My theory --> Chrylser made the announcement cutting RAM out of Dodge early on in the recovery process. Way before any product or design direction was thought out.
There was a consideration of the senior management team and balancing the brands as Dodge was 2/3 of the group total. Another widely suggested theory was returning to Big Rigs possibly with IVECO cabs. There has been some backtracking in the US so the weakening of the brands is recognised.
I believe the initial advisors were primarily legal. The survival strategy for FIAT-Chrysler was global growth. In the first bankruptcy Chrysler had sold Dodge Commercial in the international market to Peugeot. They later merged it with Renault who continued building Dodge vans into the 1990s.
For FIAT-Chrysler to invest in international sales of Dodge trucks they would have to use the RAM name.
There is a precedent - the Dodge Viper SRT-10 is not called a Viper in the UK due to another car using that name.
The appeal of US vehicles to the global market is the Americana marketing.
Harleys and Levis do not sell because they are the best product but rather that they are the same product as in the US. US PickUps were probably branded RAM as that was the brand under which they would be sold in the world market - not Dodge Truck/Commercial as Chrysler no longer owned those rights.
It is discussed in the second quarter hour below - and they have even less idea than my thought above.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCnwOQSLGSM&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
VIPER : Dodge's parent firm at the time DaimlerChrysler could not use the legendary name in Britain for its 500bhp monster. In 1992, when the company was just Chrysler, it lost a legal battle with Mr Cook about using the word Viper on a car here.
Speaking at the 2004 Detroit Motor Show, where Dodge's launch in Europe was announced, Chrysler UK boss Simon Elliott said: "We'll market the car as the Dodge SRT-10. Everyone knows it's a Viper and for the 30 LHD examples a year we'll sell, it's not worth spending the money to try to buy the name."
Bob Busbridge from Morden, Surrey builds an AC Cobra lookalike called the Cobretti Viper. He sold only 45 complete cars and 200 self-assembly kits in nearly 20 years of business but doesn't own the Viper name, either. He's been involved in a 12-year legal battle with another man - Kenneth Cook from Bournemouth, Dorset - about who registered it first with the UK Patent Office.
Kenneth Cook from Bournemouth, Dorset has a company, Brightwheel Replicas Ltd, that also sold a kit car called the Viper and he thinks the trademark is his.
Read more:
There was a consideration of the senior management team and balancing the brands as Dodge was 2/3 of the group total. Another widely suggested theory was returning to Big Rigs possibly with IVECO cabs. There has been some backtracking in the US so the weakening of the brands is recognised.
I believe the initial advisors were primarily legal. The survival strategy for FIAT-Chrysler was global growth. In the first bankruptcy Chrysler had sold Dodge Commercial in the international market to Peugeot. They later merged it with Renault who continued building Dodge vans into the 1990s.
For FIAT-Chrysler to invest in international sales of Dodge trucks they would have to use the RAM name.
There is a precedent - the Dodge Viper SRT-10 is not called a Viper in the UK due to another car using that name.
The appeal of US vehicles to the global market is the Americana marketing.
Harleys and Levis do not sell because they are the best product but rather that they are the same product as in the US. US PickUps were probably branded RAM as that was the brand under which they would be sold in the world market - not Dodge Truck/Commercial as Chrysler no longer owned those rights.
It is discussed in the second quarter hour below - and they have even less idea than my thought above.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCnwOQSLGSM&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
VIPER : Dodge's parent firm at the time DaimlerChrysler could not use the legendary name in Britain for its 500bhp monster. In 1992, when the company was just Chrysler, it lost a legal battle with Mr Cook about using the word Viper on a car here.
Speaking at the 2004 Detroit Motor Show, where Dodge's launch in Europe was announced, Chrysler UK boss Simon Elliott said: "We'll market the car as the Dodge SRT-10. Everyone knows it's a Viper and for the 30 LHD examples a year we'll sell, it's not worth spending the money to try to buy the name."
Bob Busbridge from Morden, Surrey builds an AC Cobra lookalike called the Cobretti Viper. He sold only 45 complete cars and 200 self-assembly kits in nearly 20 years of business but doesn't own the Viper name, either. He's been involved in a 12-year legal battle with another man - Kenneth Cook from Bournemouth, Dorset - about who registered it first with the UK Patent Office.
Kenneth Cook from Bournemouth, Dorset has a company, Brightwheel Replicas Ltd, that also sold a kit car called the Viper and he thinks the trademark is his.
Read more: