A dated product lineup, questionable fuel economy across the board, a general need for some reworking. These are all issues with Fiat Chrysler’s offerings in North America. Today we’ll try and come up with some solutions. Today’s topic was generated by news yesterday of the $77 million in penalties FCA paid to the NHTSA, as its […]
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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles paid $77 million in U.S. civil penalties late last year due to its failure to adhere to 2016 model year fuel economy requirements. In December, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a report claiming the industry faced millions in fines from 2016 and that one manufacturer was expected to pay […]
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America. It’s generally thought of as the country where everything is bigger and customers get a lot more for a lot less. Take the price of fuel, for example, or the portions at any all-you-can-eat buffet. Viewed in that light, this base model Durango should have an American flag on the hood and pictures of […]
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The passing of the Toyota Yaris hatchback into history doesn’t just spell the end of a forgettable subcompact car, it also leaves the red-blooded Dodge brand sitting in a class of one. What might that special group be, you ask? Some of you already know. With the Yaris hatch’s discontinuation, the still strong-selling Dodge Journey […]
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Are the 66,716 Americans who helped take the venerable Dodge Challenger to a new sales record in 2018 just Luddites, rebelling against a rising tide of electrification and autonomy? Maybe, but the era of a Challenger line powered solely by gasoline is drawing to a close. Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley addressed the muscle car’s […]
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2018 Dodge Challenger GT AWD 3.6-liter V6 (305 horsepower @ 6,350 rpm; 268 lb-ft @ 4,800 rpm) Eight-speed automatic, all-wheel drive 18 city / 27 highway / 21 combined (EPA Rating, MPG) 12.8 city, 8.7 highway, 11.0 combined. (NRCan Rating, L/100km) Base Price: $33,495 (U.S) / $41,240 (Canada) As Tested: $38,965 (U.S.) / $44,195 (Canada) […]
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Domestic sedans are currently being walked up to the edge of a mass grave. Beneath them rests their two-doored brethren and the first wave of four-doors previously executed by the Big Three. Ford has promised a lineup comprised almost entirely of pickups and utility vehicles in the coming years and General Motors is in the […]
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You’ve seen all of today’s contenders before on the roads, likely more times than you can count. Forgettable because of how middling they were, hundreds of thousands were sold. Which one would you actually buy with your own money? The year is 1996 and you’re a family sedan customer. You don’t want to spend a […]
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The only minivans coming out of Detroit these days aren’t actually rolling out of Detroit, but a plant a stone’s throw from the Detroit River, on the Canadian side. Fiat Chrysler’s Windsor Assembly Plant, home to the Chrysler Pacifica and Dodge Grand Caravan, will go dark for two weeks starting on New Year’s Eve, presumably […]
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There are plenty of performance cars from the pages of history whose greatness has been recognized — Integra Type R, Focus RS, anything with GTI appended to its name. A few, however, have slipped through the cracks. Time is kind to some cars, with their stock rising only long after they’ve gone out of production, […]
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The turkey’s been eaten, the football games have been shown, and all hands have tired of their close friends and relations by now. Around here, it’s generally accepted that laundry and family start to smell if they hang around for more than three days. But never mind that. With Thanksgiving in the rear-view mirror, what […]
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Can you imagine buying a new full-size Detroit pickup truck with the top luxury trim package and less than 100 horsepower? In 2018, such a truck would be smashed to bits by angry mobs, were it to appear in a showroom, but this half-ton pickup with 95 Slant-Six horses, four-on-the-floor manual transmission, and the Royal […]
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Lee Iacocca’s original Chrysler K Platform spawned an incomprehensible tangle of K-related offspring between the 1981 and 1995 model years, but only a few U.S.-market models were true K-Cars: the Chrysler LeBaron, Plymouth Reliant, Dodge Aries, Dodge 600, and Dodge 400. Of these, the 400 has been the hardest for me to find in the […]
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There are those vehicles that are truly great. You love to look at them, to drive them (or dream of so doing), to buy them. Then there are the worst. The stinkers. The overpriced, the ugly, the awful-to-drive, the cars and trucks that just don’t make sense. We started out by asking you, the reader, […]
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Dodge recently launched a 30-second commercial as part of Fiat Chrysler’s new “Big Finish” advertising campaign. While a competent bit of marketing, it falls into the trap of deploying holiday marketing immediately after Halloween. On the surface, it has everything you’d want from a Christmas-themed car ad. Professional wrestler, former NFL player, and American icon Bill […]
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It’ll have not escaped your notice that the performance arm of FCA is currently going all-in on horsepower. Numbers cresting the 700 mark currently reside in SUVs, while the march towards the stratosphere continues in the Challenger. I firmly believe that, even at 840 horsepower, they haven’t yet reached the upper limits of what a […]
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While the Dodge Challenger is hardly a subtle-looking vehicle, enough exist on the road to allow them to blend in with traffic a bit. But what if you plan to purchase America’s final incarnation of the muscle car not just because you like burning rubber, but because you want to make a statement? Dodge has […]
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Certain extraordinary circumstances can move a vehicle from the standard Rare Rides classification and into Concentrated Rides. Take today, for instance, where a concerned collector has gathered together 24 Chrysler Imperials in a California desert. The why here is unclear. From its inception, the Imperial was the pinnacle of Chrysler’s product offerings. Though the model originated in […]
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I see two types of distinctively Coloradan sticker-covered vehicles in Denver-area self-service wrecking yards. One type is the stony-ass wastoidmobile Subaru plastered with decals from cannabis dispensaries, vape-juice shops, and microbreweries. The other is the battered outdoorsy Detroit truck, plastered with decals from mountain-bike shops, ski resorts, rafting outfitters, and environmental causes. These types tend […]
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The year is 1982. You’re a lover of domestic sports cars, but also suffer from a distinct lack of funding in this era of American Malaise. Three updated, base model, fuel sipping rides are in your purview — all of them with four-cylinder engines. Which one do you take home? Today’s Buy/Drive/Burn trio was suggested […]
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