Memo To Chrysler: Build Better Cars

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 7, 2:52PM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Chrysler, the US unit of DaimlerChrysler (DCX) is launching an ad campaign to position the brand as fuel-efficient and technically advanced. The company thinks that the Japanese get all of the positive buzz about good mileage and quality vehicles.

Part of the reason for the advertising is that Chrysler thinks that its models like the "300" get all the PR and the parent brand gets nothing.

Who cares? The business is to sell cars. Chevy doesn’t mind if you don’t like their brand if you buy a new Corvette.

Right now, Chrysler’s US sales are driven by the Jeep and Minivans. "DaimlerChrysler described demand for Chrysler Group’s Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Patriot models as ‘strong’, with sales of the brand 29 pct higher than in April last year."

Within the Chrysler brand proper, the company has models like the aging "300" and "PT Cruiser" which has also been around since the flood.

Get some hot new cars. Then pay for the advertising.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.