2012 Chrysler 200 Limited on 2040-cars

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Chrysler Pacifica's Fam Cam is a great feature that needs to be on more cars

The CDC and various other official entities encourage or demand parents to place their children in a rear-facing child seat from birth until the ages of 2 to 4. That obviously means a driver or front passenger cannot see them, necessitating a mirror that you can see from the car's rearview mirror. As someone who constantly moved his son's rear-facing child seat between different cars every week, I can firmly recommend a mirror like this with a swivel base, as it is so much easier than others to mount and adjust.  But you know what's better than a mirror? The Chrysler Pacifica's "Fam Cam." In between the second and third rows, in the middle of the van, is a little glossy black disk in the ceiling that contains cameras that display images of second and third rows. There are daylight color and night time infrared camera views as well (although the daylight one makes certain darker colors look lilac purple). You can also enlarge one of the outboard second-row seats for a better view. Any of these above options allows you to see your children many times better than is possible with a mirror, especially at night. Just look at the difference below. Basically, you can't see your kid at all with the rearview mirror at night. Turning on the overhead map light helps, but my son wasn't too keen on having an interrogation lamp in his face, and it's certainly not ideal for sleeping, either. A given car's backseat position can also mean that the forward-facing child mirror is below the rearview mirror's line of sight, meaning you have to choose between seeing your kid or seeing what's going on behind your vehicle. Again, advantage Fam Cam. Here's another benefit. It's usually very difficult, if impossible, to mount both a forward-facing mirror and a tablet holder at the same time. I usually got around this by attaching the mirror to the middle seating position's head restraint, but that's obviously not an option in a vehicle with captain's chairs. Now, while I was literally able to mount both in the Pacifica for the purposes of illustrating my point, it was not easy and both mirror and tablet holder fit poorly. Using Fam Cam is obviously a better option. (Also a shout-out for Chrysler's positioning of the third-row USB port, which made it super-easy to keep the Galaxy charged).  Now, to be fair, the Kia Carnival and Honda Odyssey offer a similar rear seat spy camera feature, and we like those, too.

Chrysler's next-gen minivans will get more expensive

Chrysler introduced the value-oriented Great American Package on the base model Chrysler 300 in 2005. That morphed into the American Value Package available as an option on the Dodge Grand Caravan in 2012, which made it the lowest-priced minivan in the country, now with an MSRP of $21,395. Automotive News reports that Chrysler is going to kill the value package when the new Town & Country arrives for 2017, because the new platform and technology of the coming minivan make it "a difficult price point to get to." AN says the next-generation haulers will come in around $26,000 and can go beyond $45,000 with options; clicking every "Add" button we could find on the Town & Country build page, we couldn't get past $43,000 for today's model. That entry pricing in 2017 would eliminate the first three trims on the Dodge option, the American Value Package, the SE that starts at $24,195, and the SE Plus that starts at $24,995. This makes us think the next-generation haulers will take a sizable step upscale in terms of feel, content, and trim, a la the Chrysler 200. In this writer's opinion, if they do as good a job as they've been doing recently, the extra money will be worth it. There have been spy shots and a lot of rumors about it, like the Caravan minivan going away and becoming a crossover, but we'll see it revealed at the 2016 Detroit Auto Show. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req. Chrysler Dodge Car Buying Minivan/Van chrysler town and country price dodge grand caravan

Feds sue Fiat Chrysler, accuse it of cheating on diesel emissions

WASHINGTON - The US government has filed a civil lawsuit accusing Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV of using software to bypass emission controls in diesel vehicles. The Justice Department suit, filed in US district court in Detroit, is a procedural step that may ramp up pressure on Fiat Chrysler. The suit could ultimately help lead to a settlement, as in an earlier probe of rival Volkswagen AG that will cost VW up to $25 billion, but which affected a much larger number of vehicles. VW admitted to intentionally cheating while Fiat Chrysler denies wrongdoing. It did not immediately comment on Tuesday. US-listed Fiat Chrysler shares were down 2.9 percent at $10.44. The suit also names Fiat Chrysler's unit V.M. Motori SpA, which designed the engine in question. Reuters reported last week the Justice Department and EPA have obtained internal emails and other documents written in Italian that look at engine development and emissions issues that raise significant questions. The investigation has scrutinized VM Motori. FCA acquired a 50 percent stake in VM Motori in 2010 and the remainder in October 2013. The lawsuit asserts the Italian-American automaker placed undeclared "defeat devices," or auxiliary emissions controls, in 2014-2016 Fiat Chrysler diesel vehicles that led to "much higher" than allowable levels of nitrogen oxide, or NOx pollution, which is linked to smog formation and respiratory problems. The suit seeks injunctive relief and unspecified civil penalties. EPA said in January the maximum fine is about $4.6 billion. In January, EPA and California accused Fiat Chrysler of illegally using undisclosed software to allow excess diesel emissions in 104,000 U.S. 2014-2016 Jeep Grand Cherokees and Dodge Ram 1500 trucks. Fiat Chrysler said on Friday it plans to update software that it expects will resolve the concerns of U.S. regulators about excess emissions in those vehicles. The January notice was the result of regulators' investigation of rival Volkswagen, which prompted the government to review emissions from all other passenger diesel vehicles. Volkswagen admitted in September 2015 to installing secret software allowing its cars to emit up to 40 times legal pollution levels. In total, VW has agreed to spend up to $25 billion in the United States to address claims from owners, environmental regulators, states and dealers and offered to buy back about 500,000 polluting US vehicles.