Eagle (automobile)

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Eagle
Type	Defunct
Founded	1989
Headquarters	Auburn Hills, Michigan, United States
Industry	Automobile
Products	Sports cars
Parent	Chrysler
Slogan	Not meant for the general public
Website	www.eaglecars.com (through Inernet Archive)
Dissolved	1998

Eagle was a marque of the Chrysler Corporation following the purchase of American Motors Corporation (AMC). The "new" Eagle was aimed at the enthusiast driver. Even though the brand was relatively short-lived, the Eagle Vision sedan sold in respectable numbers, while the sporty Talon coupe sold more than 115,000 units.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Eagle vehicles 3 Failure 3.1 Badge Engineering 3.2 Marketplace 3.3 Advertisement 3.4 Jeep 4 External links 5 Other uses

[edit] Overview

The Eagle name was taken from the AMC Eagle, the last of American Motors' wholly US-designed vehicles. The Jeep/Eagle division of Chrysler Corporation was formed after Chrysler's 1987 buyout of American Motors. The vehicles were marketed primarily by AMC dealers along with Jeep products.

Unlike Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth automobiles, Eagles eschewed the Chrysler Corporation "pentastar" logo. Instead, all models prominently featured the Eagle logo, seen at the top right.

Two of Eagle's first models, the Eagle Premier and Eagle Medallion, were designed by AMC in cooperation with its former corporate partner (and 46.4 percent owner), Renault. The remainder of the brand's cars were simply rebadged versions of cars sold by other Chrysler Corporation divisions, as well as some captive imports produced by Mitsubishi Motors.

Throughout its history, the Eagle brand suffered from a lack of product recognition. Most of its product range was marketed under different guises by Chrysler and Mitsubishi. Corporate marketing budgets were also primarily allocated to these other models. On the other hand, the Jeep/Eagle Division's efforts were concentrated on the highly successful Jeep models. Moreover, many of the long-established Jeep/Eagle dealers considered the Eagle line of passenger cars to be less profitable than their Jeep business. Their sales and service expertise was primarily in the 4WD Jeeps and AMC's Eagle AWD models. Furthermore, following Chrysler's acquisition of AMC, there was a realignment of the dealer network. One objective was to consolidate stand alone Jeep/Eagle dealers with Chrysler franchises. The Chrysler outlets did not have an SUV to sell. Adding the Jeep line would not only make them more competitive in this rapidly growing market segment, but also place them on more equal footing with Dodge dealers. This merging may have helped the individual dealerships, but it eroded the desirability to carry a separate (and similar) line of passenger models under one roof. Most dealers wanted to simplify their inventory and focus their marketing on just a few models. After a decade of slow sales, Chrysler Corporation discontinued the Eagle brand in 1998, with the Eagle Vision's successor becoming the Chrysler 300M in 1999. Chrysler later said that the 300M was being developed to be the Vision's successor, with there even being prototypes that wore the Eagle logo, but the demise of the Eagle brand prevented this, and hence it became a Chrysler.

The Eagle brand was phased out in stages. In 1996, Chrysler discontinued the Mitsubishi (formerly Colt) family, including the Eagle Summit, Dodge Colt, and Plymouth Colt. In 1997, the Eagle Vision was discontinued, though the similar Dodge Intrepid and Chrysler Concorde continued until 2004. All that was left was the Eagle Talon, which was discontinued in 1998, along with the whole Eagle brand.

[edit] Eagle vehicles

• Eagle Premier (1988–1992)

Designed by AMC, the Premier was also briefly badged as the AMC Premier and Renault Premier in late 1987 and early 1988. It shared several parts with the Renault 25, and spawned a rebadged version named Dodge Monaco (1990–1992).

• Eagle Medallion (1988–1989)

Also badged as the Renault Medallion in 1988, this car was essentially identical to the Renault 21.

• Eagle Summit (1989–1996)

A rebadged Mitsubishi Mirage.

• Eagle Vista (1989–1992)

A rebadged 1983–1986 Mitsubishi Mirage, sold only in Canada.

• Eagle Talon (1990–1998)

Similar to the Plymouth Laser and the Mitsubishi Eclipse, the Talon was Eagle's halo car and outsold its cousins. (see also Diamond Star Motors)

• Eagle 2000GTX (1991–1992)

A rebadged Mitsubishi Galant, sold only in Canada.

• Eagle Vision (1993–1997)

One of Chrysler's three original LH-cars. Sold in Europe as the Chrysler Vision.

[edit] Failure

The Eagle brand was a massive flop for Chrysler. This can be accredited to several reasons.

[edit] Badge Engineering

Throughout its life, every car in the Eagle brand name, was a badge engineered vehicle, as either badge engineered Mitsubishis or other Chrysler products. As a result, many buyers perferred to buy the same vehicles, which were sold under more respected brands, such as Dodge, Plymouth and Mitsubishi, instead of investing in Eagle, which was a new brand. Eagle not having any unique products is what many credit as the reason why Eagle never got a foothold in the market.

[edit] Marketplace

Eagle was never able to find a place in the market, or Chrysler's lineup. This is mainly because Eagle's lineup was too diverse, and was never solidified into any market niche by Chrysler. While the Summit would compete with Toyota and Honda, the Vision and Talon competed with Pontiac. Mostly though, the Eagle brand was never able to find a place in Chrysler's lineup, as Eagle's cars competed more with Chrysler's other divisions than the competition. Eagle was mostly marketed as a sporty brand by Chrysler, though Chrysler already had Dodge as its peformance oriented brand, meaning that Eagle mostly competed with Dodge, while the Summit caused Eagle to compete with Plymouth, and the Vision caused Eagle to compete with Chrysler themselves. As a result, Eagle not only was a faliure, it also split the sales of other Chrysler divisions.

[edit] Advertisement

Eagle also lacked the heavy advertising of the other Chrysler brands. For example in the case of the Vision, not only were the Concorde and Intrepid advertised more, but in promotional shots with the three of them, the Vision is always either in the back or the smallest of the three. In one picture, the Vision is partially blocked from view by the Concorde. This goes to show that Chrysler itself probably had little faith in the brand.

[edit] Jeep

Eagle was sold on the same showrooms as Jeep, as Chrysler had diversived themselves into three divisions: Dodge (by itself), Chrysler-Plymouth, and Jeep-Eagle. In 1991, when Ford launched the Explorer, it skyrocketed SUV sales, and started a craze for SUVs in America that would last over a decade. In 1993, Chrysler launched the Jeep Grand Cherokee as a competitor for the Explorer, and as a result, many buyers who went into the Jeep-Eagle showrooms were either interested in buying the Grand Cherokee, or got distracted from Eagle vehicles by the Jeep vehicles. As a result, Jeep too cut into Eagle sales.

[edit] External links

• Eaglecars.com A website dedicated to the brand
• archived version of Eagle's website

[edit] Other uses

The name Eagle was also used by Dan Gurney for his racing cars. Among them the most noticeable is probably the 1967 Eagle-Weslake Formula One, considered by many as one of the most beautiful F1 cars ever built.

	Eagle Category	Historic: 1988 — 1998
Cars:		2000GTX | Medallion | Premier | Summit | Talon | Vision | Vista

Eagle road car timeline, United States market, 1988—1998 -  v • d • e
Type	1980s		1990s
	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Subcompact		Summit
		Vista
Compact				2000GTX
	Medallion
Full-size	Premier					Vision
Sports car			Talon