Smart move - they have entirely too many dealers in most urban areas. For example, do we really need 10 Dodge dealers in Dallas alone?
And yes, they need to go through and axe and/or redesign a lot of their cars.
Axe:
Dodge Nitro/Jeep Compass (A FWD Jeep. Who thought this was a *good* idea???)
Chrysler Sebring/Dodge Avenger (horrifically ugly, awful cars. Would not have been competitive in the 1990s.)
Chrysler Aspen (Again, what idiot thought this was a good idea??)
Jeep Patriot (Not that bad a vehicle, but pointless in the Jeep lineup when there’s the Wrangler.)
Redesign:
Dodge Caliber - redesign as a new Neon.
New Minivans - ugly as heck, need a redesign.
I read a neat criticism of this idea in Fortune magazine. If you take a Chrysler dealership that sells 1,000 cars a year, a Dodge dealership that sells a 1,000 cars a year, and a Jeep dealership that sells 500 cars a year and combine them, what do you get? You don’t necessarily get a dealership that’s going to sell 2,500 cars a year.