Dodge unpopular in Europe? Talk with a Chrysler dealer

[67alecto]

Bit of backstory:

My mom is getting tired of her Mercury Grand Marquis, so I'm pushing her towards a 300 Touring. I stopped by the local 5-star Chrysler dealer (where I have yet to see any 300s on the lot) to get a brochure. My mom doesn't like the way the Merc handles, and after I saw the winter road tests of the 300 and Magnum that were posted here awhile back, I started getting her interested.

I went in as if I was looking for one, and the first thing the guy said was "Let me ask you a question, because the home office is beating our heads in about this...Does it have to be a 'C'?" (Remember, I went in as if I was looking for one). He went on to say that they are 40% over the sales target for the 300c and something like 20% below the target for the other models.

He said the home office was saying that they weren't even trying to push to the Limited, Touring, and base models. He said he countered with the fact that all of the advertisements were "hemi this, and hemi that - what do you expect?".

He also mentioned that he has had 3 sales where someone came in to see a 300 and asked if they had one with a hemi. He said he told them, "well, let's take this one for a test drive and you tell me" (it was Limited/Touring with the 3.5. The customer ended up very pleased with the performance - he said it has no problems breaking the tires loose - and they bought it.

Anyway, here's my question: I asked if he had seen the 300 Touring that would be going to Europe (the magnum with the 300 front clip). He said he had, and that the reason they were doing that is that Dodge has a horrible reputation in Europe.

He said that when the viper came out, they couldn't give them away in Europe. But when they branded them as the "Chrysler Viper", it sold really well.

Has anyone else heard anything like this? I've heard of plenty of renaming/badging going on amongst various car companies, but never the "Chrysler Viper" story.

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

[markyneutron]

Chrysler has a better rep maybe a little more sophisticated for Europe these are their imports after all.

[puoliverinen]

I don't think there's any problem with Dodge brand in Europe. It's just that the marketing departments tend to have an oversimplified view of branding, look what happened to Plymouth. Between Dodge (targeted for younger folks, bears a sporty image; in advertisements Dodge is always Ferrari red) and Chrysler (adults, banker type) the brand makers just couldn't figure out what sort of audience thy should try to reach so they just killed the brand.

In Europe, Chrysler is an old, recognised brand. We used to have Chrysler Simcas and Chrysler Talbots (not that anyone cared to remember those...) Dodge has had very little presence in Europe. It's all about branding.