The Chrysler name will disappear from mainland Europe by 2011, with all its models being rebadged as Lancias.
However, the Chrylser name will live on in Great Britain and Ireland, where Lancia models are not sold.
“Our plan is to have in place by May 2011 a Lancia/Chrysler integrated network comprising about 800 dealers and over 1000 dealerships,” Chrysler and Lancia CEO Olivier Francois told Auto News Europe.
Parent company Fiat has written to almost 1100 Lancia and Chrysler dealerships across Europe informing them that their contracts will end on 31 May 2011.
Instead, a new dealership network to deal with sales and distribution of Lancia and Chrysler products solely under the Lancia name will be created by Fiat.
Fiat's sales chief Lorenzo Sistino said last week that dealers would benefit from the decision as it would allow them to sell a full product line-up.
Chrysler dealers selling Jeeps will become sole Jeep retailers and Dodge will now become a niche player in Europe, importing small-volume muscle cars from the US.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Re: Chrylser to be axed in Europe
Obviously.......
Becasue the Rolls Royce Phantom, Mercedes S-Class, Jaguar XF, Jaguar XJ, Mercedes GL, New BMW X5 etc .. must all be very dangerous cars because they havnt been Ncap tested............
Or perhaps its becaue manufacturers dont tend to put low volume cars through the expensive testing procedure................
Re: Chrylser to be axed in Europe
And any car that doesn't have a Euro NCAP rating is obviously unsafe eh?
Doh!
Re: Chrylser to be axed in Europe
From the looks of it, the new one will be much much better. The old 2.7 was a relic of an engine and was reserved mainly for rental cars! Not many private buyers had that one in the US I dont think. THe 2.7 V6 started life in 1998 (with various upgrades along the way) so you can see how old that is. THat has been dumped now Chrysler have just launched their new Pentastar V6 engine which sounds like a great engine. 3.6L near 300 BHP. Especially when they add Fiats Multiair tech to it.
And RE, the Voyager safety, its not the current model at all. Is the model that dates back to 2001 that got the lower star safety rating, and whilst not commendable, its worth remembering that it is a large and heavy car, so despite that star rating, would still be alright in most incidents, especially when involving smaller cars. The problem with the old one was the placement of the engine in RHD only vehicles, even then, this was a problem that only presents itself in certain crash situations.
The new model (launched in 08) was much improved for safety. THe new Chrysler Grand Voyager (also sold as Chrysler Town & Country, Volkswagen Routan, Dodge Grand Caravan) scored top scores in all the safety tests carried out in the US and combined with its size and weight, would be much safer than most other cars on the road in the UK.