Will Dodge Separate Truck & Car Brands?

Well the official news has finally come out. After months of rumors and speculation, Chrysler has announced that its Dodge branding would split off its truck brands into a new group. Once simply known as “Dodge Ram” for the trucks and “Dodge” for the cars, we are likely to see a major change in the future as a “Ram” branding emerges that is all its own. While the details of the split are still sketchy, the new Italian owners of the Chrysler/Dodge corporations, Fiat announced the decision in early October, complete with the hiring of a new management team to handle the now separate vehicle lines.

SUVs are likely to fall under the new Ram line with the trucks while it is probable that the crossover vehicles will remain with the cars in the Dodge line. The official press release states that this uncoupling “will allow us to protect and develop the unique nature of the product offerings within the Dodge brand.” Whether or not they will be successful with this gambit remains to be seen but one thing is certain, success is necessary; the Dodge brand has been losing money and stagnating in style and design compared to its other competitors’ cars and trucks like Ford’s F-150. Sales of Dodge vehicles have been hovering down at record lows along with the rest of the economy, but setting records that it is best not to break.

Emerging from Bankruptcy and time to Reinvent

Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy earlier this year on June 10th and has since had two massive management shake-ups including the current one as the company tries to decide where it will go and what its role in the future of auto manufacturing will be. When the Cash for Clunkers program offered by the government hit in July and August, Chrysler was caught flat-footed with very low inventory and unable to meet demand, so the top sales went to Ford and Toyota to take advantage of the government’s largesse. Left out in the cold there, Chrysler, has taken advantage of the last few months to hit the drawing boards and hopefully come up with some impressive moves aside from this one which so far seems to amount to little more than a name change for some of its vehicles.

The CEO for Chrysler, Marchionne, has said that he wants to see a “sportier” look for the Dodge passenger vehicles and this move should allow the Ram division to focus on the trucks and commercial vehicles that it does best while leaving the outpouring of new cars and designs to the people at Dodge who only have one type of vehicle to focus on. Don’t expect to see any massive reinvention of the Dodge car line anytime soon, however. The 2011 year models coming out of Chrysler should be interesting to say the very least and it will certainly be “make or break” time for the Dodge and Ram lines of vehicle.