2020 letter to Dodge - "Alex my dear brother, this (long) email is overdue. Please pass on my profound thanks to Tim K., Mark Trostle, Ralph Gilles and the rest of the team at FCA and Dodge. For nearly 30 years, their cars have been my vehicles of choice. The performance focus of the various lines, the direct connection the company has with its customer base, and the willingness to zig while the rest of the industry zags – these have all been an inspiration to me in my professional and personal life.

 In the early 90s I was a MBA student in DC and needed a killer project for my Marketing class. As fate would have it, I stopped by a Dodge dealership (Koons Dodge in Tyson’s Corner) to check out the then brand-new Neon. In passing, I mentioned my class project to the manager. He kindly offered to let me drive a Neon to class to cap off my marketing presentation. The entire class was awestruck, I got an A, and Dodge got a lifelong fan. I convinced my then-girlfriend to buy a Neon. I bought an Avenger. I called it “Buck” for the ram’s head logo. Buck and I had wonderful times together throughout graduate school, amassing tickets and points by the truckload. All worth it!

I moved over to the Chrysler side after graduation, trading in Buck for a Chrysler 300M. Which itself got replaced by the 300C. Man, I loved that car. Apparently others did too – the car was stolen from the dealership when it took it in for its first service!

My next car was an E60 M5 (hey, I lusted for a V10 and the Viper was out of the question for a newlywed) and I enjoyed it immensely. But I missed American muscle too much. In 2015, I traded in the car for a Charger SRT 392.

Today I’m a middle-aged dad, far removed from the young graduate student who fell hard for the Neon. A lot of things have changed in that time: my hairline and my midsection, to mention a couple. But one thing that has remained constant is my love and affection for FCA and its cars. That love increased with Tim K’s presentation today of the 2021 lineup. The Durango Hellcat looks amazing to this father of three, especially as a limited one-year model. But I think my heart belongs to the Charger Redeye.

This has been a long email, but I wanted you to know in some detail how much I appreciate you guys. It takes balls of steel to do what you are doing. I don’t think any other car company (not even Tesla) has such a singular, unambiguous vision or such a visceral, tangible connection with its customer base. I know that we are in the waning years of the internal combustion engine. But as I tell all my friends who drive EVs, I don’t stream when I want an immersive musical experience; I listen to 180-gram vinyl on a turntable hooked up to a tube preamp and a Class A power amplifier. And nothing makes beautiful music like those supercharged V8s. Between remote work and the ubiquity of ridesharing, driving is increasingly becoming a choice. I choose to ride with y’all until the wheels fall off. #moparornocar

Signed,  a proud member of the Brotherhood of Muscle"