LX begins production this winter in the form of the 300 sedan & Magnum wagon. Unless I'm mistaken, the current LHs have stopped production, and the factory they are made at is being rennovated. May 16th was the last day you could order any LH car & production was to stop by late August. The last 2 months of LH production, Chrysler crank out as many of these cars as they possibly could manage, and many of these cars will be held for delivery as late as December.

The Dodge LX sedan was postponed because of the relatively bad reception the concept version (the "Super 8 Hemi": http://www.autointell.net/nao_compan...-super8-01.htm) recieved a couple of years ago, so it could be redone (much like the Buick Regal which also went back to the drawing boards). Much of Dodge's LX development work was pulled to redo the sedan, putting any other variations on hold. Word is if you put the Magnum wagon front clip on the front end of the 300, add a different rear end and interior trim, you have Intrepid's LX sedan replacement, which is likely to also be called 'Magnum' like the wagon.

The Dodge Charger concept (http://www.acarshow.com/chgcpt.html)won rave reviews, but didn't have alot of support for production. It was concieved as a coupe, and became a sedan as an afterthought. Somewhere between the time the Charger concept was 1st done and the time LX design was firming up (before the whole thing was shelved while Mercedes was conducting a review of all Chrysler's future product plans) it seems someone decided Dodge & Chrysler should share sedan sheetmetal to save costs, so that pretty much killed any chance of the Charger concept reaching production as an Intrepid replacement.

Chrysler has been putting together a high performance coupe for some time now. No word on it's design, but I'm guessing (wildly) that it will be some variation of the Charger concept. The only thing that is known about this coupe is it will be the quickest and fastest production Chrysler ever from the factory with more than 2 seats. The quote as I remember it was something like "Assuming we made a hypothetical car like that, I think I can assure you, it's going to have alot more performance than anyone else is offering in a car in that class."

The down side (if the parent company ever gives/gave the goahead) is that it will likely cost a bit more than what we have been paying for pony cars. The V8s will cost about as much as the Cobra & SS did (in constant dollars), while an SRT version would probally be well into the upper $30K range. The reason is that Chrysler will have to create a body that won't be shared with other divisions the way GM's performance chassis will be, and it isn't expected to sell in the mass quanities of the Mustang. This means it even though it will cost almost as much to create as Mustang or GM's HiPerf chassis, there will be fewer cars to spread the costs, meaning a higher pricetag. This is the main thing that's making the car far from certain. Remember, the M80 pickup was a done design, and Chrysler cancelled it over nothing more than a factory issue!

(Trivia Note: it was this exact same cost conumdrum that killed the Dodge Venom's production chances some years ago: http://www.supercars.net/garages/Wheelman/2v2.html Yes, Chrysler actually and honestly was intending to put this into production! )

If the "Charger" does come out (Chrysler is reserving the name for a future car, and the Intrepid replacement isn't it), it won't be till after Dodge's sedan is online. Because Chrysler is the quickest of the big 3 to bring a concept car to production, once approved, it could end up on the streets as soon as 10-18 months afterwards !!

If Daimler-Chrysler were to give a thumbs up & debut it this winter, it could be out early the following year as an 2006 model. The Razor did have the priority, but my understanding was that it would have been built either in the same plant that makes Viper, or the plant that was to have made the M80. The Charger would be made alongside the LX sedans.

Hope that answers your question.

 

Do we need another thread for this...?

 

Yep. It goes beyond just answering a question, has the latest info, and is a change of pace from the relatively news free posts that have dominated lately.

Save the 1 thread about the Kappa, and the 1 thread with the new Mustang pics, and the 1 regarding the new CTSv's price, the other 22 threads on the most recent page of "future vehicles" is woefully lacking in news of future vehicles.

 

Okey dokey!

 

and I thought GM killing great cars sucked...

the Venom, M-80 the Charger, Razor and so on...talk about great cars that should be on the road...hmmm..ohh well

good story though!

 

They all have a good record for killing some spectatular cars.

GM tends to kill off cars just when it seems they get them right, The old Chrysler seemed to be motivated only when facing bankruptcy, and Ford has a tendancy of creating great cars, then sucking the performance out of them when they get them right providing they don'y turn them into executive cars (see 1971 Boss Mustang, 1974 Mustang [no available V8], 1980 Mustang Cobra, '96 Mustang Gt, the V8 SHO, the Lincoln MkVII for starters).

 

the germans taking over Chrysler was a bad idea from the very begining. its obvious Chrysler lost most of its autonomy (unlike what was originally claimed) and MB are treating their purchase as if they just bought rights to the brand names. in other words they have their own ideas of what Chrysler/Dodge should be like and what parts/design they should use and Chrysler doesn't have a say in it. from the looks of it what germans think a chrysler should be differs from that of the public too judging by the poor sales figures. i say MB is going to run them into the ground by making the new cars more expensive and using those expensive german parts. they'll probably be good cars but they'll no longer by good Chrysler cars, just wearing Chrysler badges. and who wants to buy a MB badged as a Chrysler and costing almost the same? very disappointing indeed.

we can forget about the "big 3". there are truely only 2 left now.

i'd be more excited about the news, but as you point out, nothing at Chrysler is even close to 100% until its literally on the dealer lot.