Chrysler: end of the road?
An iconic symbol of an iconic America carmaker is disappearing. But could that mean the brand is going away as well?
Chrysler-- which was bought outright by Italy’s Fiat at the beginning of the year-- is getting rid of its more than 50-year-old “pentastar” logo. It’s being replaced by the stylized letters “F-C-A,” which stands for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCAU), the name of the combined carmaker, which began trading on the New York Stock Exchange last month.
And Yahoo Finance Columnist Rick Newman wonders if this might be a sign that the end is near for the venerable brand.
“Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has four divisions here in the United States-- Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Fiat,” he points out. “Nobody else but General Motors (GM) has four divisions. And there’s been talk that Fiat Chrysler has one division too many, and there’s a lot of speculation about which division might go away. So if you want to play the speculation game-- if the logo of the Chrysler division goes away, maybe Chrysler goes away.”
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Newman points out that having a storied history doesn’t necessarily help sell cars.
“Iconic and powerful are two different things,” he says. “And of all the auto brands and all the nameplates you can think of, Chrysler is certainly one of the weakest.”
He feels a cosmetic change won’t help that.
“The overall company has some popular models, they happen to be Jeeps, not Chryslers,” he notes. “I don’t think changing the logo is going to impact sales.”
Chrysler reported Jeep sales soared 52% last month, it’s best October performance ever. The model has set sales records every other month this year as well. And while Chrysler brand sales rose 17% last month, they were still down 4% year-over-year.
Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Michael Santoli believes the logo move tells us more about what Chrysler’s parent feels about the strength of its own popularity.
“What it does say is that Fiat doesn’t think there’s any real negative attached to having its name, a European automaker, attached to what has been the number three U.S. brand,” he says.
Newman agrees.
“It might even add some cache to the brand,” he adds. “Chrysler needs to be invigorated and this might help.”
As for the “pentastar,” Newman feels only a very few will actually miss it.
“I’m sure there are a few die-hard Chrysler fans in the Detroit area that will care,“ he says.
