How would you save Dodge?
I think there is alot of circumstances that the car industry is going down.
First of all, how many of you guys are prowd of your new Mopar car. 40 years ago if you started with a Dodge, in most cases you continued with it.
How many times does the car manufacturer check the market. What is people wanting to drive? What is the needs? What is the average income so people can afford a new Dodge. When this is figured out, go to the designing team and let them do their job. Then let's build them!
But, here is the next issue! Why build a car that needs to be checked and adjusted by the dealer!!!!!! Build it right from the beginning!!!!!
If you have someone doing 2 hours wrong work from the beginning of the line that will probably take 2 days at the end of the line!
And honestly, how many want to pay for 16 hours that doesn't lead to anything? That car could have been $800 cheaper to the public!
I've been into LEAN production for years and I still find companies putting out thousands of dollars on faster machines, faster welders, faster robots. If they instead checked and found all the stops in the prduction they could find much more money then that.
What I mean is that if you work with things that work pretty well it's better to work with thing's that doesn't work quite well. There is the money . It's just a lot of waste!
And the public pays for it every day.........!
I started to drive Dodge back in 1981. I was proud of it due to it wasn't so common to see Dodge cars in Sweden. The import was closed down and older Dodge and Plymouth could be seen every once in awhile. Ever since I've been driving Dodge and still is proud of it. Even if it's a 2002 Dodge Dakota crew cab!
If you compare to the beginning of the 1970ies, I think we have the same situation going on. A lot of high performance cars is produced and the government and the public want cars the doesn't burn so much gas!
As someone mentioned earlier, why doesn't Chrysler/FIAT check the market and produce a reliable car that people can afford on a daily basis. The car must fill their needs and have good quality.