Browse over 9,000 car reviews

Dodge likely to be axed

Dodge remains in Australia with only one model, the Journey people mover.

The shock news comes as Fiat looks at making the Fiat Freemont a niche model in Australia after its successful launch into Europe.

In Beijing this week, Fiat's global boss Olivier Francois says the death of Dodge was "likely''. Dodge remains in Australia with only one model, the Journey people mover. 

Its clone, the Freemont,  is intended to become Fiat's second model here, but there could be a time delay as Fiat allocates time to first establish the 500 as its volume seller. But it is believed Dodge will remain a brand name in one market - the US - purely for historic reasons. Mr Francois says Freemont was a "surprise'' seller in Europe. 

The car is a seven-seat copy of the Dodge Journey - still sold in Australia - that hit the spot with European buyers because of its simplicity and functionality. But Mr Francois has made it clear that Dodge doesn't have a place in the new Fiat-Chrysler alliance. "To us, the Freemont was an opportunistic car,'' he says. 

"It was never born a Fiat and we knew it was an American product, so how could it fit into Europe? "Well we have sold 35,000 Freemonts in Europe, built in our plant in Mexico, in less than 12 months. "It is so successful that we now have to lift production.''

The Freemont could be in  Australia before the end of 2013, depending on its demand in other markets and the progress  of a roll-out of new cars based on the Fiat 500.
 

Neil Dowling
Contributing Journalist
GoAutoMedia Cars have been the corner stone to Neil’s passion, beginning at pre-school age, through school but then pushed sideways while he studied accounting. It was rekindled when he started contributing to magazines including Bushdriver and then when he started a motoring section in Perth’s The Western Mail. He was then appointed as a finance writer for the evening Daily News, supplemented by writing its motoring column. He moved to The Sunday Times as finance editor and after a nine-year term, finally drove back into motoring when in 1998 he was asked to rebrand and restyle the newspaper’s motoring section, expanding it over 12 years from a two-page section to a 36-page lift-out. In 2010 he was selected to join News Ltd’s national motoring group Carsguide and covered national and international events, launches, news conferences and Car of the Year awards until November 2014 when he moved into freelancing, working for GoAuto, The West Australian, Western 4WDriver magazine, Bauer Media and as an online content writer for one of Australia’s biggest car groups. He has involved himself in all aspects including motorsport where he has competed in everything from motocross to motorkhanas and rallies including Targa West and the ARC Forest Rally. He loves all facets of the car industry, from design, manufacture, testing, marketing and even business structures and believes cars are one of the few high-volume consumables to combine a very high degree of engineering enlivened with an even higher degree of emotion from its consumers.
About Author

Comments