A couple of days ago, photos from the Illinois Toll Road’s social media feed made a stir as a car carrier loaded mainly with new Jeeps was clearly on fire. Two Wranglers were most badly burned, and one of them was a 4xe, which could have stirred some anti-EV hate. An inquiry to Stellantis North America media relations yielded no answers.
Stellantis is asking over 33,500 employees in the US and Canada to take a buyout or early retirement, according to the Detroit News. The breakdown is 31,000 hourly workers and 2,500 salaried ones, though not all of those will be lost jobs: there are numerous workers on indefinite layoff at the moment, and the actual … Read more
Excuses for avoiding electric cars are plentiful enough to have bingo cards (see end of story), but one of them—the risk of long, difficult fires—may have a solution now. While electric cars are not as likely to catch fire as gasoline cars, they are far harder to put out. (Cheap electric bikes seem to catch … Read more
Created solely for racing, the famed 426 Hemi was a cross between Chrysler’s first V8 engines, which had hemispherical heads, and the big Cross-Ram Wedge engines which were winning on the street but failing in NASCAR—the company’s second completely new V8 design. The engine people believed that the wedge engines would have an edge if they … Read more
The Mopar community knows that the 1980s Dodge, Plymouth, and Chrysler cars got their biggest performance numbers from turbocharged four-cylinder engines. The Shelby Charger, Daytona, Omni GLH, Shadow, Spirit and Laser all benefited from the turbocharged engine program, allowing them to keep up with (if not beat) the Mustangs and Camaros of that era, but … Read more
A UAW local just announced that Stellantis is seeking 3,500 early departures from FCA US via buyouts and retirement offers, according to Automotive News. The company has around 40,500 hourly workers. (See update.) The news comes via a letter to members from UAW Local 1264, which reported that the cuts will be widespread (AutoNews posted … Read more
It’s the 2023 Dodge Journey, but you can’t buy it in the United States.
There is very little information available on Dodge’s web site. The Stellantis North America media site doesn’t mention it at all. But the 2023 Dodge Journey is on sale in Mexico, with over a thousand sales reported in March. There are three trim levels, SXT, Sport, and GT; the Sport raises the price to MX$667,900 and the GT to over MX$700,000. It’s not a new story, really—the ’23 follows a 2022 model.
Fuel pump failures can cause stalling in the Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator and Ram 1500 with the diesel engine. The fix is for Ram or Jeep to replace the high pressure fuel pump and possibly other fuel system parts. The vehicles affected are: 2021-23 Wrangler made 11/2/21 to 1/13/23 (around 12,000) 2021-23 Gladiator made 10/14/21 to … Read more
Analysis. In 2025-26, Mopars will have access to a variety of gasoline, hybrid, and electric powertrains. Where should they put them? Chrysler would probably be a better marque for EVs than Dodge, especially in terms of pricing. Even with the performance aspect taken into account, a Chrysler 300R would be in a better position to … Read more
According to Brazilian publication Autos Segredos, which posted this rendering, a medium-sized pickup dubbed Rampage is set to do battle with the Toyota Hilux (Tacoma) and other pickups. It will, they claim, share a unibody structure with the SUSW Jeep Renegade an Compass, and to have a conventional opening. The name “Rampage” has not been … Read more
Stellantis may be committed to selling only battery-electrics in Europe by 2030, but it is also testing “eFuels” (also known as “electrofuels”) on European vehicles made since 2014. The company said eFuels could potentially be used on up to 28 million of their vehicles, possibly reducing another 400 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions in … Read more
According to a source inside Brampton, Stellantis officials recently visited the plant and told workers that Stellantis was happy with its work—and had big plans for its future. They confirmed that the plant would have a major transformation to make electric cars on a new, flexible platform.
Last year, Stellantis announced that it would be spending nearly US$3 billion to upgrade the Windsor and Brampton plants. A major battery factory, a joint venture with LG, is being placed in Windsor to support the Canadian factories, both of which are in Ontario. The company could not commit to the number of shifts, but previously announced that it expected to run three shifts. There was some concern expressed over wage growth and the need for competitive costs.
Last week, a few outlets randomly shared articles from last year which addressed the availability of the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat with the 6-speed manual transmission. That led many readers and prospective buyers (who did not look at the date of publication) to believe that the manual transmission was now available for ordering in … Read more
Ram has yet to announce changes to its 2024 models, which makes sense given that they usually come out in August. Either the 2024s or 2025s are likely to jettison the Hemi V8s in favor of Hurricane Sixes, with the possible exception of the 6.4 liter truck engines in the Heavy Duty lineup. Ram has … Read more
Matt Hagan was less than a hundred points short of winning the NHRA Funny Car Championship in 2022, finishing in third place with his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. Seeing as how it was his first season with the new Tony Stewart Racing team, finishing in the top three in the championship race – well within … Read more
Three currently sold vehicles from Stellantis will get hefty tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act, which also ends credits for a number of foreign and domestic cars. The full $7,500 credit goes to the Chrysler Pacifica PHEV, while a still considerable $3,750 goes to the Wrangler 4xe and Grand Cherokee 4xe. No Mopars are … Read more