NYT Name Checks Jalopnik Over Vines Resignation, We Name Check Back

New York Times name checks Jalopnik on our mourning of the loss of Jason Vines at Chrysler. Parting is such sweet sorrow. But wait, why are we receiving all these inquiries from GM PR over where he's going next? Is someone else interested in the former Chrysler PR main-man? We guess we'll have to wait and see. [NYT Dealbook]

Jason Vines Resigns from Chrysler

Jason Vines, Chrysler's Vice President of Communications, a.k.a. Chysler's Press Guru, a.k.a. the man tasked with yelling back at Maximum Lutz, has stepped down today, according to the company. What this all means isn't immediately certain, as we haven't seen the press release from another manufacturer stating that they've just hired Jason Vines. But we're happy to reuse this picture from our coverage of the Dodge-Peta fiasco Vines was tasked to handle. Look for conspiracy theories later in the day. In the meantime, sort of meaningless corporate speak below the jump: More »

Chrysler Reveals Detroit Auto Show Concept Sketches Via Semi-Hilarious Web Comedy Routine

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Chrysler's Jason Vines Slaps Back At "Maximum" Bob

Oh boy, these "Retro Car Wars" are on! Jason "Mad Man" Vines, PR chief for "The Chrysler Group" has a retort to "Maximum" Bob Lutz's earlier backhand to the PT Cruiser. Here's what Vines had to say:

To quote Maximum Bob, 'it's just sad.'

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Chrysler PR Main Man Jason Vines Corrects Self, New CEO Bob Nardelli's Resume

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Chrysler PR Main Man Jason Vines Confuses Two Generals

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Chrysler PR Issues Release Going After Dodge Doggie Electrocution YouTube Video, We Breathe A Sigh Of Relief

We just received the following missive on the Dodge doggie electrocution Euro viral spot we showed you earlier. The release, which we're told can be attributed to Jason Vines, Vice President Communications, for the Chrysler Group will now commence:

AUBURN HILLS, Mich., July 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — "Chrysler Group was dismayed to discover today that an advertisement created by an ad agency supporting our Netherlands Market Performance Center goes far beyond the bounds of what the company considers appropriate. The advertisement for the new Dodge Nitro, recently introduced into the market, which includes fictional yet inappropriate treatment of an animal, is in extremely bad taste...

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Over The Back Fence: Which Automaker PR Chief Is Out The Door

Well, yesterday we gave you the poll, and today we'll give you the rumor. Turns out the winner and the rumor are one and the same. So if you're interested in seeing who we've heard is leaving the automotive universe and where it's rumored they're going — go ahead and feel free to hit the jump. Come on, you know you want to... More »

Jalopnik Poll: Which Automaker PR Chief Is Out The Door?

It's been a rocky thirteen months for the talking heads manning the turrets of the automotive towers of power in Detroit. There's been precious little good news to go around, and when it has come it's always been just before, just after or just during a fiery hailstorm of fecal matter flung from both outside the tower walls as well as via friendly fire. Now we're hearing for the first time in print something we've been hearing from a variety of different "anonymous" sources around town for the past week — one of the three D-town kingpins of spin may be taking his leave from his post very shortly. Marty over at TheCarConnection's blog is starting the rumor mill turning by asking:

"Which top PR man at one of the domestics is widely rumored to be on his way out the door?"

Given that we happen to feel our readers are not just as enlightened, but more enlightened, as any automotive pundit or industry observer, we're gonna let you tell us who you think is out the door — or staying on for a little bit more of the feces-flinging action. That said... More »

Chrysler Group's Got Embargo-Busting Balls. Jalopnik Likes Balls.

Ok, well — it looks like at least one automaker's got the balls to pick up our my gauntlet I slapped down on Monday. Just a few minutes ago, Jason Vines, veep of communications at the 'merican side of the German-American hybrid, issued the following decree over the Firehouse media blog:

"We've given the issue over embargoes, and more importantly, fairness, deep thought along with some spirited debate. We also listened to you. Here's the Chrysler Group embargo policy effective immediately. It's simple. An embargo is an embargo. No material given by us in advance can appear before the embargo date and time. That includes print, enthusiast publications, blogs, electronic media, and guys walking the streets with sandwich boards—everyone. We're exploring new technology that will automatically allow us to identify embargo breakers in the future. We're serious about protecting our information and being fair to journalists in all media. I appreciate the feedback I've received from many of you. It made a difference."

We've got to give the man credit. We don't know how much that shit's worth, man — so spend it quickly. – Ray Wert More »

Jason Vines To Officially Take Over Marketing Efforts For The Chrysler Group?

The craziest man at the 'merican side of the German-American hybrid is rumored to be officially taking up the marketing efforts at the Chrysler Group. We've heard PR man Jason Vines has been unofficially running the show on the ad side of the business of selling the company and the company's vehicles since "Joltin'" Joe Eberhardt was moved out of the job of dealer ops after that whole "sales bank" thing. If you remember, that was the classification given to vehicles produced but which had nowhere to go but the train behind the Best Western Greenfield Inn of Allen Park, the State Fairgrounds, Metro Airport and every other piece of open ground Joltin' Joe's minions could find to stash them. So what would this mean? Well — it'd probably mean we'll be seeing ads coming directly from Vines' ADHD-afflicted mind. So, those of you who think "Pig & Bear" was weird — ha, your ass ain't seen nothing yet. Or this could just be a rumor. Who knows. – Ray Wert More »

Breaking! DaimlerChrysler Chooses Chinese Chery To Build Dodge Hornet?

Last week we'd heard rumblings of some kind of an announcement involving the Dodge Hornet sub-compact (picture gallery for a reminder below) to come at the Detroit Auto Show, although we never confirmed it. However, Chrysler Group veep o' talking Jason Vines is confirming today DaimlerChrysler's chosen Chinese manufacturer Chery (pending board approval) to build B-segment cars for the German-American hybrid. I guess you can reasonably put one and one together — so go ahead and do that and let me know if you're also getting three. You're not? Oh wait, where was this calculator I'm using made again? – Ray Wert More »

Does N-A-C-T-O-Y Spell F-L-O-R-I-D-A? Detroit Auto Show Award Ballot Mysteriously Leaves Out A Truck

We're not sure how something like this could have happened, but apparently a candidate for North American Truck Of the Year, the new-for-2007 Jeep Wrangler, was somehow left off of the balloting during the first round of voting — a process that's already selected three finalists, the Chevy Silverado, the Ford Edge and it's little cousin, the Mazda CX-7. Now, the folks who run the show are asking the 49 automotive journalist jurists to take another swipe of the pen to the newly-inclusive ballot and revote for all candidates. If the Wrangler... More »

Jalopnik Team Party Crash: The Chrysler Group Revels In The Excess Inventory Of Loin-Burgers

Before Captain Jack Sparrow Jason Vines up there jumped up on stage, we caught him enjoying what appears to be the Detroit automaker holiday party treat of choice — the Bob Lutz tenderloin "hamburger" — or as we've come to call it, the "loin-burger." When not downing steaming hot loin-meat last night at the Chrysler Auto Press holiday party, we were busy listening intently to Chrysler Group chief exec Tom LaSorda coming up with explanations for the "order bank" of over 100,000 cars awaiting dealers to adopt them and denying his job's in jeopardy. When not doing that — which frankly was the majority of the evening — we were taking pictures and drinking copious amounts of refreshments to go along with the loin-meat from earlier. And although we may not have enjoyed the french fries as much as AutoWeek's Bob Gritzinger, we did enjoy watching Bob enjoy them. And plus, hey, there were dessert shots and cupcakes, and that's just simply adorable. Full commentary-laden gallery below. – Ray Wert More »

Jason Is Magic? Chrysler Execs Ham It Up For Auto Journalists, We Drink

Although we're all about the parties, there does come a point where it becomes a little much — and although we've not yet hit that point, as our waistline's become more and more tight with each passing party, we're coming awfully close. So when we woke up this morning with little to no memory of what went on last night at the Chrysler Group's holiday party, we feel a sense of wooziness and an inability to explain what just happened — kind of like what Joe Eberhardt must have felt like right after he got the boot from the 'merican side of the German-American hybrid. Except we haven't lost our job. Oh, and we don't have over a hundred thousand SUV's and trucks stacked up in lots across the Metro Detroit area. And did we mention we don't have a German accent? Lucky for us, we took some video last night and boy, we must have been at one hell of a party. Any time you get Chrysler veep of Communications Jason "ADHD" Vines and Frank "CarMax" Klegon, Exec Veep of Product Development up on stage doing a top ten sketch bit straight outta the old Tonight Show lineup, it's going to be funny — especially when you find a way to make fun of the hair of a certain automaking exec who's all about being business in the front and party in the rear. Check it out and see if you agree while we try to figure out how to get the pictures off of the camera too. – Ray Wert More »

No (Word Redacted Due To DMCA Violation)! Chrysler PR Man Responds To Gag Ads

The PR chief for the 'merican side of the German-American hybrid, Jason "Main Man" Vines, was kind enough to inform us that he's called off the dogs of war (or legal action, depending on how you look at it) on the 'ol Jalopnik after we posted some "gag" versions of some web ads the Chrysler Group's running. Here's the skinny, straight from the Vinesian mouth: More »

Jalopnik Poll: Chrysler PR Man Jason Vines Goes Back To The Shack!

We know Chrysler Group PR main man Jason Vines was dressed in two crazy costumes yesterday for charity — but we couldn't resist the chance to actually use the best camera flashes we could find of him in his two Caddyshack-esque get-ups. One get-up was vintage money-made-the-old-fashioned-way Ty Webb and the other get-up's some kind of crazy mashup of gopher hater Carl Spackler and a scuba-diver. Both were so bizzare that we think it's now time for our readers to decide which picture Jalopnik should start using for the "stock photo" of the Chrysler PR chief. More »

Chrysler Group CEO LaSorda Carries The Water Weight Of Unsold Trucks And SUVs Very Well

We journeyed down the road to Auburn Hills today to visit the American end of the German-American hybrid of DaimlerChrysler, and witnessed what may be the most bizarre event of the week — a Chrysler Group function to kick off the employee corporate campaign for United Way of Southeast Michigan. The highlight (lowlight, perhaps — depending on whether you happen to see the picture of Chrysler Group PR main man Jason Vines in some very interesting garb) of the event was the very un-Olympic-like games set up team-style, with one captained by Chrysler Group CEO and Prez Tom LaSorda (blue team) and Senior Veep of Employee Relations John Franciosi (purple-maroon-plum team). The games were at best, juvenile — and involved carrying sponge-squeezed water on one's head to fill a bucket and some sort of golf-like thing. Whatever you want to call it, it was hilarious — and unlike Michael Keaton in Mr. Mom understanding the importance of letting the boss win, Franciosi kicked LaSorda's CEO butt. We'll have video up from the event tomorrow late in the AM, but for the meantime, you'll have to content yourself with the picture gallery below. More »

One, Two, Three, Four — Chevy Don't Want A Muscle Car War?

It's only day one of the muscle car wars, and already we're hearing about one of the pony-makers backing off. This is totally not what we wanted to hear as we get ready for the titans of Detroit to do battle like the Jets n' Sharks of old. To bring you up to speed, this morning the Chevy Camaro Dream Cruise trailer made an impromptu guest appearance and drive-by of a Chrysler PR event talking up a Dodge Challenger give-away promo. After taking that white-gloved slap, Chrysler's PR top dog Jason Vines dropped a grenade into the Chevy PR trenches this afternoon, reminding newly-deputized Chevy PR chief Terry Rhadigan that the Challengers made it to the event under their own power — and needed not the trailer seen carrying the Camaro of old and new. So of course we were expecting Terry to show his stuff, and drop a haymaker onto the German-American hybrid automaker. Hell, we would have settled for ignoring Vines all together and making a sneak attack on the Mustang-loving city of Dearborn to catch FoMoCo unawares. Instead... More »

The Muscle Car Wars Are On! Chrysler's Vines Fires A Salvo At Chevy PR Newbie Rhadigan

Looks like this Muscle Car "cold war" just turned hot — and just in time for the world's largest single-day classic car cruise. To recap — earlier today at a Chrysler Group press event, the PR peeps from Chevy made a point of letting the Chrysler folks know that they were stepping on the Generals turf by driving their bowtied Camaro trailer past the event — almost goading the Chrysler Group into a West Side Story-like knife fight. And oh-ho-ho, it worked. The chief PR man from the German-American hybrid has stepped up to the plate with a comment, and he wants Chevy PR newbie Terry Rhadigan to know exactly where his little pony and Chevys little pony stand (or drive): More »

Who's Tweakin' Jason Vines And Challenging Dodge?

So our boy, Chrysler PR man extraordinaire, Jason Vines, was looking rather worried there behind the Dodge Challenger concept car at the PT Cruiser and Dodge Challenger press event this AM. At the time, we couldn't figure out exactly why — and although it seemed like he was looking at something over on Woodward Avenue we'd had too little caffeine to justify something as simple as turning around and looking. It wasn't until we were glancing through main-man-with-the-cam James LaMoreaux's photos a few minutes ago that we realized why he was wearing such an annoyed face. Click the jump to find out what was driving by. More »

Sweet Peet D. Fires Back at Chrysler: Autoextremist/Vines War a Go

His Royal D-ness wasn't too happy at the rebuttal Jason Vines posted on Chrysler's Firehouse media-only blog, which we reposted here. Referring to Vines as "Dieter Zetsche's snarky little bag-man," (to be fair, Vines did call him a "Dieter eater" first) he goes on to exhort, More »

Something Rotten in Detroit: AutoExtremist And Jason Vines Spar On Incentives

Sweet Peet D. is at it again. This time he's taking the shine off of GM's recent buyout news and claiming it's not as rosy picture that most news outlets are reporting. The reason? Detroit's latest round of price-slashing is proof that the big three are still addicted to incentives. At least this time GM understands that a sale shouldn't last forever, says Sweet Peet D., but we're still holding our breath until it ends — incentives have a way of sticking around. But wait, wait — Sweet Peet ain't stopping there... More »

DCX Bites Big Oil

Jason Vines, the uncommonly blunt veep of communications over at Chrysler Group, took a swipe at oil companies on the company's media-only blog, exhorting that "Big Oil would rather fill the pockets of its executives and shareholders, rather than spend sufficient amounts to reduce the price of fuel, letting consumers, during tough economic times, pick up the tab." ExxonMobil, meanwhile, commented that Vines' comments didn't merit comment. Comments? More »