Frank Rhodes, Walter P. Chrysler’s great-grandson, has been battling to save the Chrysler brand for years. Chrysler has been battered and abused since the 1970s; its upscale image was diluted with thinly disguised Plymouths, and then the brand was starved of new product—the always-in-the-future Portal and Americanized Grand Commander notwithstanding. The 300 went from being … Read more
Some reacted to news of FCA’s 2020 sales shortfall by pointing out that dealers were short of cars—a situation that is not likely to be improved by the global microchip shortage, which has shut down the Toluca and Brampton plants. Toluca makes the Jeep Compass and until recently produced the Dodge Journey and Fiat 500; … Read more
Ford was late out of the gate with their sales summaries, and we could see why: overall sales for 2020 were down 16% from 2019, compared with a 12% drop at GM and Toyota alike. FCA did slightly worse with a 17% fall, but FCA cut their Q4 incentives by 7% from Q4 2019 while … Read more
FCA Canada had a very bad 2020, taking hits almost across the board. As in the USA, the Gladiator, in its first full year, was a bright spot; sales more than doubled, going from 1,950 to 4,481. However, Jeep took a bigger hit in Canada than the USA, dropping by 22% overall; as in the … Read more
FCA US sales dropped by 17% in 2020, compared with 2019. Every brand but Alfa Romeo fell, with Fiat dropping to less than half of their already poor sales.Ram made it through with the least damage, falling by 11%; by comparison, GM truck sales rose, and Toyota trucks fell by around 3%. The ProMaster fell … Read more
Jeep has less than a 1% market share in India, where former Willys licensee Mahindra makes inexpensive vehicles that look remarkably like the Wrangler and other popular 4x4s. Jeep’s drive to increase sales is not helped by its global premium-brand strategy. To try to change their current status as a rare niche vehicle, FCA is … Read more
99% of PSA (Peugeot) shareholder votes were for approval of the deal with FCA; 99% FCA shareholders are voted for the merger later in the same day. Existing FCA shareholders will lose their existing double-voting rights, but otherwise, the deal is likely to be good for them. Peugeot has been able to completely stop gasoline … Read more
Jeep is finally set to sell the Grand Wagoneer and Wagoneer in the second quarter; based on the Ram, as the original Wagoneer was created with the Gladiator pickup, it should set new standards of luxury for Jeep, while, hopefully, maintaining strong off-road capability and durability. Jeep is also getting a brand new Grand Cherokee … Read more
If you want 470 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque in a Jeep Wrangler, you may have two choices: spend tens of thousands having a shop put in a big Hemi V8, beefing up the brakes and suspension, and such, or spend tens of thousands having Jeep put one in for you, beefing up the … Read more
According to the Kokomo Tribune, the United States won’t be pumping out 2-liter turbo engines until the last quarter of 2021, rather than starting out in the next few months. The reason is that the transformation of a transmission plant into an engine plant has been delayed. That left FCA trying to get production out … Read more
StellPower isn’t much yet. But we hope it will be bigger and better. The plan is that, while a certain other site was grown out of one person’s spare time, over the course of over a decade, this one would start out as a joint project. The forum is integrated with the news page now; … Read more
