Ram and Dodge topped Stellantis’ brands in three-year dependability, according to J.D. Power, but neither managed to hit the industry average. Alfa Romeo, in contrast, was the second-worst brand sold in the United States. The news was not good for Stellantis.Ram and Dodge were almost certainly not significantly lower than average, when variability is taken … Read more
Did you ever wonder how many Dodge cars or trucks were made with exactly your options? If you’ve registered your car (and yourself) with the company, now you can find out.On the Facebook Dodge Dart Enthusiasts group, Aaron Glenn discovered that there were just 36 Dodge Darts made with the same color, trim level, and … Read more
American Axle, one of the largest auto suppliers, will continue to supply Ram heavy duty pickups—that is, the Ram 2500 and 3500—with their axles and driveshafts all the way to 2030. The company’s statement promised that they would provide “our latest and most efficient driveline technologies… for the next-generation of this key vehicle program.”American Axle … Read more
Phil Toney, a Jeep engineer on the AMC race team (far right in the photo), died earlier this week. He started with AMC in the 1960s, joining the AMX racing team, and working in Jeep development starting in the 1990s. He was one of the team that started the Easter Jeep Safari, and went to … Read more
Ontario’s Windsor plant, home of the minivan since 1983, and Illinois’ Jeep Cherokee plant, former home of the Neon and Patriot/Compass, will be down for around a week due to the global chip shortage, which has also affected GM, Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, and others. Last week, Ford had to slow production of the F-150 in … Read more
Bruce Springsteen and Jeep star in the two-minute “The Middle,” which will appear just once on TV, during the Super Bowl—ten years after “Imported from Detroit.”[Dodge has removed this video from public view]Springsteen worked with director Thom Zimny, writing and producing the original score with frequent collaborator Ron Aniello. Olivier Francois came up with the … Read more
Stellantis today announced that the 2021 Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat, a one-year, 710-horsepower limited edition, has started production.The big SUV runs from 0-60 mph in just 3.5 seconds and can run a muscle-car-humiliating quarter mile of 11.5 seconds, and the entire production run was sold quickly.The hot Durango lists for $80,995 plus $1,495 destination, and … Read more
Ram is recalling a mere two dozen (24) 2021 Ram 1500 Classic trucks, all SLT models, because someone forgot to add the clip that secures the brake master cylinder pushrod to the brake pedal assembly.Ram has asked owners to avoid driving the trucks until they are inspected and, if needed, fixed. The fix is to … Read more
A popular meme claims shows Dodge engineers shoving a Hellcat into every Dodge, and not stopping there. Since they now sell the Pacifica as a Caravan in Canada, will we see a Hellcat Caravan, as pictured below (credit to abimelecdesign and reposted by Ralph Gilles on his Instagram feed)?In short, well, no. Ralph Gilles’ reaction … Read more
The urbane Pietro Gorlier, a man willing to patiently sit and answer any question a journalist might have for hours (while sipping fresh espresso), has been put in charge of Stellantis’ global part and service.While at Chrysler, Gorlier read every letter addressed to him, righting wrongs, investigating claims, and generally cleaning up any messes left … Read more
The fact that the Dodge Durango Hellcat is a one-year phenomenon should tell you something about how long we can expect these trucks to last.The Durango started out on a truck platform and stayed there for years before becoming a longer, less off-road-tuned version of the Jeep Grand Cherokee. Rumors at Allpar and Mopar Insiders … Read more
Nearly four years ago, I wrote about the “Tornado,” as the turbocharged inline six-cylinder engine then being development was coded (not after the Jeep engine, but the airplane, in line with other Chrysler engine projects).Insiders were certain that the 5.7 Hemi, which was overdue for upgrades—upgrades which had reportedly been at least partly created, but … Read more
The Dodge brothers generally didn’t make trucks; they made cars, and the Graham brothers turned some of them into trucks. Chrysler, acquiring both companies, focused on Dodge for the truck market, which was still too small for more than one corporate brand (Fargo, the Plymouth truck division, was relegated to export duty).Dodge made four wheel … Read more
The 710-horsepower Durango SRT Hellcat, which propels the big SUV from 0-60 mph in just 3.5 seconds and can run a muscle-car-humiliating quarter mile of 11.5 seconds, has already sold out. Those who want instant power will have to settle for the 392 Hemi.The hot Durango lists for $80,995 plus $1,495 destination, and is a … Read more
Since the 1960 Valiant shook up Chrysler’s product line, resulting in changes to every other car’s brakes, axles, and front suspensions, Chrysler has done well when it set up skunkworks or other arrangements that led low-level employees have more of a say. Indeed, the revolutionary changes of the 1990s centered mainly on empowering groups to … Read more
The signs are up at Auburn Hills and other headquarters. The old FCA and FCA US email address are already being replaced by stellantis.com. But who is running the show?It appears that Stellantis is using matrix management, with both regional and brand leaders. For the Mopars, we have Christian Meunier running global SUV / Jeep; … Read more
