What a Difference a Year (and New President)

By Matthew Craffey

In January 2024, I penned an op-ed in RedState called “Death of the Working-Class Supercar,” which chronicled the rise and premature end of LX Platform Chrysler, and Dodge merchandise that featured Hemi V8 engines. The tone was a somber one, and I identified that due to the then-President Biden administration’s heavy handed environmental insurance policies, the thrilling gasoline-powered vehicles that have always outlined the American freeway have been rapidly being regulated out of existence by what many really feel are soulless, ubiquitous electric autos. 

Later that yr in July, I attended the yearly car show called Chryslers at Carlisle in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, which repeatedly options more than 2,500 privately owned Chrysler Corporation autos of every classic per yr, the most important show of its type for these autos wherever in the world.

Always showcased are an spectacular array of autos, both uncommon and common, daily drivers, restored, and survivor, all with cool names like “Fury,” “Road Runner,” “Barracuda,” and “Adventurer.” 

One factor that’s true for every one these vehicles: They all have an wonderful and personal story to the proprietor. They are vehicles powered by a wide range of engines, though most have been V8s, with the legendary “Hemi” main the pack.

As somebody who’s attended car reveals since childhood, I’m used to the enthusiastic, sometimes eccentric, and always chatty car homeowners. Yet, at the 2024 show, there was a distinct undercurrent of disappointment in every dialog about the future of the model, the auto industry, that overlapped with people’s emotions about the nation’s general direction.

My dad, who beloved seeing all classic vehicles there, left the show disillusioned with what may turn into of his favourite car company not to point out the nation. 

Hours after our second day at the show and not far from where we have been at in Pennsylvania, then-candidate Donald Trump was shot, and we didn’t know for some time if he could be okay. Thankfully he was, but it was positively a darkish time for car lovers, and an even more worrisome time for the direction of our nation. It was a comparable disappointment mirrored in my op-ed from 6 months earlier.

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Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram—collectively recognized as “Mopars”—have been seemingly being run into the ground under the management of Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares. Every individual I spoke with shared both disdain and disappointment that one man, along with then-President Joe Biden’s insurance policies, was forcing their beloved American car model to turn into one thing they don’t even acknowledge.

Tavares, a Eurocentric government, believed that pushing the American manufacturers under Stellantis to observe European “green” insurance policies would make them more aggressive and profitable. But his actions had the other impact.

In 2022, he announced that all Mopar manufacturers would transition to all-electric autos as half of Stellantis’s Dare Forward 2030 initiative. He also declared that 2023 could be the ultimate yr for the Hemi V8 in all configurations. By December 2023, the last Dodge Charger, Challenger, and Chrysler 300 with V8 engines rolled off the meeting line, and soon, V8 choices have been also eliminated from bigger Jeeps and Ram vans in favor of smaller, less charismatic six-cylinder engines.

The backlash from Mopar fans was swift and fierce, main to a 15-percent drop in vehicle gross sales in 2024, which amounted to over 225,000 fewer autos bought in contrast to 2023. This drop led to huge layoffs, plant closures, and a nationwide revolt from sellers against Tavares. When Tim Kuniskis, the “Godfather” of the trendy Hemi V8 period resigned in early 2024 as CEO of Dodge, it appeared to formally signal the end of an period for efficiency car lovers.

So, why did Tavares seemingly tank the company? While he expressed combined emotions about electrification, sometimes cheering it on, other instances calling it “a technology chosen by politicians, not by the industry,” one factor tipped the scales in favor of electrification: he hated paying U.S. fuel-economy penalties due to growing Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards (CAFÉ).

When President Biden took workplace, he reinstated Obama-era CAFÉ requirements, which had gone unenforced during Trump’s first presidency. As a end result, in 2023 Stellantis was fined and paid over $236 million in the penalties, largely as a end result of strong gross sales of their Hemi V8-powered autos. And it was only going to worsen. By 2026, all passenger vehicles have been anticipated to obtain 59 mpg, while subsidies for buying electric autos have been also elevated. Tavares, trying to keep away from additional penalties, used this as a motive to push for electrification and European-style insurance policies at Mopar.

What adopted have been the dismantling of high-performance divisions just like the Street Racing Team (SRT) and the phasing out of the Hemi V8 engines, and the internal-combustion Chargers and Challengers that have been accountable for most of Dodge’s gross sales. The autos that remained appeared neutered and bland, and the sentiment at Chryslers at Carlisle in 2024 mirrored that. Shortly after that show, Frank B. Rhodes Jr., great-grandson of Walter P. Chrysler, penned an op-ed urging traders to buy out the American manufacturers of Stellantis and save them from Tavares’s management.

But then, the whole lot started to dramatically change in November of 2024. Just weeks after Donald Trump received the presidency, Stellantis’s board, sad with Tavares’s handling of the company, and buoyed by the guarantees of a more favorable regulatory atmosphere by the incoming administration, finally let him go as unceremoniously as he did the Hemi. Tim Kuniskis was fortunately introduced back, initially in charge of Ram, and then ultimately given oversight of all U.S. manufacturers, including a reconstituted SRT division. Petrolheads all over the place cheered!

In 2025, dramatic coverage adjustments by Lee Zeldin as administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, and passage of the “Big Beautiful Bill” in Congress, marked a vital turning level for authorities laws in direction of automakers. California’s capability to set its own fuel-economy requirements was ended, as have been fines for not assembly the latest CAFÉ laws. This set the stage for a return to performance-focused autos. Ram, which had seen a 16-percent drop in gross sales after the Hemi was discontinued and a 41-percent drop during Tavares’ tutelage, formally announced that the Hemi would return in the 2026 model yr. The automaker admitted publicly, even promoting that it was a mistake to take away it in the first place, acknowledging that that they had wrongly told Americans what they need to need fairly than giving them what they need. 

Shortly after, leaks confirmed the Hemi is returning to the Jeep Wrangler, to the Gladiator for the first time, and rumored to come back to the Grand Cherokee, Grand Wagoneer, and the Dodge Charger muscle-cars. The Durango will really be Hemi-only for 2026, a new Ram TRX with the Hellcat Hemi has been confirmed, and historic efficiency nameplates just like the Viper and ‘Cuda may be making a return as well. Mopar had learned its lesson and found a willing partner in the new Trump administration, which had created a more favorable regulatory environment for the cars Americans wanted.

When I attended Chryslers at Carlisle with my dad again in 2025, it was a completely different energy! It was the largest attendance ever for the show…more than 3,200 cars and tens of thousands of people attending from all over the world. 

Chrysler CEO Chris Feuell attended, and spoke confidently of Chrysler’s future, including the return of SRT fashions, the Hemi V8, and a next-generation Chrysler 300, all made potential, she said, due to the new management at Stellantis and the White House. The CEO received a number of standing ovations from the hardcore Mopar crowd, one thing that wouldn’t have occurred just 12 months earlier. 

Frank B. Rhodes Jr. also attended this yr, showing relieved and supportive of the company’s new direction. The temper at Carlisle was electric, with smiling faces—and Trump flags—seen throughout the show, an acknowledgement of who made this change in company direction potential. 

The Mopar devoted had hope again…hope in the company, hope in the merchandise that are forthcoming, and hope in the freedom and help offered by the Trump administration to finally enable U.S. carmakers to make the vehicles that people need to buy again. 

Maybe most importantly for me though, my dad left the show so a lot happier this yr, figuring out that future generations will get to get pleasure from new vehicles that make us all just as impressed and passionate as those superior vehicles that got here before, and keep the spirit of Chryslers at Carlisle and car-culture in normal, alive effectively into the future.  

I ended my op ed in January 2024 by saying “As for the future of the Dodge/Chrysler V8 muscle car, I’m still holding out hope that they alter course, once again show a greasy middle finger to regulators, and give the working man and woman a new generation Hemi V8…And if they do, they will surely win back the hearts and sales of middle-class car lovers the world over for at least another 20 years to come!”

Well, it appears that all it took was new management, both at Stellantis and of the United States, to fortunately make that sincerest hope a actuality.

Matthew Craffey of Los Angeles has a bachelor’s degree in political science from California Lutheran University and is a board member of Log Cabin Republicans. 

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