A leaked document obtained by the Mopar-loving forumites at Allpar provides purported production dates and details for every new Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram product including the Ram Hybrid, a possible Sebring name change and info on the Fiat 500.
There's a lot to digest here so we'll just summarize. The first truly "new" Chrysler vehicle is the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which begins production on May 10th of this year followed by the 2011 Ram 1500/2500 and refreshes of the Caliber, Dakota, Liberty and Nitro in July. Jeep also gets its series of significant updates on the 2011 Wrangler and Patriot in August and October.
The next big product is the 2011 Dodge CUV, starting production in November. We suspect this the unibody Dodge Durango we keep hearing about, possibly called the 2012 Dodge Magnum. Hybrids roll out for the Journey and Ram 1500 in the same month.
And what of the awful Dodge Avenger/Chrysler Sebring? The replacement rolls of the lines on November 18th and it looks like the Sebring will shed its oft maligned name for the auto show-tested Chrysler 200C moniker. November 22nd is just "Minivans" and we're thinking this is just another big refresh.
Everyone is waiting for the 2012 Dodge Charger, Chrysler 300 and Challenger LX platforms and they've all been moved to a start date in November 30th. Finally, the 2011 Compass and 2012 Fiat 500 hit plants on the same day in December 13th. Does this imply a connection? We may be confusing doubt and hope here but no, there is no connection. This does imply Ralph Giles knew what he was saying when he said the Fiat 500 on sale this year albeit just barely.
What does all this mean? After weakly trying to survive with cheesy special editions they're going to shove everything down the pipe and hope what comes out is profitability.
[Allpar via Joel Feder]