The plain truth?
Aside from the several thousand tutti-frutti
collectors that own an older 300 that they are
actually emotional about, the number of people that
have owned a 30-year dead badge and associate enough
loyalty to the badge to predicate a $25-$38,000
purchase decision on has to be awfully low.
Like in the hundreds or maybe several thousands if
you're really generous. That does not support a car
company unless you're an obscure marque like
Superformance or TVR.
Driving down the freeway, I look in the window of the
300's that I see. Who's in there? Nobody that looks
remotely like 300-club members. Regular folks.
It's going into rental fleets. It's going to people
that are mechanically savvy or like the
style/size/shape/wheels/smell.
You could call it a Rhino, or a Torpedo, or a 300.
They'd probably buy it just the same.
Imperial? What the hell is that?
Heck, if you're reading this, you probably already own
at least one Imperial already. Would the name badge
alone get you to buy, even if it was a dog? Not me.
I have other fish to fry with that $40k.
It'd be nice to talk about here. Glory days and all.
Probably going down like that over at the 300
clubhouse. Good for them, but Imperial is dead.
Gone.
Kaput.
If you want an Imperial, with all of the historical
positives associated with that word, you're going to
have to buy used.
If you want to market a modern car, resurrecting a
name that technically failed in the marketplace and
has faded to obscurity in comparison to names like
BARRACUDA, CHARGER, HEMI, POWER WAGON, & MAGNUM?
-well if I was a car executive, I'd nix the name
IMPERIAL in a hearbeat, unless I was going to go on
some sort of sustained (really expensive) campaign
where it would be worth it to (re)establish the brand
name in the public's mind. And compete with my other
luxury cars that only have only numbers on their
backsides? Sorry, brother, can't cannibalize my other
product niches.
Walk down to your local Chrysler dealership. Ask them
who made Imperials. Point to the Seal that is in the
middle of all Chrysler Badges and ask them what it
symbolizes (WPC's Personal Seal (as in wax envelope
seal) of Quality). If you get anyone there under 50
to answer both of those questions without prompting,
you're talking to a very aware person.
I have not met one yet, but my experiences at 3
dealerships just prior to the 300 launch convinced me
that the world has turned and that those folks just
aren't relevant to me personally, and that I am not
relative to them business-wise, since buying a new car
that drops 10% of its value 5 minutes off the lot is a
bad car purchase in my book.
Want to bet they tossed IMPERIAL into the soup when
they were testing old names for recognition in
consumers' minds? I bet they did when they spent the
money to figure out what to call that thing they're
branding as a 300 and 300C. If it were about accurate
nostalgia for people that are in the know, it would
have been the 300N and would be a 2-door. Imperials
were 4-doors.
Nope. -300C.
Selling like crazy.
Hooray for Chrysler and 4 doors and RWD.
And 95% of the buyers that the car was targeted at
don't know the difference between a letter C and a
letter M or even what a letter car is/was/means.
Boo-Hoo.
Good news is that it's so hard to pick between a 64
and a 73, and a 60, and a 70 that I wound up getting
one of each. That just leaves the 68, the 59, the 56,
the 54, and the 81 left to go to scratch my itch.
Unless an airflow came up for cheap. That'd be cool
too...
So many choices already! Why spend $40k when they're
lying around and going for under $5k? AND they have
real bumpers and hoods the size of a queen bed!
Whatcha crying about???
These are the good old days right now.
=====
Kenyon Wills
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