Refreshed 2024 Wrangler JL on the way?

High Tide Jeep Wranglers

Someone claiming to be a salesman is claiming that a Jeep Wrangler refresh is coming soon.  The basic design is the same, but the 2024 Wrangler is rumored to offer power seats, ventilated seats, new gauge cluster and UConnect with a larger 10-inch touch-screen. (2024 Jeeps are not shown below.) The 392 is to continue, with … Read more

Mopars come last in Power Customer Service Index

2023 JD Power Satisfaction Survey™

Chrysler finished dead last in the 2023 J.D. Power Customer Service Index™, with Jeep, Ram, and Dodge separated from Chrysler’s last-place spot only by Hyundai, which came in second-to-last.  It was an odd result, given that Kia was close to average.Specifically, on a thousand-point scale, Chrysler scored 803, Jeep 821, Ram 823, and Dodge 830. … Read more

Mopar BEVs to be the first to re-use waste heat?

BEV waste heat reuse patent

In gasoline-burning cars and trucks, waste heat from burning gasoline is tapped to heat up the cabin. But what about electric cars? They typically have to use electric heaters—or maybe not.

A new FCA US patent, filed three years back (November 2020) by Michigan’s Craig Lindquist and Changchun Li and Italy’s Attilio Crivellari, would re-use waste heat in electric cars, too—a technology which could be handy in PHEVs as well as BEVs.

STLA investing another $155 million in Indiana plants for EVs

Ram and Jeep Electric Drive Module

Stellantis, which includes FCA US, the former Chrysler, has decided to build its electric drive modules (EDM) at Kokomo, Indiana-area plants. The EDM is an all-in-one solution for electric vehicles; making them in Indiana will keep 265 jobs intact at three plants (Indiana Transmission, Kokomo Transmission, and Kokomo Casting).The gearbox cover will be cast at … Read more

Recall Monday: gauge lights, cameras, and at Hyundai/Genesis, exploding seat belts

exploding seat belt pretensioner

Late 2022 Jeep Compasses, made from May 12, 2022 to August 8, were made with no way to make the gauge cluster bright enough during some lighting conditions. This is not so much a defect as a design issue; as a result, starting by the end of March, Jeep will start adding a light sensor module and wiring jumper, and replacing the windshield and headlamp switches, so the display backlighting will be able to handle ambient lighting.

The second Mopar recall of the week is lack of rear-view images in 2021-23 Ram Ram 1500 and 2500 pickups….

Report: Dodge, Ram appeal much more to men

2024 Ram 1500 REV

Recently, S&P released their Global Mobility vehicle registration data for 2022. Among other tidbits, as Automotive News revealed, Ram rated dead last in the percentage of female buyers in the US, at 17%. That’s well below the other main truck-only brand, GMC, at 29%.Dodge was the fifth lowest brand for percentage of cars purchased by … Read more

Runnin’ Hyde teaser may foreshadow serious debut

Dodge Last Call teaser

Dodge is teasing a final 2023 “Last Call” special edition, with the first video teaser arriving today. The car will likely be more than a sticker-and-spoiler edition, given its reveal at the Dodge Last Call Powered by Roadkill Nights Vegas reveal at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. That would be quite a serious shindig for … Read more

STLA: big profits, profit-sharing (updated)

Stellantis financials - earnings - dollars

Thanks to high profits in the United States, around 40,500 union employees in the country will get profit-sharing checks averaging $14,760. It’s a mild increase form last year, and comes as car prices have shot up due to supply-chain constraints.

Stellantis is a new company, still, but the results still set a record with a roughly $18-billion net profit; adjusted margin hit 13%. What’s more, Stellantis became a bigger BEV player with a 41% year-over-year growth, key to fighting Tesla (whose European sales shot up by a factor of ten, but remain small) and Volkswagen. Battery-electric car sales are rising fast in Europe, where fuel is far more expensive.

STLA Eurosales stable, share drops

Peugeot 5008

Volkswagen, Renault, Toyota, Nissan, and Mazda had hefty sales bumps in January, while Stellantis lost a mere 300 sales; as a result, while Stellantis’ sales in Europe were essentially unchanged, its share fell from 19% to 17%.Volkswagen saw a 12% gain, with all its mainstream brands but SEAT rising. Renault was up a stunning 24% … Read more

Recall Monday: Ford fires, slipping; Ram’s revised recall

2022 Ford Mustang

The weekly summary of NHTSA recalls brings up Ram’s engine compartment fires, a low-probability but high-damage event caused by bad intake heater grids; Ram announced this last week. It affects 2021-23 Ram pickups and chassis cabs with Cummins diesel engines only—no gasoline engines are affected.

It also brought up some Ford recalls eerily reminiscent of times passed—a combination of rollaway and fuel tank fires which may remind some of the time Tauruses were slipping into Reverse even as Pinto fires were in the news. In this case, it’s the 2023 Ford Transit with poorly welded fuel tanks, compared with two rollaway recalls—one in the 2020-22 Ford Explorer, caused by a computer flaw; and one in the 2022-23 Bronco, Explorer, F-150, Mustang, and Lincoln Aviator (in short, the company’s hottest vehicles and a Lincoln) where a loose bolt in the transmission may let the vehicle just roll away….

Consumer Reports vs JD Power quality rankings

J.D. Power and Consumer Reports both released the results of their surveys recently, and there’s not much in common. 

The leader in J.D. Power’s three-year dependability study was Lexus, Toyota’s luxury brand, followed by Genesis, Hyundai’s luxury brand, and then Kia. BMW was just about average. 

For Consumer Reports readers, BMW was right at the top, followed by Subaru (well below average by J.D. Power) and Mini. Lexus was at #4, with the same score as Honda—a brand that, by J.D. Power lights, was below average. One key factor: the CR reports include not just reliability but also their own opinions about the cars’ characteristics.