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On 9/29/2004 1:42 AM, Bill Pitz wrote:
|> I mentioned that I belong to a Dodge truck club and most of my
|> "colleagues" call the new Durango the "Durvango" (he laughed at that)
|> - and most probably won't like the new Dakota. He got defensive and
|> started saying well there are small groups like that who won't be
|> pleased by change - and that they have to make a vehicle that will
|> appeal to the majority vs. the minority. I nodded and said I
|> understood - but that the loyalists like myself and my associates -
|> are still going to be upset. I don't think he gets it heh.
|
|
| There's one thing that is left out of that equation, though. It's a
| hell of a lot easier (and cheaper) to keep your existing customers than
| to try and earn new customers. What I don't like in general is that the
| Dakota is still called a "truck" but it is becoming much more car-like,
| just as the Durango has. That's what I call the yuppie effect. As the
| yuppies move into this market, they don't actually want a truck with
| truck-like capabilities. They want a vehicle that looks like a truck
| but drives like a car. You can't make a reasonably affordable truck
| that has great off-road capabilities and excellent on-road comfort and
| performance. It's certainly possible to combine these two, but not in
| the price range of the Dakota (and certainly not for the American
| carmakers... *sigh*)
Look at the XJ vs. KJ (Cherokee/Liberty). DC pissed off just about
every Jeep loyalist by killing the XJ and introducing the IFS KJ. But
they also won over a lot of new people.
Unfortunately, it's a business. You have to make the product that will
sell.
| Who knows.. They may fix the interior stuff in next year's model. There
| were quite a few aesthetic changes to the Gen III interior without any
| major redesign going on.
There were a few very minor changes year to year, plus the complete dash
redesign in '01.
- --
- -andy
http://home.rochester.rr.com/alevy/dakota - andy-dml@levyclan.us
- --------------------------------------------
"Whatever Adam does, do the opposite and you'll be fine"
-Bob Tom
- --------------------------------------------
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