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| The Plymouth Center is a place where the Plymouth brand is remembered, and an attempt to connect the reader with Plymouth oriented material, in order to keep the spirit alive. |
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The Sailboat is sunk, the victim of horrific management and marketing, on 11/3/99. on life support since shortly after the introduction of the Neon. The Plymouth Bulletin |
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| Recently there have been some rumblings
over the viability of the idea that the Plymouth brand might have a
place in the DCX empire. Several Allpar Blog entries float
the idea. Let's explore it. Traditionally, Plymouth was the Toyota of it's day; a purveyor of stable, sane family transportation. With the brand gone, that ground has had to be covered not only by Chrysler (the PT Cruiser was meant to be a Plymouth) but by Dodge. This not only results in a downmarket trend in the Chrysler brand but a muddling of the Dodge brand as well. Dodge not only has to address it's core trucks and sport-themed cars, but also the entry level segments. A return of Plymouth, comprised of the PT Cruiser, the Voyager/Grand Voyager, and entry level versions of the midsize sedan based off the future Avenger/Sebring and a LX sedan would free up Chrysler to move upmarket and Dodge to concentrate on the sporty offerings it's best at. A revived Plymouth would have to be comprised of vehicles that (unlike the last many years of its history) would NOT be twins of related Dodges and Chryslers - a trend Chrysler seems to be moving away from in any event. They need not come with leather interiors, but would have value friendly packages available bundling common options. The focus would be on solid value over excitement, on bread and butter vehicles over high style (with the exception of the PT Cruiser!). Above all, there would have to be a definite 'price level' that each brand would occupy. This would lessen the direct competition between brands - best exemplified by the "DodgePlymouth" Neon that was the same car, down to the penny and down to the smallest fastener. It is true that some marketing muscle would have to be put behind the revitalization effort to reverse the years of neglect the brand suffered. However, I believe that in the long term the investment would easily be recouped. |
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