Chrysler has been hurting lately, with plans to close at least its St. Louis truck plant, halting and/or reducing some minivan and truck production. Of course, this isn’t the first time Chrysler has had problems. They went through some trying times back in the K-car days. Those cars were relatively efficient at the time but none too sexy, and had other problems.

Still Chrysler lived through it - does anyone remember who bailed them out? Despite their problems, they’re part of the U.S. auto industry and it’d be a shame - economically - if the company went under. I’m not just saying that because I currently have a Dodge Caliber - my first domestic ever - though the videos like the one below worry me.

Chrysler LLC sales dropped 18% in April which is a 23% difference from this time last year. This is not a good sign for Chrysler who has struggled much in the last few years.

“The overall decrease in April sales, particularly of pickup trucks, demonstrates that the auto industry continues to be under pressure from the national economy,” Vice Chairman and President Jim Press said.

While the national economy plays a huge effect on auto sales, in my opinion Chrysler has been slow to innovate in the last 10 years and this plays a huge role in its decline during the national recession.

Just last year when the new CEO Bob Nardelli of the company announced that Chrysler was going to hualt the production of the PT Cruiser Convertible, Pacifica and Crossfire and the Dodge Magnum the thought that Chrysler was in trouble sprouted for some. It was obvious to many that the US Auto Industry had fattened in its gluttony and was expected to experience a number of “Jenny Craig” years. Now that Cerebrus has their hands on the dials it has been announced by Jim Press that Cerebrus is ready to turn back the dials on their automotive machine and reign in tighter control.

The name of the plan is Project Genesis and from that comes the New Day campaign. From the onset Chrysler will re-examine internal competition taking place between its three brands: Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler. As Jim Press put it, “Do we need 11 SUVs? Maybe we just need three or four?” The word is that Chrysler will cut their vehicle line-up nearly in half and remove a lot of the red tape that hinders decisions in the process.

Another move anticipated in the Project Genesis plan is to consolidate dealerships that are duplications of the Chrysler brand in the same market. They want Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler housed under the same roof and not spread out into their individual parts. This way when the line-up is reduced they will still have complete coverage for what buyers want, instead say having all their Jeep SUV’s across town from their Chrysler cars. How they are going to manage taking franchise’s away from owners and giving them to other dealers is going to be quite a hurdle, but that is their plan. For Chrysler it is all about the “New Day” that they are looking to begin.

It has been 2 years since Dodge first exposed the Challenger Concept to the world at the Detroit Auto Show in 2006. Chevy introduced their new Camaro Concept that same year, but it is Dodge that is beating them to the show rooms with their Retro Revival. At this years Chicago Auto Show Dodge has officially unveiled for the first time their production model Dodge Challenger SRT8 after months and months of sneak pics and teaser samples. Ofcourse sales for the once fabled classic have been going on well without official pics or specs as some are reporting that all 6,400 models to be produced this year are all already spoken for. We had reported before on the premiums of up to $20,000 being stacked on top of the $40,095 MSRP*.

However, now it is all about getting that first look of the production version of the Dodge Challenger SRT8 and its 6.1 liter Hemi engine. All of the 6,400 models for this year will be the 425-hp, 420-torque SRT8 package with more variants to follow in the next year. For 2009 there is a smaller 5.7 liter V8 model, the R/T, a V6 version and potentially a convertible model for the Challenger on down the road. As production hits full-steam Dodge expects to sell between 20,000 and 30,000 Challengers a year.
Check out the Large Gallery of Pics and Press Release below