Fiat will launch a badge-engineered Dodge Journey at the Geneva Motor Show in March, says Automotive News.
Cue hoards of Brit journalists taking along spotter’s books of BMC cars of the 1960s to compare and contrast the differences of then and now.
At first glance, Fiat’s approach seems like pure and simple ADO16 logic. Take off Dodge Journey references, stick on Fiat Freemont badges, coincide with a mild facelift, and ship (from the same Mexico plant where US Fiat 500s are built).
Actually, though, Fiat’s doing what BMC failed to do – badge engineering with purpose.
The Dodge brand is being dumped in Europe. BMC failed here: failed at step one, then. It continued to sell the same cars with different badges from different dealers chasing the same market.
Dagenham Daggers
It’s a bit like Ford buying Vauxhall, duplicating the Fiesta with Corsa badges, and expecting to double sales overnight. Just doesn’t work. The public aren’t fools.
(Besides, Ford has history here. Rebadging the Fiesta as the Mazda 121 in the 1990s was a resounding failure – not least because it dramatically skewed Mazda’s famously glittering reliability stats…)
So, Fiat’s getting rid of Dodge, facelifting its best product (the Journey is actually a half-decent Ford S-Max style crossover), ditching the VW Group 2.0-litre diesels in favour of a Fiat engine in a Chrysler vehicle for the first time… and relaunching to Europe at Geneva.
The Fiat Freemont will replace the ages-old (and, ahem, badge-engineered) Fiat Ulysse, bring a four-wheel drive option to the sector, and quickly give Fiat one of its most competitive large vehicles in years. A little bit of genius.
It’ll have a free run in the market, benefit from dedicated marketing and give Fiat dealers something they’ve been seeking for years. Badge engineering at its best.
So, although many are going to be sniffy and cynical at what Fiat’s doing here, they shouldn’t. It’s actually quite smart. If the two largish groups can combine with such logic in the future, there may just be merit in what Sergio Marchionne’s planning after all.
Fiat Auto becomes world player? This could be the first clue in the journey to it (and engineer what the various BMC masterplans never managed).
