Once upon a time, Dodge sold one car in Canada.

"not for canada - australian in disguise" (for-canada)
04/02/2020 at 22:02 • Filed to: Canadalopnik

And, that one car was the Viper. Dodge kept on selling vans, minivans, and trucks, but every car apart from the Viper was discontinued in Canada in 2000. At the time, Dodge sold three cars here. There was the Neon, the Stratus sedan, and the Avenger coupe.

The Intrepid got a head start, and was badged as a Chrysler here from the get go, amusingly keeping the crosshair grille.

The Neon was discontinued in both Plymouth and Dodge forms at the same time, both being replaced by a Chrysler variant. Europe also got a Chrysler Neon, but it was only ever badged as a Chrysler in Europe.

As for the Stratus and Avenger, as well as the Plymouth Breeze, the Sebring replaced all of them instead of just replacing the Cirrus like it did in the US.

Chrysler kept this up for about two years before they realised it was a dumb idea and introduced a new Dodge car in 2003. Except, it wasn’t really new, it was just a facelifted Neon. Weirdly, I guess because there was already a Chrysler Neon (even if they sold multiple Neons before with no issues), they decided to call it the Dodge SX 2.0 instead. Everybody I know calls them Neons anyway, mostly because SX 2.0 is a stupid name and just sounds like a trim level. The Neon SRT-4 was also sold here alongside the Neon.

These and the Viper remained the only Dodge cars in Canada until 2005, when we finally got another Dodge car, which was the Magnum. The Charger followed soon after, replacing the Chrysler Intrepid, and then the Avenger and Caliber came along a couple of years after that, with the Caliber replacing the Neon and the Avenger replacing the Sebring as Mopar’s “non-luxury” sedan for Canada, with the Sebring regaining it’s position as “upmarket” or whatever.

This is probably one of the weirdest things to happen in the Canadian car market, mostly because it only happened 20 years ago and seemingly happened for basically no reason. Dodge is mostly associated with vans and trucks here, but not to the point where they’re ONLY known for vans and trucks and people would only buy a Dodge car if it had a Chrysler badge on it. At least most weird Canadian rebadges have some sort of reasoning behind it. This doesn’t, at least not from what I can see. They kinda just did it.

And, on the subject of weird Canadian Chryslodges, it’s rumoured the US-market Chrysler Voyager (which we don’t get, in fact we never got the Chrysler-badged Voyager in any form ) will be sold as the Chrysler Grand Caravan. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! At least, unlike the great Dodge purge of 2000, this makes sense. Grand Caravan in Canada is to minivans what Cheezies are to puffed corn cheese snacks, or for those “Non-Canadian”, what Kleenex is to tissues. People here associate the Voyager nameplate with the Plymouths of the 80s and 90s.

This is also funny because the Chrysler Voyager nameplate started out as a rebadged Grand Caravan for international markets outside the US and Canada. Crosshair and everything. Now the Grand Caravan might become a rebadged Voyager. The circle of life.

DISCUSSION (8)

Just Jeepin' > not for canada - australian in disguise
04/02/2020 at 22:32

The older I get, the more projects I work on for large organizations, the more I appreciate just how bloody hard it is to keep track of all the moving parts and make decisions that are consistent and useful for everyone.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > not for canada - australian in disguise
04/02/2020 at 22:34

I have just one question: Why ever switch up the names at all? Once they started they couldn’t stop, but if they were name swapping randomly how did Dodge end up with one sports car when they were known for vans and trucks?

not for canada - australian in disguise > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
04/02/2020 at 22:36

Who knows. I’m guessing the Viper was too associated with the Dodge brand up here to rebadge it as a Chrysler like they did in Europe. I’m guessing maybe Chrysler Canada rebadged all the cars so we could be more like Europe? Or something? There’s really no logic to it at all. It just kinda happened.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > not for canada - australian in disguise
04/02/2020 at 22:41

Hang on. The Viper was a Chrysl er in Europe? I just looked it up and I can’t believe it. I guess my almost comical lack of traveling anywhere at all might have finally caught up to me. I knew Chryslers were sold in Europe but I didn’t realize that was the sole brand for GM there.

interstate366, now In The Industry > not for canada - australian in disguise
04/02/2020 at 23:19

It’s funny that Canadians have the perception of Dodge being known for trucks and vans, now that said trucks and vans are no longer Dodges.

not for canada - australian in disguise > interstate366, now In The Industry
04/02/2020 at 23:32

The Ram is still a Dodge and you won’t change my mind.

interstate366, now In The Industry > not for canada - australian in disguise
04/02/2020 at 23:40

I absolutely agree with you.

Poor_Sh > not for canada - australian in disguise
04/02/2020 at 23:47

Sweet Miata!