The reduced production of Dodge Charger and Challenger last year due to production stoppages stemming from the early onset of the Covid-19 pandemic coupled with the ongoing component shortage, most recently pertaining to microchips, has led to an extreme short supply of new Hellcat-powered Dodge cars. That short supply of new models has led to … Read more
Several publications recently ran stories on the death of the sort-of-new Giorgio platform, designed to support medium-sized and large cars and crossovers for Alfa Romeo, Dodge, Jeep, and possibly Chrysler. The reality appears to be different: Giorgio has simply been brought into a new naming system, which simply calls its platforms Small, Medium, Large, and … Read more
How fake is this letter posted to Facebook, “from a Stellantis employee,” which came with a possibly-real Stellantis letterhead? Pretty fake. Let’s look at the issues. First, while there is a semiconductor shortage, it’s not only China that’s the problem; the sudden Texas shutdown meant hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of semiconductors in-process were … Read more
General Motors may not be selling any Hummers until next year, but they’ve just reposted the specs. Shall we compare it with the top Ram, the supercharged-Hemi-powered Ram 1500 TRX? Stay with us as we see if the TRX can beat the Hummer — and compare the Hellcat to GM’s new electric pickup. (There’s also … Read more
Peugeot SA, like Volkswagen AG, tended to reflect American automakers of the 1930s-to-1980s: similar cars were sold under different brands, varying in trim, soundproofing, convenience features, and such. Peugeot maintained four brands—Citroën, DS, and Opel being the other three. That system, in Chrysler’s case, led to extremely similar cars being sold, with varying sizes, trim … Read more
With Chrysler down to one already-redlined car and one minivan, and Peugeot choosing to sell its cars through existing brands in North America rather than creating a new Peugeot or Citroën line, many believe that Peugeots and DS near-lux cars will be rebadged and modified (depending on the model) as Chryslers in the United States … Read more
Frank Rhodes, great-grandson of Walter P. Chrysler, has been crusading to save the brand, making his points on television, newspapers, and the Web. His work on making contact with the Stellantis chief executive yielded a note from Mr. Tavares’ office, which reads in part: “We do reaffirm that we are very proud of this powerful … 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, … Read more
About a week ago, there were reports from two websites – Opposite Lock and Grassroots Motorsports – that the SRT Performance division had been disbanded under the new corporate umbrella. Neither of these reports cited any sources, so we reached out to our contacts at Stellantis for the official world. Unfortunately, that word is not … Read more
On January 16, 2021, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Peugeot Société Anonyme (PSA Group) merged, and the new company – now called Stellantis – was officially born. This new name effectively represents the fifth era of Chrysler ownership history and with this new corporate umbrella, we are likely to see some changes to the American-based … 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, … Read more
Canoo came to my attention due to a report that Apple had talked with them about making electric vehicles together. Of particular interest to me was their electric minivan. Like Rivian, Canoo has created a modular platform for making electric vans, cars, and trucks. Like the old body-on-frame cars, which long ago were jettisoned for … Read more
For years, some buyers of 2.4 liter engines have been afflicted by oil use. Not all the engines had problems, which was even more puzzling; manufacturing tolerances are extremely tight, so how could it be that one person would do oil changes every ten months or 10,000 miles and never have to add any, while … 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 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 … Read more
While many racing associations canceled their 2020 season due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the crew from the Modern Street Hemi Shootout series managed to hold their entire season. They had to make some date changes to work around local emergency restrictions on crowd-based activities, but in the end, Dan VanHorn and his team were able … Read more