What a Difference a Year (and New President) Makes! – RedState
By Matthew Craffy
In January 2024, I wrote an editorial to Redstate called “Death of the Working Class Supercar”, which told the premature climb and end of the LX Chrysler platform, and Dodge products which presented HEMI V8 engines. The tone was dark, and I stressed that because of the heavy environmental policies of the administration of Biden of the time, the fascinating cars fueled with petrol which always defined the American road were quickly regulated by the existence by what many think they are omnipresent electricless and omnipresent electric vehicles.
Later this year in July, I attended the annual car show called Chryslers in Carlisle in Carlisle in Carlis, in Pennsylvania, which regularly has more than 2,500 private vehicles of the Chrysler Corporation of each vintage per year, the largest spectacle of this type for these vehicles all over the world.
Always presented are an impressive range of vehicles, both rare and common, daily drivers, restored and survivors, all with nice names like “Fury”, “Road Runner”, “Barracuda” and “Adventuriner”.
One thing that is true for all these cars: they all have an incredible and personal story for the owner. These are cars powered by a wide variety of engines, although most were V8, the legendary “Hemi” leading the pack.
As a person who has witnessed car fairs since childhood, I am used to the owners of enthusiastic cars, sometimes eccentric and always talkative. However, during the 2024 show, there was an underlying current distinct from sadness in each conversation on the future of the brand, the automotive industry, which overlapped people’s feelings about the global direction of the country.
My father, who liked to see all vintage cars, left the spectacle disillusioned with what could become of his favorite automotive company not to mention the country.
A few hours after our second day at the show and not far from the place where we were in Pennsylvania, then candidate Donald Trump was shot dead, and we had not been knowing for some time if he would be fine. Fortunately, it was, but it was definitely a dark period for car lovers and an even more worrying moment for the management of our country. It was a similar sadness reflected in my 6 -month editorial earlier.
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Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram – known collectively as “Mopars” – were apparently run in the ground under the direction of the CEO of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares. Each person I spoke with shared the disdain and sadness that a man, as well as the policies of President Joe Biden, forced their beloved American car brand to become something that she does not even recognize.
Tavares, a Eurocentric executive, thought that pushing the American brands under Stellantis to follow European “green” policies would make them more competitive and profitable. But his actions had the opposite effect.
In 2022, he announced that all Mopar brands would go to all electric vehicles as part of the Stellantis Dare Forsth 2030 initiative. He also said that 2023 would be the last year of the HEMI V8 in all configurations. In December 2023, the latest Dodge Charge, Challenger and Chrysler 300 with V8 engines exceeded the mounting chain, and soon, the V8 options were also removed from the largest jeeps and ram trucks in favor of smaller and less charismatic six -cylinder engines.
The reaction of Mopar lovers was rapid and fierce, which resulted in a 15% drop in vehicle sales in 2024, which represented more than 225,000 less sold vehicles compared to 2023. This drop resulted in massive layoffs, plant closings and a national revolt of concessionaires against tavares. When Tim Kuniskis, the “godfather” of the modern era of Hemi V8, resigned in early 2024 as CEO of Dodge, he officially seemed to report the end of an era for lovers of performance cars.
So why did Tavares apparently land the business? Although it expresses mixed feelings with regard to electrification, sometimes encouragement, other times the appellant “a technology chosen by politicians, and not by industry”, one thing has tipped the scales in favor of electrification: he hated paying us fuel economy penalties due to the increase in average fuel economy standards (coffee).
When President Biden took office, he restored the standards of the Obama era coffee, which had not applied during Trump’s first presidency. Consequently, in 2023, Stellantis was sentenced to a fine and paid more than $ 236 million in penalties, mainly due to high sales of their HEMI V8 vehicles. And it would only worsen. By 2026, all passenger cars had to reach 59 Mi / GAL, while subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles have also been increased. Tavares, seeking to avoid new penalties, used this as a reason to put pressure for electrification and European style policies at Mopar.
What followed was the dismantling of high -performance divisions such as the street race team (SRT) and the phasing of HEMI V8 engines, and the internal combustion chargers and the challengers which were responsible for most Dodge sales. The vehicles that remained seemed sterilized and bland, and the feeling of chryslers in Carlisle in 2024 reflected. Shortly after this show, Frank B. Rhodes Jr., great-grandson of Walter P. Chrysler, wrote an editorial urging investors to buy the American brands of Stellantis and save them from the management of Tavares.
But then, it all started to change radically in November 2024. Only a few weeks after Donald Trump won the presidency, the Stelllantis board of directors, unhappy with the management of business tavares, and that the promises of a more favorable regulatory environment by the inbound administration, finally left him as a ceremony as he made the hemi. Tim Kuniskis was fortunately brought back, initially in charge of RAM, then finally surveillance of all American brands, including a reconstituted SRT division. The oilmen everywhere have applauded!
In 2025, Lee Zeldin’s spectacular policy changes as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the adoption of the “major bill” at the Congress, marked an important turning point for government regulations towards car manufacturers. California’s ability to establish its own fuel economy standards ended, as well as fines for not having respected the latest coffee regulations. This prepared the land for a return to performance -oriented vehicles. RAM, who had seen a 16% drop in sales after the end of Hemi and a drop of 41% during the turseté of Tavares, officially announced that the Hemi would return during the 2026 model year. The car manufacturer admitted publicly, even of the advertisement that it was a mistake to withdraw it in the first place, recognizing that they had badly said to the Americans what they should want to give them.
Shortly after, the leaks confirmed that the hemi returns to the Jeep Wrangler, the Gladiator for the first time, and which would return to the Grand Cherokee, Grand Wagoneer and the Muscle-Cars Dodge Charge. The Durango will actually be Hemi-Only for 2026, a new RAM TRX with the Hellcat Hemi has been confirmed, and the plates reported historical performance such as the Viper and ‘Cuda can also make a return. Mopar had learned his lesson and had found a voluntary partner in the new Trump administration, which had created a more favorable regulatory environment for the cars that the Americans wanted.
When I attended Chryslers in Carlisle with my father in 2025, it was a completely different energy! It was the greatest frequentation of the show… more than 3,200 cars and tens of thousands of people participating from around the world.
Chrysler CEO Chris Feuell has attended and spoke with confidence of the future of Chrysler, including the return of SRT models, the Hemi V8, and a new generation Chrysler 300, everything has made possible, she said, because of the new direction of Stellantis and the White House. The CEO obtained several standing ovations from the hardcore crowd of Mopar, which would not have happened just 12 months earlier.
Frank B. Rhodes Jr. also attended this year, seeming relieved and supporting the new management of the company. Carlisle’s atmosphere was electric, with smiling faces – and Trump flags – visible throughout the show, a recognition of who made this change possible in the direction of the company.
The faithful of Mopar again had hope … In the hope in the company, the hope in the products which are to come, and the hope in the freedom and the support provided by the Trump administration to finally allow us the car manufacturers to make the cars that people want to buy again.
Perhaps even more important for me, my father has left the spectacle much happier this year, knowing that future generations will be able to enjoy new cars that make us all as inspired and passionate as these impressive cars that preceded, and keep the spirit of Chryslers in Carlisle and Car Culture in general, well in the future.
I ended my operation in January 2024 saying: “As for the future of the Dodge / Chrysler V8 muscle car, I always keep hope that they are changing the course, show a fatty major to regulators, and I give the man and woman who work a new generation of HEMI V8 cars the world above 20 years at the end of 20 years!”.
Well, it seems that everything he has taken was a new leadership, both in Stellantis and in the United States, to fortunately make this more sincere hope a reality.
Matthew Craffey of Los Angeles holds a Baccalaureate in Political Science by California Lutheran University and is a member of the board of directors of the Logarithmic Cabane.
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