Chrysler was bought a couple months ago by a big private equity firm, Cerebus. They decided to bring in a new CEO a few weeks ago, Robert Nardelli. He used to be CEO of Home Depot, obviously giving him the DIY skills needed to resurrect an auto company.
Anyways, their first decision: bring back the old Chrysler five-point star logo. My question is, have they interpreted the success of the iPod to retro-'80’s aesthetics? Is the five pointed star a signal that they will resurrect the K-car?
oh i hope not, some of the turbo shelbys from that era were fast little rides.
Ahh yes… The “brand equity” conversation.
I have a better idea. Start over. Rename the whole damned company as something relevant.
Seriously, when was the last time you heard someone under the age of 40 say the word “Chrysler?”
I just hope they also bring back Ricardo Montalban…
Really though. I absolutely agree with cg… give it up and start over. No one cares about Chrysler anymore. The only people do drive Caravan’s. And if they’re male, they probably don’t want to be.
im certainly not a crysler fan, and likely not the target market. funny thing is, even though i know they’ve had that emblem thing with the wings on it for a while, i still always thought the 5 star had been they’re logo all along.
got to say though, i actually kinda like some of those old K cars. to me, had a bit of 1970’s mercedes to the front end (sure was no accident). like the simplicity and chrome too. newer cryslers are either all too blobby or overdesigned for my taste. i could see a nice simple new k car ala ford 021 C concept (marc newson car).
R
The five star has never stoped being the logo for Chrysler Corp, the umbrella of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Eagle…(RIP).
This was their logo until recently:
cg: I’ve heard people under 40 who work at rental car companies say “Chrysler”. 40% of Chrysler’s sales are fleet sales (ie rental cars). I’m very curious to see if Cerebus can work the bugs out of this patient, or if the best we can hope for is a couple of oddball products (Le Baron & the minivan in the '80s) to keep the company alive.
Kuchinsky: I too have a soft spot for the K-car and its siblings. Of all the box cars, I found Chryslers to be the most refined of the American companies. Unfortunately, they were the least reliable, but no one is perfect!
Robert Nardelli? You’ve got to be kidding me… (he was Bob at HomeDepot)
He really made some serious ef-up’s at HD, hope he’s learned from them.
I don’t know anything about his time at the Depot. I’d love to hear your take on where they went wrong.
[quote="cg"Seriously, when was the last time you heard someone under the age of 40 say the word “Chrysler?”[/quote]
A lot of younger people say the work Chrysler, it’s just always followed by the number 300. Right now, that pretty much is their brand (+ Minivans…) and they have not refreshed it since its launch.
He took over after the founders left (bernie and cant remember the other guys name)… changed a bunch of infrastructure stuff… buying policies etc… IMO he focused on shareholders rather than the bussiness. Depot lost alot of ground under his watch. i don’t know… he might do well for chrysler, we’ll see.
yeah they need a dope looking LeBaron.
The Pentagon logo blows by the way. It was never cool, so I guess it retro blows. The wings are not very nice either, but the ribbon has a great tie to their heritage.
There are a lot of great stories within the Chrysler brand, and I think ditching it would be a mistake not easily corrected. It just needs to be made relevant again.
via:: http://www.cartype.com/page.cfm?id=1143&alph=ALL&dec=ALL
I’m weeks behind on this, but Nardelli has hired some help:
Chrysler LLC said Thursday that Jim Press will become its vice chairman and president, in charge of the automaker’s sales and marketing operations. Press will resign Sept. 14 from Toyota Motor Corp., where he has served as the first non-Japanese president and chief operating officer for Toyota in North America since 2006. Before that, he was head of Toyota’s North American sales during the company’s rapid expansion.
All of a sudden, I think there is a glimmer of hope that Chrysler won’t be raided and left on the side of the road dying.
Yo: I like the Chrysler ribbon logo too. That is retro cool. I don’t know if they plan on changing the logo on the cars. They’ve invested a lot of money making that their image. The penta-star may only be used to represent the Chrysler group of companies, not to represent the Chrysler car line. At least, I hope!
I saw an old '20’s or '30’s Chrysler at a car show earlier this year. Beautiful car. It’s hard to believe, but Chrysler was amongst the luxury car elite at the time (Mercedes, Duesenberg, Caddillac, etc.).
