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Detroit, 10:44 PM
Sat Dec 5
8 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
Editor-in-Chief:
Ray Wert | | AIM
Road Test Editor:
Wes Siler |
Weekend Editor:
Murilee Martin |
Associate Editor - Houston:
Associate Editor - Detroit:
Editor-at-Large:
Contributors:
John Krewson |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
02/09/09
02/09/09
02/09/09
02/09/09
02/09/09
If you are not posting images of the new product because you think it sucks, your making that choice for the readers and that doesn't seem fair.
If you are not posting the images of the new product because Chrysler's PR dept. is a bunch of wankers, that seems more valid.
02/09/09
02/09/09
And really, even if the Chrysler PR people are wankers, it seems like you're shooting yourself in the foot by not posting images that some people want to see. It would also suck if you're unable to test drive future product that people want to read about because of this.
02/09/09
02/09/09
Most of us internet mouth-breathers don't see all the intricacies of what it takes to run this operation. But we do see whining.
I'm not gonna go all "You've changed, man" on you, but I think the battle you're trying to fight isn't going to be won with posts like this.
02/09/09
now why the hell didn't i put it so eloquently
02/09/09
02/09/09
Typical.. I only asked how this whining piece of trite editorial makes you money and a normal old post about snowmobile clutches powering eastern european jalopys didn't
02/09/09
Hardly.
If you're buying a truck to use as a truck, the Ram + Cummins is the way to go. I wouldn't buy any other.
02/09/09
If RAM suddenly dropped the Cummings engine, would you still feel the same?
02/09/09
If I were in the market for a half-ton it'd be a tie between the Dodge and the Chevy.
02/09/09
No. It's didn't COME OFF as a whiny rant. It **WAS** a whiny rant.
Jeez guys. Get over yourselves.
02/09/09
02/09/09
1. Chrysler is trying to build up the good 'ol enthusiasm and interest people used to have over new models.
2. Chrysler is being an old, outdated, dick, ignoring new media and the powerful new outlets available to them.
I tend to lean toward the latter. While it's easy to get swept up in fads and whatever's proclaimed to be the new gospel in marketing, I have bad news for them: the internet is here to stay. And if they want to drum up interest through deprivation, why didn't we see it w/ the Challenger, a far more valid product to use this method with?
Not to mention the fact that if this is such a minor overhaul (styling-wise), why not just go out and show it?
02/09/09
It sure as hell does come off as a whiny rant.
"WHAAAAA Chrysler took our toys away and now i'm stamping my feet!!!!
Chrysler is boycotting US?!??! Everyone loves us! We're Jalopnik.. we're different."
Stop being shortbus special you pansies.
This place used to rock because it wasn't just another news aggregation place.. with the exception of DOTS how is this place any different from the blog that is all things auto, or fuck the boring as hell edmonds site.
Chrysler didn't let you have access to the media package, gee wonder why? proabably for the same effin reason that top gear can't exist as a program in north america.
You made your bed, sleep in it Wert. Instead of taking it like a man you wimped out, wussed up and whined because you didn't get your pre-packaged story written for you by Chrysler. You could have done something interesting, and unique, like we would have seen on the old Jalopnik of yore, but you just showed your whiney liberal bleeding heart oh woe is me, we're doing it for the readers sally struthers save the f'ckin children routine.
I'm surprised your not whining about the hardplastic interior already.
Suck it up. Bring back the good features. F'ck the news.
I'm off to have a scotch now.
02/09/09
02/09/09
The very point is that you can get the pre-packaged crap everywhere else. That's why Jalop is the only auto-blog that has stayed in my feedreader since the day I found it.
Ray's take on the industry, and the news-about-how-news-gets-made is much more interesting than another set of boring pics of a piece of crap truck.
02/09/09
So you're saying that was pre-scotch?
02/09/09
@Ray Wert: Sorry man.. back in the day this place was worthy on keeping open 24x7.
The place has turned into a news aggregration site, with less and less features every day, and you know it.
There used to be interesting write ups on historical oddities of the automotive universe, insightful commentery where people would literally write books in their comments, instead of wiseass comments trying to be the COTD. Now it's just about the same thing as every other auto blog out there. Rehashed press releases, rehashed AN/AP news feeds, PCH and DOTS.
No more engine of the day, no more insightful stories, no more guess this obscure car part, no more of the stuff that made this place different.
Other than the faint glimmer of hope that we'll be able to see once and for all how hot murilee is other than the reflection of her in the pock-marked chrome of an old packard, what reason is there to read here vs anywhere else.
Don't take my comments as bashing.. take them as honest, truthful, unbiased jalopnik reader reporting, and take em to heart.
Stop being the same
Stop whining
Don't demand to be taken seriously and then pull stupid shit and expect to still be taken seriously.
Get back to your roots, because your turning into what you think your not.
02/09/09
Everyone bitches about being unemployed.. I, well, enjoy my mornings.
02/09/09
What, you don't like supercar teardown:
[jalopnik.com]
Or you didn't like our humorous look at the lack of exterior design differences since the Ranger was first unveiled?
[jalopnik.com]
You didn't like the crash protection feature?
[jalopnik.com]
Dude, not every post can be a world-winner. Also, not every post is going to be what you're looking for. The nice thing about this site is if you don't like what you see, wait thirty minutes and there'll be something else to read.
However, the next time you bitch at me for a whining rant with your own whining rant, your ass is getting put in the corner for a time-out.
02/09/09
It was the stupid non-mainstream stuff like that (and the recent how to hack a roadsign stolen from gizmodo and popularized here i'll give you that one) that put this place on the map.
I can understand doin what you need to do to pay the bills, fuck i'm moving 4 hours away from my family to take a temp job so i can keep payin the bills, but whining because a potential advertiser (read: chrysler) is somehow offended, disallowing access to "new media" (strangely allpar and other sites have access??!) becomes the main editorial of the morning. Your telling me this piece of whining pays your bills, but going into the specifics on just how a few snowmobile clutches powered a eastern european car doesn't?
If bashing chrysler pays the bills, more power too you, but WTF you gonna do when they're gone. Suck more of Toyotas teat like everyone else??
Selling out the readership to pay the bills.. well.. my eyes aren't for rent, there is other places to get the news, and i've never come here specifically, for the news. I come for the slant, for the history, for all the things you can't find in the library about the cult of cars.
02/09/09
?
02/09/09
02/09/09
I, for one, don't give two shits whether we see the new Ram or not. God knows, we've seen enough Challenger press releases to cover off Chrysler's media quota for the next, say, 60 years. They have, what, one, maybe two percent of the automobile market? Or am I a year early with that statistic? Regardless, they've had all the press they deserve for their one appealing car.
Side note. As far as I can see, once the vehicles are designed and in the process of being manufactured, a good chunk of the "head office" types have pretty much one job to do. Design the next one. That's about it. So what you're telling us, is that in the last, what, 10 years that the current Ram has been available... nobody's bothered to do that? They just gave it some new cosmetics?
If it was best-in-class across the board, they could be excused. But it was already third-of-three in most categories.
What exactly is Chrysler's plan to start making money? When do they plan to do that? Do they have a plan for making money?
02/09/09
This is why Chrysler went to Washington for help instead of restructuring under existing laws. They knew the political game was easier to play than actually doing something that will, if successful, position the company for future success.
02/09/09
I mostly agree with you, except the part of "As far as I can see, once the vehicles are designed and in the process of being manufactured, a good chunk of the "head office" types have pretty much one job to do. Design the next one"
That isn't the case. Once a program is launched and in production, the design/engr group can be reassigned all over the place. They won't just be sitting waiting/working on the next iteration of the same model. In Chrysler's case, I don't know what else they're working on necessarily (as they have no new products really?), but your assumption is still off.
Also, the more important thing that stops a total redesign is COST. The new design and development costs a ton, the testing costs a ton, and all new tooling costs....you guessed it, a ton. Therefore, there are many reasons not to redo everything.
Also, the Cummins is a very popular powertrain and many people are devoted Dodge 2500+ fans, so the need for total overhaul isn't there. You won't find coilover rear's on a truck like this.
02/09/09
Possibly because I get my automotive news from Jalopnik, and Chrysler won't provide them with any news until they're willing to suckle at the Cerberus teat.
02/09/09
TopGear was a total weenie by going out and purchasing a Challenger off a dealer lot for the episode and test. I am disappointed in both entities for their utter disregard for everything. The BBC should have acknowledged Chrysler was an ass and asked GM for another car or went to the Blue Oval Boys and grabbed the latest Mustang with IRS (contradiction of terms in my book.)
Plus by doing this Chrysler management could have been shown for the being the shit for brains that manage the firm.
02/09/09
02/09/09
02/09/09
Congress, are you watching? I know y'all on the Hill have no business sense, but this is just common sense. Don't buy their BS about becoming viable until their actions match up with their words.
Ray, et. al., you're doing the right thing. Don't promote their product if they are going to treat you like shite.