Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ (FCA) ambiguous announcement on the death of SRT as an independent entity and its incorporation under the Dodge marque as a performance nameplate, raised some questions, the most important being what will happen to the Chrysler 300 SRT and Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT, as surely these vehicles cannot be…”consolidated under the Dodge brand”, right?
There’s no official word from the Italian-American company yet, but Jalopnik says it learned from an inside source that the automaker has made the decision to kill the 470HP Chrysler 300 SRT and retain the 470HP Grand Cherokee SRT – for now, at least.
According to Jalopnik, the fastest of all Grand Cherokees may not last for long because there’s a new Dodge Journey SRT coming this way. However, we wouldn’t be so quick to rule out the continuation of the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT because, for one, Dodge never mentioned an SRT version of the Durango in its roadmap and two, while the Grand Cherokee is a worldwide model, the Durango is not. And we can’t believe that Chrysler will leave its flagship SUV brand that has global aspirations without a performance moniker. Perhaps the plan is to give Jeep its own sub-brand.
By John Halas
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