I've been reading some limited information on Project "D". It appears it is in response to the terrible response to the Sebring/Avenger vehicles. I cannot find enough information on the net to determine if this is an interior only chance, and interior/exterior modification, or an entire new platform that will be rushed into production to replace the Sebring/Avenger at SHAP? The scary thing is that many of our newest vehicles are not selling (Nitro, Caliber, Compass, Liberty, Avenger, Sebring, etc.), so what happens when they get to be 2-3 years old? I sure hope there's a lot of midnight oil being burned in the design/engineering studios to get this company back on track...

 

I see a lot of Calibers, Chargers, 300's and Jeeps on the roads around town where I live. I think Chrysler should look back at the mid 80's for inspiration for their next line of vehicles. A variety of small economical cars that looked good and performed good [before their interiors became all plastic] My 86 Daytona had leather and other soft materials unlike my 90 Daytona that had hard plastic everywhere. Now the interiors either look bland or they are full of hard cheap looking plastic. I still say Chrysler needs to get rid of that half finished look that has plagued their latest vehicles. The fine details is what will bring buyers back if they can recapture that spark that brought us Viper, PT Cruiser, Prowler, The new Ram, Intrepid, and Stratus etc etc. Sharp looking designs backed with a fit and finish that would rival luxuary cars is what should be the norm but it isn't!

 

Dodge, Chrysler, Ford...all of them. They're not listening to the markets. People want reliability (out of everything), followed by quality (for DCX this means interior). Design means nothing. Look at any bland car Toyota makes such as the Prius or Camryfor example. They're hideous and bland. Why does it sell? Quality and predicted reliability other than MPG. For Dodge anf everyone else, cutting corners really isn't going to help. Controling internal and product costs will.

I lookedat the new Ford Focus in a news paper today and laughed. With an I4, the thing doesn't get 30mpg in the real world, it's price isn't exactly competitive, materials suck, predicted reliability is very lowand the 'bold design' takes a step backwards. Seriously, what the hell are some of these designers on? Ford needs to take the designers who designed the Volvo C30 I think it is and use them as a design team. Then rally up some ex-Honda engineers to create a nice engine and drive train, while taking some ex-BMW engineers to build the suspension and ex-Benz engineers to make the interior.