In the years before I came to Jalopnik, I was a Jeep engineer, and when I arrived at Chrysler’s Technical Center in 2012, the company felt like it was firing on all cylinders. Employees were hard at work developing what would become the best cars in the company’s history. People were excited and optimistic for the…
After more than a year of doing these Meh Car Mondays, I’m starting to realize some things. Things like the most meh decade for cars seems to be the 1990s. At some point we’ll evaluate why this is, but for today I just want to talk about a fiercely meh car that’s very much a product of the 1990s: the Plymouth Breeze,…
Chrysler has somehow managed to highlight the Chrysler Pacifica’s biggest flaw in this commercial featuring actor Kathryn Hahn. That biggest flaw, as we noted in our review, is a shifter dial that can easily be mistaken for a volume knob, and Chrysler appears to show Hahn doing just that in this commercial.
As part of Fiat Chrysler’s recent Dog And Pony show for investors, the company’s Chief Technical Compliance Officer, Mark Chernoby, described FCA’s ambitious electrification plans, which include the rollout of mild hybrid, hybrid, plug-in hybrids, and pure electric vehicles across 30 nameplates. Here’s what that plan…
Things haven’t been great with the “C” in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles for some time. Chrysler, a storied American nameplate, now only sells two cars in a handful of markets. So when Automotive News reports it’s heard a rumor that the Chrysler brand may get “whacked” on Friday, it’s not implausible. But for now, an FCA…
Ford announced last month that it’s phasing out small cars and now, probably not surprisingly it looks like Fiat Chrysler will take a similar path. Soon-to-retire CEO Sergio Marchionne apparently will cut down on the small cars and go in big on the large and luxurious ones. That means less Fiat and less Chrysler.
Twenty years ago today, at 2 a.m. Eastern time, a press release announced to the world that German automotive giant Daimler would be merging with the third member of Detroit’s “Big Three,” Chrysler, forming DaimlerChrysler. On paper, the deal made tons of sense, but in reality, it didn’t bear the fruit its creators…
Friends, I am still mourning our loss of the Dodge Viper, a king of the road in its own right. And though the car might be no more, at least its birthplace will be put to good use.
I’ve been thinking about the Dodge Neon a lot lately, on the advice of my clergyperson, and I happened to come across information about the original 1991 Neon concept car. Um, IT’S FANTASTIC. You should already be about 60 percent wow’d by just looking at that picture, but I’m gonna blast the needle out of your…
Apple appears to be leasing a former Fiat Chrysler-owned proving grounds in Arizona to test autonomous vehicles, according to a source familiar with the matter. It’s the latest sign that one of the largest technology companies in the world isn’t as done with autonomous vehicles as expected, following the crash of its…
In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s the engineers at Jensen decided to follow the trend of putting American engines in British cars. It worked for the AC Cobra, maybe, they thought, it would work for them. This gave birth to the Jensen Interceptor, a grand touring car with a big ol’ Chrysler V8 under the hood.
Good morning! Welcome to The Morning Shift, your roundup of the auto news you crave, all in one place every weekday morning. Here are the important stories you need to know.
With Chrysler’s announcement today that 2018 Pacifica will be offered with a sporty appearance package, I can only logically assume that much of the push back against the quite-good minivan was largely about how un-sporty it is. Bitch, it’s a minivan! Minivans like the antithesis of sporty. But what the hell do I know.
When I walk around New York City and watch people carelessly fling garbage into her streets, a part of me dies a little bit. But then I am cheered by the fact that Fiat Chrysler is still putting big and dumb motors in cars that have no business with motors that big or dumb. It’s stuck Hellcat engines into Charger,…
Just about everything Chrysler made from the late ‘70s to the mid ‘90s was based on the front-drive K-platform. The platform was used on sedans, wagons, coupes, vans, convertibles, trucks, and hatchbacks.
Like many parents, I have a child who’s interested in cars, which is an interest I’m more than happy to encourage. Lately, he’s been especially fascinated with car badges and emblems, and loves to point out as many as possible. When he sees one he doesn’t recognize, he asks me. Normally, this is fine, but the other…
I should be clear here that I’m not an official expert in words; I’m no entomologist. You can tell that’s true because I just typed the word for someone who studies insects, not “etymologist,” someone who studies words. But this hasn’t stopped me from formulating a theory that there’s a large number of people who…
I think the fundamental, pureéd gruel-like blandness of the Dodge Diplomat is probably best summed up in how this promo movie describes it’s size: “between a compact and an intermediate!” Somehow, Dodge’s engineers have managed to invent a size of car more boring than “mid-sized.” Kudos, gentlemen.
Have you wondered lately if Fiat Chrysler has any new idea(s) up its sleeve? Here’s something to stew over: what you see above is a widebody Chrysler 300 SRT carrying rims and tires from an earlier Dodge Demon mule. There’s also a strong possibility this is packing a Hellcat V8 engine. Dope.
I get sent a lot of Craigslist ads for weird and/or shitty cars by readers. I regard this as one of the biggest perks of my job, right after Jalopnik’s very generous policies regarding colonics. An ad I was sent this morning is interesting, not so much because of the car for sale, but more because of who posted the…
