[moparman]

Chrylser overall is up 6% for December.

LH cars -

Intrepid sold 6855 units in Dec. vs. 8554 from last dec. Down 20% for Dec. Down 24% for the year. Total year sales for Intrepid
109,098.

Concorde up 6% for December - for the year
down 36%

LHS - down 79% for Dec. down 88% for the year

300M - down 23% for Dec. down 28% for the year

Intrepid sold 6855 units in Dec. vs. 8554 from last dec. Down 20% for Dec. Doww 24% for the year. Total year sales for Intrepid
109,098.

 

[Wutang15m]

that sucks sales look like ****.

and i know the reason they need to start redesigneng. the intrepid is been out from 1993 and is been redesigned 1 time that tells you there is something wrong.

i dont know what kind of engineers they have hired. if you look at any other car company lets say nissan look at the maxima been redesigned liek 4-5 times and all of there cars.

that way keeping up to date with the trend and years

 

[80]

I don't think the reason for lousy sales is a design issue. The problem is that there is zero advertising for Intrepids in the mass media. You can see plenty of advertising for Dodge trucks, but when was the last time you saw an Intrepid commercial on TV? That coupled with poor salesmanship by dealers (who only push trucks and SUVs anymore) means that sales for Intrepids are gonna suck. Hell, I took my Intrepid to have the muffler looked at and one of the sales guys at the dealership was trying to get me to drop my Intrepid for a Durango while I was waiting for the courtesy van.

An argument can be made that Dodge would be wasting its money advertising the older design of the Intrepid, but that isn't stopping Chrysler from advertising the Concorde. And according to moparman's figures, it was the only LH car with higher sales figures for Dec.

[ January 04, 2002: Message edited by: JigSawMan ]

 

[DjPiLL]

Quite honestly... and this may sound bad... but the lack of sales does make the car a more "rare" find. Its like I can't even leave the house anymore without seeing a shitload of Accords, or Maximas, or Civics. I like my R/T cause not everyone has one.

Of course though sales are important so we can keep Otto here on the boards. That Neon should pick up sales... and I did read that DC did "barely" meet profit expectations so the outlook isnt as bad as people think.

Besides... don't blame me for lack of sales. I have an R/T and my father has a 300m.

 

[00ChryslerIntrepid]

Does anyone remember that one Dodge commercial from the late 90's... maybe 98 or so... where all the Dodge vehicles are seen going through some piece of glass and changing into their new designs or something like that? There were other commercials of a similar nature back then. (I think it was back when they were pushing hard their idea of "changing the rules"). I really liked those, and that guy that they had doing the voice-over was very good at saying what needed to be said.

I also liked the commercials for the '01 Stratus sedan when they came out.. where the ending text was "We red your mind." LOL... definitely made me want a new Stratus sedan (of course, that was before I had my current car).

The point is that Dodge needs to advertise all their vehicles, not just the ones that get new designs. (at least in my opinion, anyway)

 

[RapidTransit]

I think, when it's budget crunching time, the one item that can be cut back without laying off employees would be advertising. It's usually done by outside contractors - ad agencies. I imagine they know that cutting this budget hurts them, but not as much as the alternatives.

On the other hand, with rumors flying around about V8's, RWD, Crossfire, etc. DC may be gearing up for a major ad campaign - creating a war-chest. I look for the people responsible for the "Mayor of Truckville" thing to be gone, and a new agency saturating us with new and re-designed MOPAR! Oh, ****, I'm gettin' a woodie...

 

[gaewsky1]

I think the real reason for lack of sales is the fact that the Intrepid losses value (depreciates may be a more suitable word) so quickly. You can get a year old model with low mileage for thousands off new model prices. Thats what I did. I couldn't afford a new vehicle but got a year old model that was very inexpensive. A three or four year old model doesn't help out either!

 

[thebulgd]

maybe its because so many people ownthem already.


or so it seems to me

 

[ottowrkr]

Thanks DJ , yeah they better do something to help sell our cars. We already have have two weeks off in Jan because of slow sales.IMOP they wait way to long to redesign things. 2003 should have been the new model ,now we have to wait till 2004.
Jigsaw is also correct, DC does not do any advertising for our cars. They get back into Nascar and do nothing with it -fools. Truck ads , lots of them .

 

[blkbute]

I feel it is a variety of things. Styling, needs to be changed, mabe every other year change the car a tad, and after 4 redue the car. I know its not easy to design a car, like soo many factors and it costs millions to design. But the car should have been redone for 2003. not 2004. its a year too late. Advertising would help out a bit. as for depreasion, I do not feel that many poeple take that in as a factor mabe less than 10% of buyers. myself just feel it is time for a change in style with the car.

 

[p3]

I also noticed depreciation is pretty wicked on these cars. The dodge dealer here has a few (like 6) of last year's model ES 'Treps for $16,000, fully loaded with low miles. I wish my car was paid for so i could jump all over those prices.

 

[Avenger]

Here in Canada you can get a 2000 base model for 'bout $13000 CDN, **** I almost went for it too, but I bit the bullet cause you can't get used R/T's (too rare)

 

[moparman]

I'm in total agreement with JigSaw and Otto -while advetising is something that gets cut in tough times - the 2nd gen Intrepid advertisments have always left something to be desired.

My god, they go back to Nascar with Mopars past history and you hear next to nothing about it.

Beleive me, when Sterling Marlin won at Michigan I would have had an ad running the next day (I would already have laid out the commercial - just substitute the car that got the win) talking about the past / the future / the win and of course - show the Intrepid family with the R/T primary.

Look, when Viper won the overall at Lemans (not the top class but beat them all !!!)
There were no TV ads, just a few print ads.

Frankly, I don't understand it.

I remember giving my dealer some grief about the Viper win - they just looked at my kind of strange. They don't even follow Mopar racing.

And trucks/suv's - I know I've stated this in the past but the majority of Dodge dealers don't want to sell cars.

Just trucks/suv's.

 

[capitalcity rt]

Maybe, just maybe Chrysler will be dropping the Dodge brand for cars in the US as they did in Canada. Hence, the 300M and'Corde getting the ads and not the Intrepid. Especially when Ottowrkr says the emphasis is on the other LH cars and not Intrepid.

I may be wrong but just a thought.

Danny
Capitalcity RT
01 Black Chrysler R/T

 

[moparman]

If Mercedes wants to drop Dodge then why buy it ??? Dodge is the volume brand - not Chrysler.

I hope you're wrong though since Mercedes took over they haven't very much to help - if anything they've made it a pretty bad situation.

I'm still trying to figure out why Mercedes bought it. All the things that made Mopar special they seem determined to eliminate.

Sheer arrogance.

 

[bigdaddy]

Do the cars depreciate that much?? or maybe they are just overpriced. Not only Dodge but all the automakers (even before Sept. 11) have been trying to get sales numbers up, so to entice buyers they offer a cash back incentive, low financing,$1 over invoice, etc. but the price is so high on the models that the "money you save", you loose when you drive it off the lot. I might be wrong but that's the way business has to work, especially when you're trying to sell a $23k to $28k car. How many cars would be sold if ,for example, the dropped the R/T model down to $20k and offered little or no dickering in the sticker price? You also have to remember that it's the consumer that has to be comfortable when buying a car. It would put them more at ease if they knew that their car they just bought for $20k will be worth $18k next year instead of next month.

 

[capitalcity rt]

Mr. Moparman,

Mercededes thinking is not volume but brand recognition equating quality. Chrysler retains the quality imge where, as you said, Dodge is the volume brand. Maybe they are thinking the way they've thought all these years. It didn't stop them from canning the Dodge brand on cars in Canada and Plymouth as well.
The dealers here believe that a Chrysler Neon is more progressive and prestigious than the Dodge Neon. And they love it, thinking it will sell more cars this way. Perception, I guess.

Again, my 2 cents worth.

Danny
Capitalcity R/T

 

[shadowhsc]

I saw all these people shooting numbers in this thread and was amazed no one came close to what I paid for my '01 Intrepid ES. I was really sold on an new R/T until I felt that I really should look around the lot one more time before deciding. It was on this last lookaround that I saw one was parked in a different area of the dealer lot, away from the other 'treps. Sure it was pretty barebones compared to an R/T, but it was super clean and only had 178XX on the odometer. What sold me though was the sticker, the no-haggle, get-it-the-hell-out-of-here price of $10,500. Needless to say I crawled all over and under it to make sure it wasn't wrecked and unbelievably it wasn't. I still have yet to find any fault in it (bought it mid Oct). One note I thought I'd bring up is the sheer number of models DC puts out. There's alot more variety than other manufacturers, not to mention the choice of buying a Dodge, Chrysler, or Plymouth. Another thing of note is that people really can't identify the Intrepid too well. Whether it be the inconspicuous badging or the lax TV airtime it receives, I was amazed at how many of my friends had no idea what my car was, many couldn't even guess it was a Dodge.