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Ram helps power Chrysler to 11% gain in May

Increasing consumer demand for Ram pickup trucks and big SUVs has helped to boost May sales for Chrysler. Ram sales were up a total of 24 percent year-over-year for the month of May. In addition, Dodge sales increased by 23 percent in May, with the standout Durango clocking a 24-percent year-over-year improvement (with an updated 2014 model in the wings, incentives are thick on the ground for 2013 inventory). Fiat and Jeep were up only a modest one percent, however, and Chrysler brand sales were down by two percent against last year's figures.
Chrysler is quite pleased overall with brand performance, saying that this May marks the company's strongest in the past six years. It was also the 38th consecutive month showing year-over-year sales gains.
Eight of the automaker's vehicles set sales records for May, as well: Jeep Wrangler and Compass, Dodge Avenger and Challenger, Fiat 500, Chrysler 200 and Ram pickups. Scroll down to read more detail in Chrysler's press release.

Chrysler and Google launch virtual 200 factory tour [w/video]

Google is no stranger to showing off some of the most interesting automotive destinations in the world, like the museums for Lamborghini and Ducati, or even a Tesla showroom. However, it's taking that technology even further with a new, in-depth look of the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant where the Chrysler 200 is made. Unlike these earlier online excursions, the new Chrysler factory tour is a fully guided experience that includes several 360-degree videos explaining many parts of the production process.
"Just as we pioneered a completely new Chrysler 200, we are pioneering a new way for consumers to research a vehicle. The Factory Tour is an opportunity for us to prove to consumers that the all-new 2015 Chrysler 200 is not one ever built before," said Olivier Francois, Chrysler's chief marketing officer, in the company's release.
Chrysler was already pretty proud of its nearly $1 billion in recent updates to the Sterling Heights factory having released a look at the 200's assembly process earlier this year. However, the new Google tour goes far deeper by including 12 videos, and between highlighted stops, viewers can swing the camera all over to get a full view of the action. The whole thing is an intriguing way to show the way a modern car gets built.

Long winter means most automakers won't curb summer shutdown

A lot more happened during this latest brutal winter than days of snow and Netflix binges. Automotive sales took a battering. After all, going out car shopping when it's eleventy-billion degrees below zero isn't a good time.
Because of this Old Man Winter-induced sales slump, inventories are abnormally high as we head into the summer car buying season. That's led some analysts to predict that automakers will be more inclined to idle factories this summer, in a bid to trim some of the built-up inventory. Traditionally, American manufacturers offer up a two-week break in the middle of summer, although the burgeoning sales of the past few years have seen this practice become less popular.
"We're likely not going to see an acceleration this year," Jeff Schuster, a senior vice president at LMC Automotive, told The Detroit News. "We'll see production increases in 'pockets' but I don't know if it will be as widespread as in recent years."