"chrysler closed belvidiere, IL about 25-30 years ago, home of plymouth, because of costs and overproduction." Well, unless there were 2 plants or something in Belvidiere, that's not entirely true. My 1998 Neon was built at the Belvidiere plant. It may be closed now, since they make no Plymouths, of course.
As for the Normal plant, I suspect they might take over the facility and if it's more modern and better equipped, maybe shut down an older, legacy plant. Otherwise, they'll probably auction it off to get some of their investment in Mitsu back.
Love the current Mitsu ads, though. The best protection in the world or whatever. 3yr/15k maintainence, 5yr B-2-B, 7yr powertrain, etc. Yeah, not exactly the best protection because you're so gracious. More like, "well, we have absolutely no reputation now, so we'll fool people with this plan and hope we're out of business in 5 years". Yecch. Bad part is, I sort of like Mitsu's and would seriously consider a Galant. Worse, I don't think reliability is too much of a concern. But the whole lying to the public thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
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I guess I'll have to pay closer attention to that ad the next time I see it! I have to admit that whenever I watch it, I'm paying more attention to the frisbees to see if I can spot where the real frisbees are and the where the computer generated frisbees are!
I'll admit that it doesn't want me want to run out and buy a GM product anytime soon (although for some reason I'm getting a newfound respect for the '57 Buick), but I kinda like the way it starts off with "You got a cool car...and I like it!!" or something like that.
Beats the heck out of that tired old "like a rock" campaign.
I've got to say that the DaimlerChrysler Belvidere Assembly plant is alive and well, and is cranking out Dodge Neons and Chrysler Neons (Canadian and European markets) daily.
This plant seems like its been around forever. My 1977 Plymouth Volare that I had for 6 years was built there. After that, Belvidere built Dodge Omnis and Plymouth Horizons, Dodge Dynastys and Chrysler New Yorkers, and after 1994, Neons. The plant literally sits on top of Interstate 90 a few miles east of Rockford, Illinois, and the plant displays whatever its building at the time on pedestals facing the highway. Since I pass this plant at least weekly, and the parking lot is full and the smokestacks are putting out exhaust, it looks like the plant's open, although they have a huge supply of Neons in their inventory lot.
In the late 1980s, Chrysler was considering shutting the plant down and moving production to Mexico. With some cajoling from Lee Iacocca, the State of Illinois bailed it out with a series of economic development grants for plant expansion that doubled the size of the plant, and doled out millions in job training funds.
From what I've read, Belvidere will be building the next generation of small Dodge and Chrysler cars which might not be called Neon, on a Mitsubishi Lancer platform starting next year. Unless plans have changed, there were no plans to build the Neon replacement on a Hyundai platform. As for the plant in Normal, Mitsubishi will be cutting jobs there in September, but no word as of yet that the plant is for sale.
How could any American male adult not know what a Hemi is??
"That thing got a Hemi in it?" has got to be the best ad tag line in this decade. The 300C is outselling the other variants because no red-blooded American Mopar driver wants to answer that question with a "no".
Well, maybe they don't want to answer the question with a "no", but they should if they are truthful, because it is a hemi in marketing name only. As Don Sherman ponted out in Automobile magazine recently, it isn't a Hemi like the legendary one in the 60s. The combustion chamber isn't even hemisperical. It's just a name dreamed up by the marketing types to capitalize on the past.
Anyone else been getting a barrage of Volkswagen Summer Sales Drive radio commercials in their area. I find these commercials fairly annoying. Especially the one about a guy getting a shiatsu massage.
...but have seen the TV commercial quite often -- the one where the salesman gives so many test drives during the day that when he goes to his own personal car, he starts to open the passenger door.
I think it's GM, but they have on eknow where a loaded car carrier comes into the lot, and does a lurid power slide (swinging the trailer around) right up to the building. DOn't know if it is "real", but looks cool.
Of course, not effective advertising because I don't remember the brand of car, not that I would buy one anyway. But I like the ad!
...I recall a radio commercial for some car, (Mitsubishi?) that told of this fantastic, almost unreal, lease offer. At the end of the commercial was a fast talker going on long than the ad itself. Sounds like one is in for a royal screwing if they fall for this ploy.
I also despise all ads that show this low monthly payment and it's always turns out to be for a lease. Please, show me how much it is to BUY the car and how long are the payment terms.
"As for the plant in Normal, Mitsubishi will be cutting jobs there in September, but no word as of yet that the plant is for sale."
Yeah, I wasn't so much thinking that Mitsu would sell it now, considering it's a primary plant for them here, but rather under the theory of "if they go belly up, how does DC get their investment in Mitsu back? Hey, I know! We own yet another car plant." I mean, as far as I understand it, although DC declined to pump additional cash into Mitsu recently, their stake in Mitsu is fairly sizeable.
I think it's a stroke of genius. Let's see, we just came out with a great new truck engine, but it's a pushrod engine. Ford, Nissan, and Toyota are all getting props for their OHC motors while GM has a word association problem: "GM" = "antiquated old-tech pushrod engines". So, how do we keep the press for bagging on our great new engine just because it has pushrods instead of overhead cams? We call it a Hemi.
Sweeeeet!
-Jason
Oh, and by the way I am NOT anti-pushrod engines, especially in a truck application. But the auto press, especially the dumb ones, assume "pushrod" = "bad" and "OHC" = "good".
I don't know if it is a nationwide ad campaign or just local/regional, but almost every morning driving to work I come across radio ads for Lexus new or preowned cars that use an announcer with a forced "uppercrust" accent that drives me nuts. Good thing my (Taurus not Lexus) radio pushbuttons are easy to use, as I switch stations every time one of these comes on.
These ads plus the tasteless Christmas ads with the bows on the Lexus gifts completely turn me off. I wouldn't buy a Lexus even if I wanted to spend the money on a luxury car, as I wouldn't want to be associated with the crass materialism these ads convey.
The current faux Hemi is at least the third generation of engines to be referred to as "hemis". I've always assumed that the hemis of the 1950s were not related to the Hemis of the 426/440 generation.
I hate those ads, too. They make it look like a concert, with the screaming "fans" and signs. They also seem to "tailor" the ad by locality, here in my area they say "KiaFest Connecticut," like it was an actual on-tour concert.
There's also a new Honda ad out for their 2004 clearance. You know the voiceover that's typically behind Honda ads? Well it's back, but with a cartoon figure now using that voice. And he's named "Mr Opportunity," and it of course has the obligatory "opportunity's knocking" line too.
Seems car ads just keep getting more and more vapid. Good thing TVs have Mute buttons, On/Off switches, and channel change buttons.
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yeah you're right, the current Hemi is the third line of Mopar engines to be referred to as such.
The original Mopar Hemi debuted in 1951, a 331 unit standard in Chrysler NYers and Imperials, with 180 hp, IIRC. I've read that the original reason they came up with the Hemi is that it put out the best power given the crappy octane of fuel available at the time. In 1952 they came out with a smaller Hemi for DeSoto, a 276.1 unit with 160 hp. That was the same HP that Olds got out of their V-8, but they needed 303 cubes to do it! In '53, Dodge came out with an even smaller Hemi, called the Red Ram. I think it was a 241 CID unit with 145 hp?
These original Hemi's were often referred to as "Whale" Hemis, probably to differentiate them from the later 426, which was called the "Elephant" Hemi. I'm guessing the "Whale" term didn't come out till the 60's, though. Anyway, those early Hemis were dropped after 1957 in Dodge/DeSoto, and '58 was the last year for the Chrysler/Imperial 392 Hemi. They were all replaced with lighter, cheaper-to-build Wedge head V-8's like the 350, 361, 383 (there were actually TWO 383's the first few years) and 413. These engines ultimately grew to become the 400 and 440 in later years. They had nothing in common with the old Chrysler/Dodge/DeSoto engines.
One of the displacements of that big-block was the 426, which, I think the first year it was out was just a wedge head with cross-ram induction, but then they got the bright idea to build a Hemi head for it. That gave us the 426 Hemi.
However, while the early Chrysler/Dodge/DeSoto hemis were basically passenger car motors designed for long life, but with hopped up versions for some of the pre-historic musclecars, and for racing, the 426 was just the opposite. A racecar engine that was dumbed down a bit for street use. The "Street" Hemi was rated, conservatively, I've heard, at 425 hp. The race versions, I think were rated at 500 and up.
Anyway, the 70's and tightening emissions regs, and skyrocketing insurance rates killed that one. Although you can still get them through Mopar Performance. I think a 426 Hemi is about $10K.
The current Hemi, while people think it's a huge monster today, is about the size of a Mopar 318/360, but with slightly wider heads and a deep skirt design. It even has the same bore spacing as a 318/360. I think it also has the same stroke as a 360, but I'm not sure. The heads are wider than a typical smallblock pushrod, but much narrower than the "real" Hemi's of days gone by, because the rocker shafts are closer together.
Not according to Kia, the tagline being "expect more." With a Kia, how can you expect any less, with Kia being the absolute bottom in everything when it comes to cars?
A girl owns a really beat-up 1964 Ford Falcon and is pleading, "Somebody please give my car a make-over?" These guys from "Pimp My Ride" come to her rescue and the car is made over into a new Corolla.
The Corolla commercial spoofing "Pimp My Ride" is a riot! All its missing is someone imitating Xzibit.
What's even better is that the commercial is a takeoff on an actual episode where a college kid wants to have his beat-up '86 Ford Escort pimped. When the custom shop goes to revamp it, they find that the car consists of the rear half of one Escort welded to the front half of a different Escort. Under California law, the car is illegal, so MTV bought the kid a new Scion Xb and the custom shop pimped it out instead. They fixed his "bucket" indeed!
I despise this commercial! Starting with that whiny, moronic woman, and the host... "Fix your bucket"? I'd like to fix that guy's bucket all right... I mean really, how stupid can you get?
The one where the doctor asks the guy how long has it been bugging you and then the guy props up his huge lead foot is a real laugher. The Accord V-6 6-spd it moves..
Yes, those are quite annoying ads, especially that stupid little "sprig" of hair on top of his head that moves around with his head's movements.
I've also noticed a faux pas in these series of ads as well. Living in far SW'ern CT, I normally watch the NYC stations instead of the normal CT stations.
Any way, that faux pas is the little "Not available in New York" disclaimer on some offers (in this case it was the Odyssey) is being displayed on these New York stations. You would think Honda's advertisers have picked up on this error, but no, I have seen that disclaimer several times since!
I like the ad that shows the kid, perhaps 10 or 11 strolling into the dealership looking over a 911 and asking the sales guy for a business card and saying, on his way out, "I'll see you in about 20 years".
Okay, I just heard a radio ad this morning for GM Certified Used cars. Normal level of annoyance until the following: "When buying a used car, you ask questions like, 'will it have a comprehensive limited warranty?'" Um, no, I'd actually prefer a comprehensive unlimited warranty. I understand they're covering their butts legally, but grammatically they should've used a different sentence! Alright, I'm done ranting. Back to normal life!
Did anyone notice the Mazda commercial "zoom" past during the Sunday Olympics?
No? I didn't think so. A bunch of cars driving across a desert in a cloud of dust! How generic, how uninformative, how unfortunate for those sporty cars.
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I love the 'vette commercial they've been showing recently. The one where the kid is fantasizing about driving a C6 around NYC. Interestingly, it was directed by Guy Ritchie (Madonna's hubby), who also did one of the films in BMW's "The Driver" series a few years back. At least Chevy had the good taste to leave his wife out of the current commercial.
One feastures a guy and a farmer looking at a '72 or '73 2002 sitting in a barn, the guy writes an eyebrow raising offer on a piece of paper and in the last frame the farmer is tooling around in his own brand new 3er.
Of course they have to run a super stating that the resale value of an old BMW might not cover a new one, duh!
Inexplicably this is followed by a screen with a lease offer (???)
Cute ad though.
The there's the one with the new 5er parked behind a tow truck in the middle of a rainstorm you hear voices--
"What happened" "I dunno, it just died" "I'll give you a lift to town, get in"
With that the guy gets into the back of the Fiver, which pulls onto the road and leaves the (presumably) disabled truck behind.
Comments
Well, unless there were 2 plants or something in Belvidiere, that's not entirely true. My 1998 Neon was built at the Belvidiere plant. It may be closed now, since they make no Plymouths, of course.
As for the Normal plant, I suspect they might take over the facility and if it's more modern and better equipped, maybe shut down an older, legacy plant. Otherwise, they'll probably auction it off to get some of their investment in Mitsu back.
Love the current Mitsu ads, though. The best protection in the world or whatever. 3yr/15k maintainence, 5yr B-2-B, 7yr powertrain, etc. Yeah, not exactly the best protection because you're so gracious. More like, "well, we have absolutely no reputation now, so we'll fool people with this plan and hope we're out of business in 5 years". Yecch. Bad part is, I sort of like Mitsu's and would seriously consider a Galant. Worse, I don't think reliability is too much of a concern. But the whole lying to the public thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
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2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
I'll admit that it doesn't want me want to run out and buy a GM product anytime soon (although for some reason I'm getting a newfound respect for the '57 Buick), but I kinda like the way it starts off with "You got a cool car...and I like it!!" or something like that.
Beats the heck out of that tired old "like a rock" campaign.
I've got to say that the DaimlerChrysler Belvidere Assembly plant is alive and well, and is cranking out Dodge Neons and Chrysler Neons (Canadian and European markets) daily.
This plant seems like its been around forever. My 1977 Plymouth Volare that I had for 6 years was built there. After that, Belvidere built Dodge Omnis and Plymouth Horizons, Dodge Dynastys and Chrysler New Yorkers, and after 1994, Neons. The plant literally sits on top of Interstate 90 a few miles east of Rockford, Illinois, and the plant displays whatever its building at the time on pedestals facing the highway. Since I pass this plant at least weekly, and the parking lot is full and the smokestacks are putting out exhaust, it looks like the plant's open, although they have a huge supply of Neons in their inventory lot.
In the late 1980s, Chrysler was considering shutting the plant down and moving production to Mexico. With some cajoling from Lee Iacocca, the State of Illinois bailed it out with a series of economic development grants for plant expansion that doubled the size of the plant, and doled out millions in job training funds.
From what I've read, Belvidere will be building the next generation of small Dodge and Chrysler cars which might not be called Neon, on a Mitsubishi Lancer platform starting next year. Unless plans have changed, there were no plans to build the Neon replacement on a Hyundai platform. As for the plant in Normal, Mitsubishi will be cutting jobs there in September, but no word as of yet that the plant is for sale.
Here's a review from Slate.com, written by a reviewer who says he didn't know what a Hemi is.
http://slate.com/id/2103905/
How could any American male adult not know what a Hemi is??
"That thing got a Hemi in it?" has got to be the best ad tag line in this decade. The 300C is outselling the other variants because no red-blooded American Mopar driver wants to answer that question with a "no".
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Scion- kinda weird. not the typical car commerical, but thats ok.
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
Of course, not effective advertising because I don't remember the brand of car, not that I would buy one anyway. But I like the ad!
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
We'll let the engineers and lawyers worry about that, you wanna sell cars or not?
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
I also despise all ads that show this low monthly payment and it's always turns out to be for a lease. Please, show me how much it is to BUY the car and how long are the payment terms.
Yeah, I wasn't so much thinking that Mitsu would sell it now, considering it's a primary plant for them here, but rather under the theory of "if they go belly up, how does DC get their investment in Mitsu back? Hey, I know! We own yet another car plant." I mean, as far as I understand it, although DC declined to pump additional cash into Mitsu recently, their stake in Mitsu is fairly sizeable.
So, how do we keep the press for bagging on our great new engine just because it has pushrods instead of overhead cams? We call it a Hemi.
Sweeeeet!
-Jason
Oh, and by the way I am NOT anti-pushrod engines, especially in a truck application. But the auto press, especially the dumb ones, assume "pushrod" = "bad" and "OHC" = "good".
These ads plus the tasteless Christmas ads with the bows on the Lexus gifts completely turn me off. I wouldn't buy a Lexus even if I wanted to spend the money on a luxury car, as I wouldn't want to be associated with the crass materialism these ads convey.
"man I've done so much Cash back I can't see straight"
Right...
What's the story Andre?
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
There's also a new Honda ad out for their 2004 clearance. You know the voiceover that's typically behind Honda ads? Well it's back, but with a cartoon figure now using that voice. And he's named "Mr Opportunity," and it of course has the obligatory "opportunity's knocking" line too.
Seems car ads just keep getting more and more vapid. Good thing TVs have Mute buttons, On/Off switches, and channel change buttons.
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Then immediately following...
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Because there won't be that many of them?
The original Mopar Hemi debuted in 1951, a 331 unit standard in Chrysler NYers and Imperials, with 180 hp, IIRC. I've read that the original reason they came up with the Hemi is that it put out the best power given the crappy octane of fuel available at the time. In 1952 they came out with a smaller Hemi for DeSoto, a 276.1 unit with 160 hp. That was the same HP that Olds got out of their V-8, but they needed 303 cubes to do it! In '53, Dodge came out with an even smaller Hemi, called the Red Ram. I think it was a 241 CID unit with 145 hp?
These original Hemi's were often referred to as "Whale" Hemis, probably to differentiate them from the later 426, which was called the "Elephant" Hemi. I'm guessing the "Whale" term didn't come out till the 60's, though. Anyway, those early Hemis were dropped after 1957 in Dodge/DeSoto, and '58 was the last year for the Chrysler/Imperial 392 Hemi. They were all replaced with lighter, cheaper-to-build Wedge head V-8's like the 350, 361, 383 (there were actually TWO 383's the first few years) and 413. These engines ultimately grew to become the 400 and 440 in later years. They had nothing in common with the old Chrysler/Dodge/DeSoto engines.
One of the displacements of that big-block was the 426, which, I think the first year it was out was just a wedge head with cross-ram induction, but then they got the bright idea to build a Hemi head for it. That gave us the 426 Hemi.
However, while the early Chrysler/Dodge/DeSoto hemis were basically passenger car motors designed for long life, but with hopped up versions for some of the pre-historic musclecars, and for racing, the 426 was just the opposite. A racecar engine that was dumbed down a bit for street use. The "Street" Hemi was rated, conservatively, I've heard, at 425 hp. The race versions, I think were rated at 500 and up.
Anyway, the 70's and tightening emissions regs, and skyrocketing insurance rates killed that one. Although you can still get them through Mopar Performance. I think a 426 Hemi is about $10K.
The current Hemi, while people think it's a huge monster today, is about the size of a Mopar 318/360, but with slightly wider heads and a deep skirt design. It even has the same bore spacing as a 318/360. I think it also has the same stroke as a 360, but I'm not sure. The heads are wider than a typical smallblock pushrod, but much narrower than the "real" Hemi's of days gone by, because the rocker shafts are closer together.
Because there won't be that many of them?
Not according to Kia, the tagline being "expect more." With a Kia, how can you expect any less, with Kia being the absolute bottom in everything when it comes to cars?
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
What's even better is that the commercial is a takeoff on an actual episode where a college kid wants to have his beat-up '86 Ford Escort pimped. When the custom shop goes to revamp it, they find that the car consists of the rear half of one Escort welded to the front half of a different Escort. Under California law, the car is illegal, so MTV bought the kid a new Scion Xb and the custom shop pimped it out instead. They fixed his "bucket" indeed!
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
Turboshadow
Turboshadow
I've also noticed a faux pas in these series of ads as well. Living in far SW'ern CT, I normally watch the NYC stations instead of the normal CT stations.
Any way, that faux pas is the little "Not available in New York" disclaimer on some offers (in this case it was the Odyssey) is being displayed on these New York stations. You would think Honda's advertisers have picked up on this error, but no, I have seen that disclaimer several times since!
Tsk, tsk...
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Very slick commercial.
Alright, I'm done ranting. Back to normal life!
No? I didn't think so. A bunch of cars driving across a desert in a cloud of dust! How generic, how uninformative, how unfortunate for those sporty cars.
Getting things started, from 6-7pm PT/9-10pm ET, If your passion is Mazda or you just like to go ZOOM ZOOM, the place to be is the Mazda Mania chat.
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Alakazam!
The kid was cute the first time.
Ok the next 5-6 times, but then I wanted to be in the car when it started to drive away without her...
As for the C6 ad, it has a disclaimer that it is just a dream and kids really shouldn't be driving. The lawyers strike again!
Turboshadow
Not the part about the flying car, but rather that it featured underage drivers.
One feastures a guy and a farmer looking at a '72 or '73 2002 sitting in a barn, the guy writes an eyebrow raising offer on a piece of paper and in the last frame the farmer is tooling around in his own brand new 3er.
Of course they have to run a super stating that the resale value of an old BMW might not cover a new one, duh!
Inexplicably this is followed by a screen with a lease offer (???)
Cute ad though.
The there's the one with the new 5er parked behind a tow truck in the middle of a rainstorm you hear voices--
"What happened"
"I dunno, it just died"
"I'll give you a lift to town, get in"
With that the guy gets into the back of the Fiver, which pulls onto the road and leaves the (presumably) disabled truck behind.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
The truck breaks down or stops for some reason. Then some pickup (a Silverado?) comes along and tows the semi, cars and all, away.
Is this possible? Does Chevy really have a pickup with enough torque to haul away a fully-loaded 18-wheeler?