With Dodge sales off 16 percent this year in a rising overall market, you might think brand head Tim Kuniskis would be worried.
Yet standing in a parking lot with 10,000 fellow gearheads this month, Kuniskis could look around and see a strategy for the brand that is coming together nicely.
Fire-belching exhaust pipes, roaring engines, smoking tires, black T-shirts, red key fobs. They're vital to Kuniskis' plan to rebuild Dodge sales -- and its reputation.
"Performance is good business," he says. "But it's way more than horsepower and quarter-mile times. Performance is an attitude first, and nobody can chase you on attitude."
On Aug. 12, Dodge hosted the first Roadkill Nights, a free event in the abandoned parking lot of the decrepit Pontiac Silverdome near Detroit to kick off the annual Woodward Dream Cruise.