Chrysler launches new-era minivan

“This minivan is the kind of great product that sets Chrysler apart,” Chrysler LLC President Tom LaSorda told hundreds of cheering employees at the Windsor Assembly Plant, where four generations of his family have worked and where the minivan was born 24 years ago.

.fa_inline_results, .fa_inline_results.left {
margin-right: 20px;
margin-top: 0;
width: 220px;
clear: left;
}
.fa_inline_results.right {
margin-left: 20px;
margin-right: 0;
}
.fa_inline_results h4 {
margin: 0;
font-size: 8pt;
line-height: 12px;
padding-bottom: 4px;
border-bottom: 1px dotted #c3d2dc;
}
.fa_inline_results ul {
list-style-type: disc;
list-style-position: inside;
color: #3769DD;
margin: 0 0 15px;
padding: 0;
}
.fa_inline_results ul li {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
.fa_inline_results ul li.title {
color: #333;
list-style-type: none;
font-weight: bold;
}
.fa_inline_results ul li.articles {
color: #333;
list-style-type: none;
}

Most Popular Publications
in News

Advocate, The Ebony Jet Independent, The (London)D Magazine

The debut of the 2008 Dodge Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country comes the same month as Chrysler’s sale to the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LLC, which vowed to leave the automaker’s turnaround plan in place even as it demoted LaSorda and named Bob Nardelli the automaker’s new chairman and chief executive. Nardelli wasn’t at the minivan launch, but Canadian Auto Workers President Buzz Hargrove said he had an hourlong meeting with LaSorda and Nardelli on Tuesday morning.

“He said all the right things in terms of what we wanted to hear. They want to take Chrysler back to greatness,” Hargrove said of Nardelli. “We’ll wait and see.”

LaSorda said the next-generation minivans have 35 new or revised features, including second-row seats that swivel 90 degrees so passengers can sit around a table. The company spent $1.4 billion on the redesign, including a $511 million investment in the Windsor plant.

LaSorda said he is confident about the demand for minivans despite evidence that some customers have been rejecting minivans in favor of car-based crossovers. Minivan sales peaked at 1.37 million in 2000, but sales were about 970,000 last year, down 12 percent from 2005. Of those, 38 percent were Chrysler minivans.

LaSorda wouldn’t say how many of the new minivans Chrysler hopes to sell but said Chrysler will be a major player, especially since Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. are abandoning the segment. LaSorda said internal research shows Chrysler could win some customers who now drive minivans from Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co.

Aaron Bragman, an auto industry analyst with the consulting firm Global Insight, said the new minivans are a good effort, but he’s not convinced Chrysler’s swiveling seats will win over new customers. Bragman predicts that the minivan market will start growing again around 2010 when more Generation X and Y buyers start having families.

“This is a big component of Chrysler’s revenues. It’s not a segment they can abandon,” he said. “They do tend to know the minivan customer very well. They’ve done a lot of research, and they’ve kept in touch with those buyers.”

The minivans are scheduled to hit showrooms in the fall. The Dodge Grand Caravan SE starts at $22,470, while the Chrysler Town & Country LX starts at $23,190. The two share the No. 1 selling minivan spot.

05-07 Chrysler 300 300C Chrome Door Handle Pillar Trim

Chrysler’s ‘08 minivans: raising the bar; Are minivans going away? Not according to the sales numbers. And the rise of "crossovers" notwithstanding, Chrysler is bullish on the future of the vehicle architecture, and has improved on its vehicles for the segment it pioneered

Launch costs hurt Chrysler

Chrysler wastes little time touting its reinvented self - International Herald Tribune