Chrysler Group, which is currently on an impressive sales roll, up 4 percent this year when the majority of competitors are sliding
 |
| Canadians might trend more towards smaller cars than Americans, but wemust love our HEMIs even more being thatwe've just recently made DaimlerChrysler Canada the second most popularseller of cars and trucks in the country. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann,Canadian Auto Press) |
downhill, is much more aware of the differences and similarities of our two cultures now. Canadians might trend more towards smaller cars than Americans, but we must love our HEMIs even more than our friends to the south being that we've just recently made DaimlerChrysler Canada the second most popular seller of cars and trucks in the country. Auburn Hills would love to be able to boast of such success in the U.S.
While I beat up its U.S. headquarters for a previous decision to limit its Dodge brand only to trucks and SUVs in Canada, dropping the Stratus from the lineup wasn't necessarily a bad idea. One of three virtual clones offered in Canada, the other two being the Chrysler Cirrus and Plymouth Breeze (the Plymouth brand is now defunct), there was no need for three versions of the same car - GM take note and kill off a couple of your GMT360 SUVs, otherwise known as TrailBlazer, Envoy, Rainier and 9-7X... and don't worry about dropping support of the U.S.-only Isuzu Ascender as it'll probably die a natural death without any direct involvement. The 9-7X,
 |
| The SRT-4 name is the same in both Canada and the U.S., while our SX 2.0 is dubbed Neon (like it used to be here) in the States. (Photo: Justin Couture, Canadian Auto Press) |
well Saab's life has been guaranteed to 2009, so it'll probably march along unaffected until then.
While GM may want to consider reducing the number of brands it sells, beyond the deletion of Oldsmobile, a decision that I, for one, would not want to make, Chrysler Group has been slowly reintroducing the Dodge brand to the Canadian car market. The first model was the re-branded Neon, dubbed SX 2.0 in Canada while still labeled Neon in the States - arguably a better name than Neon but once again the Canadian division lost out on optimizing its U.S. counterpart's TV and magazine ad spend - at least the SRT-4 derivative is the same in both countries. The SX was followed by the Magnum last year, an ultra-cool sport wagon version of the popular 300 series Chrysler. Most recently, Charger was added to the line, also based on the same LX architecture. Now there's Caliber coming, a five-door model set to replace the SX 2.0 (Neon), the concept version of which debuted along with another new model in prototype form, the Nitro midsize SUV in Toronto yesterday, both of which will be followed by Avenger.
