Swift Jeep Chrysler Dodge

Chrysler’s ‘tricked, tuned and customized’ Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles were conceived and designed for SEMA by the Mopar Underground design team, a group of in-house automotive enthusiasts who donate their time to the SEMA project vehicles.

‘Designed for Customization’ Philosophy Drives the Mopar Underground Design Team
A contemporary perspective on the design principle, ‘form follows function,’ might state that the ‘form must also be flexible to allow for adaptation.’ For the auto industry, that means producing vehicles for consumers that not only allow for customization but strongly encourage it.

Case in point, the 2007 Jeep Wrangler was named one of the most accessory-friendly vehicles by SEMA members. According to a Foresight Research report conducted last year [commissioned by SEMA's Research and Information Center], more than 1,700 full-size truck owners revealed that 50 percent had spent or planned to spend $500 or more on accessories – with a high of 63 percent for Dodge Ram owners (most likely to accessorize). And 20 percent of that group said they bought their trucks at a particular dealership because of the availability of accessories.

Overseen by Ralph Gilles, Vice President of Jeep/Truck & CFM Design, Chrysler LLC, the Mopar Underground design team has been putting that contemporary perspective on the design principle to action by customizing production vehicles. Since its creation in 2002, the Mopar Underground design team has created vehicle concepts meant to develop performance parts, accessories and customization as well as new vehicle concepts. In fact, the first-generation SRT4 was born from this team’s style initiative.

“Our diverse team which changes frequently has been developing SEMA concepts for more than five years. It’s the usual ‘enthusiast’ suspects from our union shops [plastic, paint, metal and wood], Product Design Office, SRT and Mopar Performance Parts and engineering,” said Gilles.

“Every year, we push the boundaries of conventional thinking – customizing with no limits to creative expression and freedom, just the power to imagine. We want to build customized concept vehicles for SEMA that flex the potential in our platforms, show that Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles are indeed designed for customization and keep the Mopar spirit and passion alive,” said Gilles.

After the SEMA show, the customized Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge SEMA vehicles will be displayed at events throughout 2008 including Easter Jeep Safari, the Miami Auto Show and more.

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"One of the best examples of effective Blog/RSS marketing by an auto dealer is Swift Automotive. They run a web log (blog) that drives an average of 400-500 unique visitors a day to its blog, resulting in increased traffic to their site. Take a look at their actual website too. It is clean, simple, and to the point. Very well optimized for search. Only thing it lacks in my opinion are RSS feeds and location info.

Another good example of Blog/RSS Marketing in action is MB of Hagerstown. Jeff Kershner of DealerRefresh is the ISM there and runs the blog Mercedes Dealer News which drives around 60-80 unique visits a day. While this pales in comparison to Swift’s blog, I suspect it is due in part because of less frequent postings, and part because there are more enthusiasts online for Jeep which Swift sells than for Mercedes-Benz. But that is only my theory as I have not thoroughly investigated."

Proof of concept - blogproautomotive.com