It’s genuinely amazing how a portmanteau of “motor” and “parts” became a strong enough household name for people to get it tattooed on their bodies. For nearly 90 years, Mopar has been a byword not just for Chrysler, Plymouth, Jeep, Dodge, and Ram parts, but for entire cars engineered in Auburn Hills. From spark plugs to speed parts, Chrysler’s parts division has supplied almost everything, and now it’s expanded to a new frontier: Parts for your pets.
Just to be perfectly clear, these are parts for pets, not parts of pets. Nobody over there has started providing hip replacements or anything like that. However, the marketers at Mopar have caught on to how the American pet industry’s market size rivals the entire GDP of Slovakia, and they’ve done two things: Whipped up the cutesy name “Mopaw” and started offering a variety of branded items, many of which are actually made by other companies. Are they good value? Time to have a proper gander.
Let’s start with the pet carrier, which is made by Nemesys Gear. It cleverly uses the LATCH anchors designed for child seats and built into most new cars, so it clips into two pretty sound structural points. The non-Mopar variant’s MSRP of $229 is nominally just $10.50 higher than the Mopar-branded model, but the unbranded carrier is currently on sale for $180.
While a touted Yeti dog bowl and flask isn’t on the Mopar store yet, a series of feeding systems are. These are made by Weathertech and carry a somewhat outrageous premium compared to just going to the supplier. Let’s start with the 16-ounce double-low feeding system. The Mopar website shows it with two BPA-free plastic bowls for $63.95, but you can get the same thing from Weathertech for $33.95 with the plastic bowls and $47.95 with stainless steel bowls. That sort of premium carries across the 32-ounce and 64-ounce variants, so you’re likely better off just buying these from Weathertech.
Moving on to the seat covers, perhaps the most interesting product is the rear seat cover with hammock that should prevent claw marks not just on your rear seats, but the backs of your front seats too. It’s sourced from 4Knines, and while the Mopaw product has an MSRP of $113.99, you can go directly to 4Knines and get essentially the same item for $109. That’s only a $4.99 premium, so if swinging by your Chrysler dealer is more convenient than waiting for something to show up in the mail, this one isn’t a bad value.
From a dollars-and-cents perspective, going to the Mopar parts counter for a bunch of these branded outsourced accessories just doesn’t make any sense. However, there’s still neat merch here if you want your pet to rep that Pentastar pride. The all-over-print bandana and leash are pretty fun designs, and the collar with an old-school seat belt buckle looks fairly convenient if you’ve ever had a dog that just wants out of their collar when they get in the house.
Given how 4x4s and dogs go together like tequila and lime, it just makes sense for Mopar to offer dog merch. Considering that bringing some accessories in-house might simply not be possible, the main thing to do now is go way harder on the variety of styles available. Raincoats, dog tags, a dog towel, you name it.
Top graphic image: Stellantis
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