What I've been saying is that Chrysler needs to focus its attention squarely on the North American market and not get distracted trying to sell its products in countries where, for a variety of reasons, it's not likely to perform well. It goes to the point I made earlier, that if you can't sell North American cars to North American car buyers who, in the past, have been largely loyal to you, it's not likely you'll fair much better in foreign markets where the general public is even more committed to supporting their own domestic manufacturers.
It's not like $4.00 gas jumped out of the blue and smacked Chrysler in the face. Like GM and Ford, they chose to ignore the fact that America was becoming increasingly more dependent on foreign oil, most of which originating in countries that don't exactly like the U.S. -- did they simply forget the '70s? And, yet, they've done everything in their power to expand their full-size luxury truck and SUV sales, whist efffectively abandoning the passenger vehicle segment to foreign competitors.
And North American car buyers have, for the most part, rejected them. I read this morning that, in 2008, the Dodge Caliber hatchback has sold for an average of $1,717.00 *less* than a Honda Civic. Why then, even with this price premium, does the Honda Civic outsell the Dodge Caliber by, what, I'm guessing, ten to one?
The same ones that, as noted above and in my previous posts, are
*more* expensive than the domestics?
I'm sorry, did I fail to mention the 25% import duty that applies to foreign made trucks?
Actually, I can and I will. My point is that Chrysler has bigger fish to fry right now than worring about an 8% duty on cars it doesn't sell in Korea.
The '74 Dodge Challenger was my first car and so the 2009 Challenger holds considerable appeal. However, I've decided my next car will be a hybrid or, better yet, plug-in hybrid. Don't get me wrong, a 5.7 or
6.1L Hemi Challenger would be an incredible ride, but I'm not convinced it's the type of car I want to be driving now or two to three years from now, given the general direction of our economy.Cheers, Paul