleed the old makes dry.
Mazda was/is probably considering a rebadge, but the bZ4X/Solterra just isn’t a good enough product to Mazda-ify. PHEV-ification is a good enough strategy to use until Toyota can make an actually competitive EV platform.
There’s such a thing as a Dodge Hornet?
*Dodge executive pounds the rest of his 4Loko*
Fuck! Let’s put a Hellcat V8 in the Hornet. We’ll call it the Hellcat Hornet and put HH on the back hatch. That’s how you- What’s the problem with the HH? Ok yeah, I see it on the Anti-Defamation League’s website. That’s bullshit man, they never made GM stop throwing SS badges on everything.
*opens his next can of 4Loko*
Murder Hornets. Those guys were huge for like 1 year, right? I think the band broke up because I haven’t heard my kids talking about them. The name is free for the taking.
Please copyright this comment before Dodge uses it as R&D.
Honestly, I’d be disappointed in Dodge if they haven’t already had a meeting that went exactly like this.
“What do I have to do to get you, or anyone, into a Dodge Hornet today?”
Sell it for 25K, or anything reasonable. Right now the Maverick seems like the best option in that range…..
I haven’t been paying close attention to the small crossover space, but I had never heard of the Dodge Hornet nor have I seen one in person or even in images. It’s not a bad looking thing (at least, that was my thought until I scrolled down a little further and saw the pretty Mazda MX-whatever in that gorgeous shade of metallic red that Mazda paints their cars in), and the PHEV option is cool. It feels a little pricey for what you’re getting, but everything feels pricey these days, so I just chalk that up to my getting older. I’m not in the market for a new car at the moment, but if I were, I wouldn’t immediately pass it over.
Come to think of it, I might like a Hornet… if it was a 1972 Hornet wagon with a 304 and a 3-speed stick.
I prefer the Hudson version…
How to get me into a Hornet;
I saw a Hornet at a car show this spring and walked around it. It wasn’t memorable and I just remember asking “why does this exist?” That segment has so many other options, they really needed to try harder or deliver at a low price.
I was gonna say hit me with it, and if I go through you the windshield, then I’ll be in a hornet. It’s about the only way
It exists because they hired another marketing department in the USA to market it. That’s the badge engineered bloat. Marketing says the demand is there. So they get a marketing department to market to the demand they said exited and then they HAVE to build enough cars for the demand. Meanwhile, no one stopped to think if they SHOULD or even CAN participate in the market where demand is high. So now they have all this money invested in marketing and tooling for a car that only exists because a lot of people buy inexpensive cars. Not realizing they buy GOOD inexpensive cars. Not just an inexpensive car.
Guess I’m considered a “Hornet fanboy”.
To be honest, there’s only one Hornet I would want: a GT with remote start, heated seats/wheel, & the track package. With all that, it’d probably be just about $35,000. I can’t justify it now, but if my life changes, maybe I could…. that is, even if I could get one. Because CARB state, yadda yadda.
The hybrids are too damn expensive, & for all of the “hybrid specialty” PSA brought with them from the merger, it’s still not that competitive. It’s not that economical, nor that fast.
Each one of those 25k Challengers for sale is an individual limited farewell edition.
Stellantis screwed up with that Hornet pricing, it’s about $10K too much to make it a compelling option…
You are 44 minutes late for me to read while eating lunch. You let me down today, Matt. It’s almost like you are busy and shortstaffed, which is an unaccepatable excuse. I am calling the post office to cancel my xmas cards.
How to get me into a Dodge Hornet:
8. Sign here and you can have it for free. Totally free. Just get it off my hands.
8a. Wait, taxes, gas, and maintenance for life are free?
And, #3…. YEAAAHHHHHH. No comment. Somehow FCP Euro got $1k of my money that way and I forgot and lost the order.
Dodge has a chance to compete with the rest of the market, but they can’t market or sell the Hornet right. The only ads for it I’ve seen are a sudo “Killer Hornet meets Godzilla” type commercial with a “swarm” of them attacking. All while being awkwardly placed next to a Hellcat Charger and Challenger.
Dodge could easily sell this as “Plug-in Hybrid fuel economy, luxury interior, AWD capability” to compete with Toyota and Hyundai. I mean seriously, why are folks paying over MSRP for a RAV4 Prime when they could go get a PHEV Hornet today!
But it doesn’t have good fuel economy (29 combined for the PHEV), it’s smaller than the RAV, and there are Sportage PHEVs to be had at MSRP. Or, if someone is okay with the lower cargo capacity and FWD, they can get a LOT more efficient with a Kia Niro. Or an Escape PHEV for more cargo space and FWD.
It’s not 29 combined. It’s 29 after you run out of plug-in power. It’s 77 combined.
(29 is still crappy! But it’s not 29 combined.)
Sorry, that is what I meant: 29 combined (Highway/City) after the plug-in power. The 77mpge is a useless number, in my opinion. I also completely ignore it on my Niro, which claims 105mpge.
If you’re using a PHEV and thinking much about fuel economy, you’re probably on a trip that isn’t going to be using the EV side for much of it.
Sorry for the lack of clarity.
I laugh at your 29mpg. I’m in my 1999 Lexus rx300 and am getting 17.4. Also Premium. That said it is paid for and has gone 214000 miles without a hiccup. When my inner cost accountant projects the cost of petrol over the increase in cost of a PHEV or an ev where I have to spend a grand on a garage hookup I pet the dashboard of my Lexus and say thank you for starting today. Oh yeah I have to turn my head when I am in reverse. I call it neck exercise and voila I feel better
.
See, this guy needs to get into Stellantis’s PR room, stat!
I don’t even think the Hornet has much cargo space over a Niro. Comparing PHEVs, Hornet shrinks to just shy of 23 cubic feet, the Niro 19.4, which isn’t nothing. But seats down I see up to 54 for the Hornet; I don’t know if that’s the non-PHEV, but even if it is, that’s the same as Kia says for the Niro PHEV.
Yeah, looks like you’re right–the advantage with the seats up disappears when hauling larger items. When they announced this, I thought I might replace my Niro, but the price, efficiency, and size pushed me elsewhere.
My Focus ST had almost 24 cu ft and that’s with the full width spare lifting the floor about 2″ over the regular hatch. I knew these stupid CUVs were space inefficient, but WTF.
Just give Hornet buyers EV rebates, problem solved. It’s got an electrical system, right?
It has a PHEV version and that’s a lot of the inventory.
There goes the affordable EV argument!
Okay, but here me out: jellicle käsespätzle.
Are you saying that supplying cheese pastry is a pre-requisite to a purchase, or that the damn car looks like a cheese pastry? Because either is, strangely, reasonable.
I heard you, and now I’m hungry.
Also somehow with 1 comment you are able to tie all these former article topics into 1 : best German foods, stray/weird cats, and Possums.
Have they begun advertising the Hornet? I feel like I have seen ads around but don’t know if they’ve really pushed it yet. Even so, I don’t know who the car is for, it feels like something they would have thrown an Eagle badge on 30 years ago. Or the Eagle Premier-based Dodge Monaco, for that matter.
It’s a bit of a tweener in size for a crossover, but not in price – even in the 30s it isn’t a great buy. Mazda CX-5 is probably closest in size and offers a big turbo 4, sure the Dodge is less but that seems like such a small niche of buyers who would want that. Maybe a Ford Escape if you really want a domestic badge. Or the Jeep Compass in their own portfolio, which has less power from the 2.0T but better MPG (32 mpg highway vs 29) and also cheaper.
The PHEV might be a unique proposition but “performance + plug-in hybrid + Dodge” feels like a Mad Lib. Ignoring the unobtainium RAV4 Prime, the Hornet is more expensive than a Sportage or Tucson PHEV, and again Ford is there with a (albeit FWD-only) PHEV Escape.
If my local Dodge dealer has any of them, they’re really good at keeping them hidden. I have yet to see one either on the lot or in the wild.
Like others mentioned the were ads and it seems like I saw them for 6 months saying it was coming soon. I think they forgot to follow-up the campaign once it arrived telling people it’s available now, but I think there’s a glitch in the system and the price was doubled by mistake.
Would they lose money if they just cut the price on all of the Hornets on dealer lots by 50% or just let them rot on dealer lots? Imagine a 50% off sale nationwide to get free press and buzz. It may even get people into dealers to upsell on something better. There was some sales stunt a while ago where people got a free small car with the purchase of an expensive one I just can not find it right now.
That was a Kia promotion. Buy one of their bigger vehicles at full MSRP, get a free Rio. I believe it was just a dealer stunt that went viral, not an actual factory-supported thing.
Even if you actually wanted both though, you were probably better off buying them separately and taking advantage of the individual discounts.
Nissan dealers did the same thing for awhile. I believe if you bought an SUV or a truck in 2008, they give you a Nissan Versa free.
Here where I live, years back there was even buy an accord get a fit free.
A local dealer does a Black Friday promotion where you buy a car and get another for $1. It’s a limited selection of used cars, and you have to go in to see them, but it certainly generates some buzz. It’s also a way to get rid of crap they can’t sell.
I think these Hornets have too much value for them to try that on anything but the highest margin vehicles, but if they can drop the price to somewhere around 75% of MSRP, they could sell. Buy one Hornet, get another one free would be kind of fun to see, though.
I had forgotten the Hornet existed until I finally saw one on the road a couple weeks ago……that has to be the longest it has taken me to run across a non-exotic car in the wild for years. And I only saw it because it was wrecked in the turn lane…..everyone looked ok though, so well done Dodge/Alfa?
“What do I have to do to get you, or anyone, into a Dodge Hornet today?”
Give it to me for free.
What’s wrong with it? It’s certainly not the best vehicle ever made, but it doesn’t seem like a bad one (I haven’t sat in one).
Aside from at its core being a CUV (i.e. paying a price premium for a vehicle higher off the ground than it should be with a cramped/poorly packaged interior), I’m just not sold on Chrysler’s build and engineering quality.
And if I were to put myself into the CUV penalty box, there are far better Honda and Toyotas to buy.
The problem with the hornet is they were clearly designing and getting this thing ready for market in the midst of the Covid pricing surge. So they filled it with expensive tech, and used really nice quality interior trimmings, but that’s not really what most people are shopping for in a small SUV.
If people have the budget for a $40,000 plus suv, they are NOT shopping Hornets.
Our Base GT models have so far been selling pretty well, but the farther away from 30K they go, the longer they sit.
This needs to be price competitive with the new Chevy trax to be any kind of success, and it’s just not.
great insight alert!
Wait…They named it after an old AMC? Nothing says class and upward mobility like calling a $40,000 CUV a Hornet. Jeez Dodge what are you all smoking?
Chrysler has always been one to dust off old nameplates, seemingly more than GM or Ford. The Pacifica name was on 2 concepts, the 2nd previewing the production crossover that bore the name, and then eventually a minivan today. The Hornet offers a GLH package as a nod to the Omni GLH too.
But then it’s also a brand that offered a color called Contusion Blue on many models, even the Grand Caravan…
I’m very surprised that they haven’t been able to stick a smaller (non-hybrid) engine in it yet, such as the same 1.3T (180hp/199lb-ft @1850 rpm) used in the hybrid, or a version of the 1.5T (160hp/177lb-ft w/hybrid) the Tonale is sold with in other markets. 180hp is about the norm in this segment for a base engine.
I get that Dodge is supposed to be a performance brand, but it’s also the same company that sold:
Grand Caravan (average power for the class)Durango (average base engine but with upgrade options)Dart (average base engine and a warm upgrade engine)Avenger (both I4 & V6 competitive with contemporaries)Dodge could probably use the (averagely powered) 1.3T (non-hybrid) as the base engine, 2.0T for the higher trim performance models, and simply drop the plug-in hybrid and let it be an Alfa Romeo exclusive. Alternatively, drop the 2.0T and use the PHEV as the upgrade engine, which is likely going to be a trend at Stellantis soon.
Then, make a new base trim that removes the following from the current base model:
AWD, as FWD is enough with 180hp, and AWD can be optional (this would also improve fuel economy further, but may be a deal breaker for too many buyers)Standard adaptive dampers (how many shoppers even notice this?)Power folding mirrors with integrated turn signals (do folding mirrors matter much in the USDM?)One-touch windows on all doors (just the driver’s window is enough on the base model)Rain Sensing Wipers (unless it’s required for IIHS ratings)Cloth/Leatherette seats, full cloth is good enough (if the leatherette is minimal, then leave it be)12.3″ Instrument Display, an analog speedo with a smaller screen can do (and is a good upsell feature)
This will probably push down the (currently $31.4k) starting price into the high $20ks, which is a lot closer with things like the Escape, CR-V, Sportage, and Equinox.
You’d need to keep stuff like the driver assists, since the IIHS requires that all trims come standard with these to qualify for important Top Safety Pick awards. You also shouldn’t remove push button start, since the Kia Boys scandal would make buyers wary. Leaving the big 10.25″ UConnect screen standard will attract buyers, and idk if FCA has a downgrade options for it anyways.
“I get that Dodge is supposed to be a performance brand”
There is a point of HUGE annoyance for me, These brands and their “Identities”
A while back, Stellantis decided that each of it’s brands had to have it’s own mission, ethos, and customer base. It’s just so dumb to me, because you’re limited now with what you can do. Chrysler was supposedly going to be the “people mover” brand (dumbest thing I’ve ever heard) Jeep the “Adventure” Brand ( sure, lean into that, it works) Ram with their Work image and Dodge, the “Performance guys”
Stellantis in the US should be a two brand ship.
+Let Chrysler die. Leave it go, with some dignity. Extend the 300 and Pacifica one more year, while they work on a rebadge for the pacifica, which would be:
+The new Dodge Caravan. Simple rebadge of the pacifica, but with a bit more macho styling and a chargery front-end. IT WOULD SELL.
+Next, a Rebaged Compass with that same aggro styling. Call it a Spirit, call it a neon, Idongiveashit. Just offer a low cost suv to slot under the Hornet.
+Roll Ram back into Dodge, it’s been 10 years and EVERYONE still calls them Dodges.
Make a Ram Dakota out of the gladiator bones. Slightly bigger interior, bed and cab, but all Jeep Gladiator Running gear. Solves two problems. Dodge get’s a midsizer, and toledo is back up to three shifts again.
+ Plus of course, the new maverick/Santa Cruz fighter. Dodge Rampage sounds a HELL of a lot better than Ram Rampage or Ram 1000
Now, You have Jeep, with their full catalog, and Dodge, now with a full compliment of vehicles, ready for a REAL resurgence.
No gimmicks. No sport or performance pretenses. Just nicely styled domestic vehicles. And then little by little, you grow those brands by keeping things fresh and working on quality control.
Hyundai and Kia didn’t become cool and fashionable because someone came up with an “Image” for thier brands. They became cool because they started building shit that looked cool, and priced that shit fairly.
That could be us, Stellantis,
That could be us!
See that makes sense. Problem is, you gotta sell the idea to guys educated in Europe and wearing fancy Italian shoes. They will never understand.
“Stellantis in the US should be a two brand ship.”
Nah… They need more than two brands. The brands I’d keep in North America are Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Alfa Romeo and Maserati
Dodge – Sporty vehicles, affordable vehicles, mass market vehicles, trucks… including all the vehicles under the Ram brand. Dodge would be for going against Ford, Chevy, Hyundai, Kia, etc.
Chrysler – Affordable luxury vehicles. Take Dodge vehicles, make them quieter, smoother riding and more luxurious. Have Chrysler versions of Dodges where it makes sense. Chrysler would go against Buick, Acura, Lexus, Infiniti and the lower end Euro luxury vehicles.
Jeep – Continues what it’s currently doing.
Alfa Romeo – higher/high-end Euro performance vehicles to go up against BMW and Porsche.
Maserati – really high end luxury/performance vehicles. Should go against the Mercedes S-Class on the LOW end, Bentleys on the high end.
I would kill off the Ram brand (It should go back under Dodge) and Fiat in North America.