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Ex-Toyota manager Jim Press, now with Chrysler, where he is mapping out alternative fuel plans. (http://www.mercurynews.com/greenenergy/ci_10381832)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Chrysler_Aspen_Hemi_Hybrid_-_19_city_-_21_highway.jpgMatt Nauman – Mercury News – Sept. 4, 2008

Chrysler Aspen Hybrid carries 7 at 19/20 mpg city/highway vs. the Prius that carries 5 at 48/45 mpg city/highway.

The most nonsensical replies from a formerly respected auto exec I have heard in my life! -- Ed.

Jim Press, a Toyota lifer and one of the people most responsible for that brand's U.S. success, stunned the auto industry by joining Chrysler in 2007. The smallest of the Big Three, Chrysler had just become an independent company after Cerberus Capital Management bought 80 percent of it, ending the unsuccessful German-American hybrid known as DaimlerChrysler…

Q: The Prius is one of the most popular vehicles in Northern California, and GM continues to spend millions to advertise its forthcoming Volt, a plug-in hybrid due in 2010. What are Chrysler's plans for alternative-fuel vehicles?

A: We've chosen to enter the hybrid market with a more effective product, the (Dodge) Durango and (Chrysler) Aspen SUVs. If you look at the footprint of a conventionally powered Corolla vs. a conventionally powered Aspen, obviously the Aspen has a much greater carbon footprint so the advantages of savings of oil, savings of cost and global-warming issues are captured to a greater degree with the Aspen than with the Prius.

We've applied a two-mode hybrid system combined with a Hemi engine that has the multiple-displacement system (which cuts off unneeded cylinders). So you end up with a four-cylinder drive system in a seven-passenger SUV. You get a 40 percent savings in gas overall, and 20 percent on the highway. A car like the Prius doesn't help you much on the highway. We have a different approach that is more reflective of the typical American driving pattern. The Prius is more reflective of the typical Tokyo driving pattern, which is stop-and-go traffic… http://www.mercurynews.com/greenenergy/ci_10381832

Who needs to carry 7?:confused:

Who needs to carry 7?:confused:
I know a few families who need 9-passenger full sized vans. They would never get an SUV though. The Sprinter CDI is a much better choice for them and probably gets better fuel economy than any of the full size 7-passenger SUV's.

A car like the Prius doesn't help you much on the highway.

You have lies, and then you have damned lies. The above falls into the latter category.

Even a very mild hypermiler like myself can get 57.5 mpg on the highway. If I hypermiled harder, I could do better

So, a Prius doesn't help you much on the highway, but a hybrid Hemi Durango will? :confused:

Sorry, but my BS meter just pegged, the needle fell clean off, and there's black smoke roiling out the back of the case.

Harry

If you want to see what they want to be, you see what they drive. It really describes what Chrysler can do. We want to build cars and trucks that are emotionally involving and rewarding, with high design, a great feel and a very high level craftsmanship and quality. We want to become the best car company in America. Not the biggest.

There's no hope for Chrysler. They are dead meat. Has the board of directors done a lobotomy on Jim Press? Sounds like it.

Harry

From the Article

"If you look at the footprint of a conventionally powered Corolla vs. a conventionally powered Aspen, obviously the Aspen has a much greater carbon footprint so the advantages of savings of oil, savings of cost and global-warming issues are captured to a greater degree with the Aspen than with the Prius."

Wait...what?

Is this guy using some kind of new math here?

The Aspen's bigger, and thus requires more materials to manufacture. Is this guy trying to equate his 'gas-saving' SUV that gets worse gas mileage than the newest Honda Odyssey (which happens to seat 7 as well) to a Toyota Corolla? Read that passage...because he sidesteps his own comparison to take a swipe at the Prius.

The reason why his "savings of cost" are greater with the Aspen is because the Aspen is expensive in the first place compared to the Prius. But this is a classic case of comparing apples to rotting cores. In other words, he making up the math as he goes along.

And finally....

We want to build cars and trucks that are emotionally involving and rewarding, with high design, a great feel and a very high level craftsmanship and quality. We want to become the best car company in America. Not the biggest.

Then stop designing Aspens. (And to think that this nutbar will make more in a year than I will in a decade...:rolleyes: )

dumb. just dumb.

you have to wonder what color the sky is in the world he lives in.

Chrysler -> Cerberus Capital Management -> James Danforth Quayle -> answer.

DAS

And to think all they have to do is look @ Chevy's big flop with the Tahoe Hybrid and decide not to pull the trigger. This will be another one of several big mistakes Dodge is making and if they are not careful it will cost them the company!

Speaking of the Tahoe Hybrid I find it funny that in front of my work there is a large banner advertising 21 mpg city!!! and that Chevy is doing a Hybrid sale..LMAO. So I guess now on sale you can buy them for 15k off the ridiculous 55k sticker.

Hi All:

___I see most have seen the same kind of garbage I saw when reading this. You have to feel for the GM, Ford and Chrysler but to see the leaders of these companies making $*&! up, it boggles the mind. Matt is a pretty good auto journalist for the Mercury News and I can just imagine him writing this up and saying, “WTF” while throwing his hands in the air :rolleyes:

___Remember that Jim Press was the only American ever to sit on the board of Toyota and he has now stepped down to the point of this dog and pony show with Cerebrus? I am sure they are paying him a ton of money for the move but I almost feel sorry for him having to stoop to this kind of “creative dialog” with the public at large.


… with a more effective product, the (Dodge) Durango and (Chrysler) Aspen SUVs.
July 2008 Aspen Sales - 1,213 units down 45% vs. the July 2007 sales period.
July 2008 Durango Sales - 384 units, down 84% vs. the July 2007 sales period.

August 2008 Aspen Sales - 1,922 units down 45% vs. the August 2007 sales period.
August 2008 Durango Sales - 1,430 units, down 56% vs. the August 2007 sales period.

___Relying on sales of the (2) behemoths listed that in July sold less than half as many units as the HCH-II let alone the Civic at almost 20 times that amount is a disaster in the making.

___I am extremely worried when considering these guys will get their hands on $25 to $50 Billion in low interest rate loans and I think everyone else should be afraid as well.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Whooo Dodge is way off the map now..... Even the new non-hybrid GM 7 seaters (Arcadia and Enclave) get 24 MPG highway and are more appealing IMHO.

I'm imagining the Toyota people shaking their head about the Jim Press they knew.

We have more cars per capita than ever - carpooling does not happen that much.

So with 80% commuting to work alone, why do we need ever larger vehicles? :rolleyes:

Put it this way: You could but two Civic Hybrids for the price of one of these gigantic luxury hybrids (thus being able to carry 8) and driving both cars ar the same time would yeild an effective FE of 20/22.5 MPG. So... what is the point of these bloated FSP luxury hybrids that cost nearly as much as my house?

I'm imagining the Toyota people shaking their head about the Jim Press they knew.

We have more cars per capita than ever - carpooling does not happen that much.

So with 80% commuting to work alone, why do we need ever larger vehicles? :rolleyes:

Last week I had to drive over 30 km's each way through the city because of yet another moronic motorist who smashed their semi into a bridge on the highway. The highway still isn't open because of all the damage.

On our city roads there are car pooling lanes for buses, taxis and cars with 3 passengers or more. I saw hundreds of vehicles in this lane and not one had more than 2 people in the vehicle.

When you see the kind of vehicles available to our market, it's not all that surprising that the exceedingly overpaid people who work for companies like Chrysler remain delusional.

Its not just lies & damn lies....its also statistics, and this guy plays them well. Everything he says is sort of true. A hybrid sysytem in a large SUV saves more gas than a hybrid system in a small car, but doesn't even consider how much more the large SUV was wasting in the first place.

I love the line comparing oil to batteries; As long as the raw material is availalble, then dependency on others to build batteries is no big dead. If we had something change in the world & suddenly no one would send them here, we could start manufacturing here within 2 years under normal circumstances & in just a few months under an emergency, crash program. Stupid comparison. There is a reason why I call them, sales-pukes.