People out there are getting scared by reports that the government is secretly causing the current vehicle shortage, to try to force everyone to drive cars they can control with secret kill switches and computer overrides. The story claims that the government will be able to track you by your car. The story is spread … Read more
Some time ago, neighbors reported strange odors coming from the new Mack Avenue assembly plant, officially named Detroit Assembly Complex – Mack. The state investigated and found that there were indeed odors, from this and one other plant. Stellantis hired a specialist company to do source sampling, and over 13 days, that company took 152 … Read more
Months ago, Automotive News published an article noting that analysts thought the Belvidere (Illinois) plant, currently home of the Cherokee, would switch to making the company’s forthcoming BEVs around 2023, and that Brampton (Ontario) would lose its large-car monopoly and possibly be converted to making batteries. The article worried (and still worries) people working at … Read more
We’ve seen the results of the muscle truck race, where the Challenger beat Mustang (U.S.) sales for all of 2021 in a surprise upset. But what about two bigger, if less visible, sellers? In pickups, Ford invariably takes the #1 spot, partly due to a wider variety than other automakers. #2 was fought over by … Read more
With buyers desperate for cars this past year, FCA US dealers seem to have successfully cleared out their remaining supplies of unpopular or long-discontinued cars, which might have been used as loaners or demonstrators, or for internal purposes. The dead-but-sold cars include nine Jeep Patriots (only one was sold in 2020, but nine were sold … Read more
The sales numbers are in for the final month of 2021 for Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge, and for the first time ever, the Dodge Challenger is the bestselling muscle car in the United States. For those who don’t like the term “muscle car”, the Dodge Challenger is also the bestselling sporty two-door car in the … Read more
FCA Canada reported a 10% fall in sales over 2021, compared with 2020. Jeep gained in retail sales by 20% for the full year. The Grand Cherokee, which recently added an “L” three-row variant and a new generation of the two-row model, gained in fourth-quarter retail sales by 56% to be the best selling full … Read more
Where is the Ram BEV? According to Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, “It is now being adjusted every month to improve our specs and capabilities.” The adjustments are being made based on what competitors are doing; the target date for production is in 2024. He reminded the audience that 2021 was a record year for Ram—for … Read more
During a meeting with Morgan Stanley, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares clarified today’s Amazon-Stellantis announcement. The deal with Amazon has three major facets: Stellantis will leverage Amazon’s operating systems in infotainment (an effort which will include the Foxconn partnership); Stellantis will use Amazon’s cloud services (e.g. AWS); The company will sell Amazon “a significant number” of … Read more
Stellantis offers several popular hybrid electric vehicles which offer all-electric driving – including the Jeep Wrangler 4xe and the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid – but at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Chrysler Airflow Concept debuted as the company’s first all-electric concept vehicle. With this concept introduction comes the promise of a Chrysler-branded … Read more
Stellantis reported retail sales similar to 2020, and total sales around 2% below 2020. FCA US LLC had sales of 411,513 vehicles in the fourth quarter and 1,777,394 vehicles in all of 2021. By comparison, GM sales dropped by 13% year to year; Honda rose 9%; Hyundai rose 22%; and Ford has not yet reported … Read more
GM’s massive 43% drop in sales caused the company to lose its position as the best selling automaker in America—for the first time in 90 years. While Hyundai/Kia ended the year with a sales record in the United States, reaching sales of 701,416 cars across the company’s three brands (Genesis is the third), the Korean … Read more
Almost a year ago, I wrote a piece highlighting the fact that Betty White had recently turned 99 years old. Known best for her role as Rose on Golden Girls, White had an interesting connection to the Plymouth brand – serving as the celebrity spokeswoman for the 1958 model year lineup. We learned from the … Read more
According to the Detroit Free Press, millions of Ram, Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, and Alfa Romeo cars and trucks will be getting a software update to enable emergency vehicle (EV) alerts. The system will start out in North America, but would be enabled anywhere in the world it is supported by EVs. The news comes after … Read more
At the risk of becoming, as one site called Stellpower, “an engine blog,” it may be worth clarifying what is going where. The Pacifica, according to at least one source, is not switching over to the “Tornado” inline six-cylinder; it’s going to stick with the Pentastar V6 for quite some time, and possibly get a turbo … Read more
Back in January, we first brought up the “Tornado” GME T6 engine—but, as I pointed out at the time, I’d also written about the inline six back at allpar, years ago. Now, other publications are starting to discover the story, in some cases providing credit and more information, and in others simply denying it could … Read more