Shortly after 10am on the morning of January 12, 2024, social media posts from the Dodge brand fully revealed the exterior of next generation Dodge Charger. There is no other information – no guaranteed indicators of whether this is powered by gasoline or electricity – and no interior shots, but these are, without question, the … Read more
2023 was the “Last Call” for the Hemi-powered Dodge Challenger and Charger. Just this week, Dodge launched the first Last Call Hemi-powered 2024 Durango. Based on information posted on JLWranglerForums.com, 2024 will also be the final model year for the 392 Hemi-powered Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. A user named 7.62×392 shared a screenshot of the “Jeep … Read more
When Volkswagen, followed by pretty much every other European automaker, was found to have been faking emissions gear, American diesel pioneer Cummins stood apart from the rest. Cummins had even, years ago, met future diesel standards years before they needed to.
Yesterday, Stellantis, BlackBerry, and Amazon announced a virtual cockpit to “transform vehicle software engineering.” The combination uses QNX’s hypervisor (virtualization software, which creates a virtual computer) delivered on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide a virtual cockpit, claimed to be the first of its kind. Stellantis claimed that this would speed up development cycles by … Read more
As observers puzzle over whether the Hemi is going to be in the first batch of 2025 Ram 1500 pickups, Dodge has launched the first of what appears to be a long series of Last Call V8 Durangos. Mainly unchanged from 2023, the Durango was thought to be the last bastion of the Hemi V8 … Read more
Jeep is celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Jeep Renegade, which they say is “renowned for its distinctive and cool factor,” and has had almost 2 million sales worldwide. The “road champion” Renegade was sold in over 100 markets, but the 2024 version did not come to the United States, Jeep’s home. The 2024 Renegade … Read more
The 2024 calendar year has arrived, so we wanted to take a quick look at the trim levels and engine availability for those different variations of the 2024 Ram 2500 Heavy Duty. As this piece is published, the 2024 Ram 2500 is available in six trim levels with two engine options and two transmissions while … Read more
Every time a year’s worth of sales are released, there are some oddball orphans in there—in 2022, for example, dealers sold four Dodge Darts, which ended production in 2016, not to mention a lone Dodge Viper and Alfa Romeo 4C. They even sold four Jeep Patriots, which you may recall as looking like an original … Read more
While there won’t be any Jeep presence at the massive Chicago Auto Show this month, Camp Jeep will still be a feature of the New York Auto Show. Camp Jeep is the most visible display at the New York Auto Show, greeting visitors before they even come through the door—while providing a spectacle to passing … Read more
Giddyupz started out as a smarter way for shorter people to haul themselves up into pickup cabs. Automakers have grab handles in the cab, but they’re not enough for many people, because pickups—especially 4x4s—have gotten almost comically high off the ground. Who’s behind this invention, whose seeming simplicity comes after 200 varying prototypes and thousands … Read more
Stellantis is not springing for Super Bowl ads in 2024, joining General Motors in dropping from the final American football match. The decision may not be surprising considering that ad rates in 2023 were $7 million for 30 seconds. When Fiat first took charge of Chrysler from Cerberus Capital Management, a series of carefully crafted … Read more
In the all-important pickup category, Ram lost some ground to Ford and GM. Ford sold 750,789 F-series pickups and chassis cabs, across all size and weight classes; GM sold 555,148 Silverados and 295,737 Sierras. As happens so often, GM handily out-sold Ford in full-size pickups, but the F-series wins the title since GM split their sales across the Chevrolet and GMC brands…
In 2023, Dodge sold more cars than Ford, if one defines “cars” in the traditional manner as sedans and coupes. Ford sold two types of car, the GT (31 of them) and the Mustang (48,605). Dodge, meanwhile, sold 75,920 sedans (Chargers) and 44,960 coupes (Challengers). The Mustang did beat the Challenger in sales, though not … Read more
Earlier this week, we brought you the story of an active duty American soldier who had been done dirty by a dealership in trying to buy a 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170. That story spread across social media like wildfire during Christmas week, leading to my discussion on New Year’s Day with both Dodge … Read more
2023 was not a good year for the former Chrysler Canada, other than Dodge; with Jeep, Chrysler, and Ram sales all dropping, the company dropped by 6% for the full year vs 2022, and by 24% in the fourth quarter.
Despite making a special Chrysler Grand Caravan for Canada, Chrysler saw sales drop by 23% from 2022 and by 74% compared to the fourth quarter of 2022. Chrysler ended up with 10,529 sales for the year—1,522 300s, 6,994 Pacificas, and 2,013 bargain Grand Caravans. The brighter side is that the cheaper minivans took more of a hit (down 45%) than the pricier ones (down 9%).
FCA US, dominated by former “Mopar” marques, reported drops in US sales both for the fourth quarter and for the full year, but there is more to the story than falling behind Hyundai-Kia.
First, plug-in hybrid (PHEV) sales more than doubled from 2022, helped by the new Hornet and Tonale. The company’s PHEV roster is the Wrangler 4xe, Grand Cherokee 4xe, Pacifica Hybrid, Dodge Hornet R/T, and Alfa Romeo Tonale. The Wrangler is America’s best selling PHEV, the Grand Cherokee is the second best seller, and the Pacifica Hybrid is the third best seller; overall, FCA has a 47% share of the PHEV sales in the USA.