BrandlandUSA

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Just off the headlines. The massive shutdown of dealers ordered by the Obama administration was a massive failure. Not that you couldn’t have noticed by just talking to some of the dealers themselves. I recall running into a group of repair guys from Sarasota Chrysler-Plymouth, which is now Sarasota Suzuki Mitsubishi. This [...]

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AUBURN HILLS – Change is not the friend of brands. So when we happened to notice that Dodge Trucks were becoming rebranded as Ram, we were, to say the least, annoyed. Then, we heard Ram Brand President and CEO Fred Diaz on a post from the Detroit Auto Show. Oh no! Chrysler made some major [...]

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The new Land’s End catalog features one of the great American cars, a car brand with great enduring appeal. The Grand Wagoneer. It still holds as an icon, or so the happy scene to the right shows. The car helps sell clothes, and connotes a lifestyle. The branding question is this: If Jeep is a [...]

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STAUNTON, Illinois – We ran across the website of Country Classic Cars. Man, do they have some good stuff. A great old Willys Overland Jeep, 1949, only $8950. Above, a Ford Ranch Wagon, 1966, only $3,950. But I am really Jones-ing for this Chrysler Newport. GM or Chrysler ought to buy out a dealer like [...]

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A quick thought. We miss diversified car companies. We miss diversified retailers. We miss when our car companies did amusing things. We liked Ford when it made Fordson Tractors, Tri-Motors and Philco Televisions. We liked General Motors when it made Electro-Motive engines and Frigidaire appliances. We liked Chrysler when it made Chrysler sailboats (long live [...]

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Racing Brand Revival Targets Niche Buyer TURIN – Fiat has brought back the Abarth brand, and cars are being delivered to the U.K. this month. Abarth, a sub-brand of Fiat (BIT: F), is one of many car brands that have returned to life in Europe in recent years, including Mini, Maybach, Bugatti and Spyker. The [...]

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LOS ANGELES – We’ll miss the man of the Corinthian leather! Great obit on him on Bloomberg.com. The ads said that the Chrysler Cordoba commercial had “tastefulness of its appearance” and the “thickly cushioned luxury of seats available even in soft Corinthian leather.” According to Bloomberg, the phrase “Corinthian leather” had been made up by [...]

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Sometimes you bury pride and sell on price Remember Ed Rooney, in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? He drove a government issue K-car. During the 1980s, the Plymouth K-car was what the government bought when it needed something basic. If you were lucky, it had a $79 AM radio. We heard a recent car ad; it [...]

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