Working for Chrysler Corp. these days must be exhilarating but exhausting.
No sooner do they clear the newest Dodge, Chrysler, Plymouth, Jeep or Eagle model off the drawing board - or assembly line - than the bosses come running in demanding yet another all-new vehicle.Chrysler has introduced so many new models in the past few years - Intrepid, Viper, Neon, Vision, Ram, Concord, Stealth, Avenger - you'd think they would be running out of macho-sounding names for them.
Maybe they are. To name its new line of midsize sedans, Chrysler eschewed warlike imagery and looked toward the heavens for inspiration. As a result, they came up with a pair of kinder and gentler monickers for their newest family cars: Chrysler Cirrus and Dodge Stratus.
Predictably, the automotive press dubbed them the "cloud cars." Is this a tough business or what?
But naming is really the easy part of creating a new car. The hard part in this ultra-competitive age is producing a superior product. If you do that, you can name your car Grumpy, Doc or Sneezy and people will still buy it. I vaguely recall my reaction the first time I heard the names Accord and Camry. No one, I said sagely to people who looked to me for auto wisdom, will buy cars with wimpy names like that.
My first ride in a cloud car came late last month when Chrysler Corp. made a bevy of new Dodge Stratuses (Strati?) available in San Francisco for a group of car writers to drive to the Napa Valley and back, over every kind of road from clogged freeways to relatively unpopulated two-lane twisters.
The verdict: Bingo! If the Stratus (and its sibling, Cirrus) can earn, over time, the same reputation for reliability and resale value as its target cars, the Accord, Camry and Nissan Altima, among others, then I believe Chrysler Corp. has got something here.
That's because, fresh out of the box, the new Stratus offers about everything its import competitors bring to the party except a decade or two of buyer loyalty. And the Stratus is priced today about where those cars were several years ago.
A Dodge spokesman said Stratus will compete in the compact and lower-midsize market. With the Neon beneath it and the Intrepid above, the Stratus completes the Dodge sedan lineup. Who will buy it? Dodge has younger boomers with household incomes from $40,000-$60,000 in its sights.
Available in two models, "regular" and an upgraded ES version, Stratus is available with three powertrains: a 2.0 liter, 16-valve, SOHC four-cylinder with a five-speed manual transmission; a 2.4 liter, 16-valve, DOHC four-banger and a 2.5 liter, 24-valve V6 SOHC engine. Both the latter two come only with four-speed automatic transmissions.
I drove all of the versions and while the 2.4 liter V6 with automatic will likely be the drivetrain of choice for most buyers, I can tell you that the little four-cylinder with the five-speed manual is lots more fun when you're trying out your best Skip Barber moves on deserted country roads.
(Barber runs a racing school at Sears Point raceway near San Francisco where your devoted scribe was allowed to put a Stratus through its paces without worrying about The Man appearing in his rear view mirror with light bar flashing. Barber and Chrysler have formed a long-term racing and training partnership using Stratuses and Vipers.)
Trouble is, most of us don't spend much wheel time playing fast-and-loose in the boondocks. We spend most of our time playing stop-and-go on I-15 at rush hour, and for that, rowing through the gears gets old pretty quick.
How a car looks on the showroom floor is the motivator for most people to take a test drive - especially if the price if somewhere in their price range - and the Stratus should get a lot of people asking for the keys.
Everyone who saw the car thought it was an import and when asked to guess the price, estimated much higher than the Dodge's $14,500 to $17,800 range.
Nice touch: Cigarette lighter and ash trays are options in the new Stratus. You still get the power socket for plugging in radar detectors and such but it comes with a cap, not a lighter.
Nice touch deux: A rest for the driver's left foot. You listened, Dodge, you listened!
The Stratus employs Chrysler's vaunted "cab forward" design that maximizes interior space. Compared to one of its competitors, the new Ford Contour/Mercury Mystique siblings, the Stratus is limo-like for back seat passengers.
The Stratus also has the largest trunk in its class, 15.7 cubic feet, and a low liftover height that makes it easy to load.
Safety equipment includes dual airbags, side-guard door beams, height adjustable shoulder belts, available anti-lock brakes (standard on the ES), optional child seat, personal security package and theft alarm.
Fit and finish - the all-important category that allowed the imports to glom a big chunk of the U.S. market - seemed good on the test cars, particularly the paint quality.
Standard features, even on the entry-level car, include AC, AM/FM cassette stereo, cruise control, tilt wheel, rear defroster, full-folding rear seats, numerous storage compartments and, yes, cup holders.
The Stratus completes the revamping of the Dodge lineup, a marque that Chrysler has been attempting to sharply define as a leader in performance, design and value.
That attempt has been mostly successful with Dodge logging record sales, increasing brand loyalty and an upsurge in "conquest" sales - wooing buyers away from other marques.
Martin R. Levine, Dodge Division general manager, summed it up this way:
"The introduction of the all-new Dodge Stratus helps make the Dodge product lineup one of the freshest in the industry. Viper was introduced in 1992, Intrepid in 1993, the Ram pickup in 1994, Neon sedan and coupe in 19941/2, the Avenger and Stratus in 1995, and the new Caravan (reviewed on these pages last week) is coming this spring."
Levine said Chrysler Corp.'s vision of a few years ago was to fill Dodge showrooms with a full line of vehicles that were exciting to drive and affordable for a wide range of buyers. Design, interior and safety were also high priorities.
He said the demographics of Dodge customers has changed radically as a result of the new focus: They are younger and more affluent than Dodge shoppers of the late 1980s and demonstrate a pride of ownership often found only among import owners.