1963 Chrysler Imperial Crown 6.8l on 2040-cars

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Fiat Chrysler parts firm Magneti Marelli sold for $7.1B

TOKYO/MILAN — Japan's Calsonic Kansei, owned by U.S. private equity firm KKR, has agreed to buy Fiat Chrysler's Magneti Marelli for 6.2 billion euros ($7.1 billion) to form the seventh-largest independent car parts supplier. The first big deal by FCA's newly-appointed chief executive Mike Manley, who took over in July after the sudden death of long-time boss Sergio Marchionne, creates a company with revenue of 15.2 billion euros ($17.5 billion), the companies said. The newly formed Magneti Marelli CK Holdings is likely to cut costs through synergies and expand its customer base as components makers try to keep up with a shift by carmakers into autonomous driving, connected cars and electric vehicles. "This combination with Calsonic Kansei has emerged as an ideal opportunity to accelerate Magneti Marelli's future growth," Manley said on Monday of the FCA unit, which specializes in lighting, powertrain and high-tech electronics. FCA shares were up 5.2 percent at 0906 GMT as investors welcomed the hefty price tag, which will boost FCA's net cash position and raises expectations of a share buyback. "Getting this transaction completed at the price agreed is a significant early milestone and accomplishment," George Galliers, an analyst at Evercore ISI, said of Manley and his team's ability to match Marchionne's deal-making reputation. Marchionne had set in motion a process to spin off the unit and distribute its shares to FCA shareholders by early 2019, but said in June that FCA would still be "receptive" to an offer. Neither FCA nor its top shareholder, Fiat's founding Agnelli family, will have a stake in the combined business, but FCA said it would enter into a multi-year agreement to secure supplies to its plants and also to maintain operations and staff in Italy. Part of a global expansion KKR bought Calsonic from Nissan and other shareholders in 2016, saying it would help the parts maker, which relies on the Japanese carmaker for most of its sales, to expand globally. Calsonic has been in talks with FCA for months and made an initial 5.8 billion euro bid, sources have said. FCA does not break out earnings for Magneti Marelli, which sits within its components unit alongside robotics specialist Comau and castings firm Teksid. The unit employs around 43,000 people and operates in 19 countries. A takeover of Magneti Marelli had remained elusive as potential bidders were offering too little or were only interested in some parts of the business.

How fracking is causing Chrysler minivans to sit on Detroit's riverfront

It's fascinating the way that one change to a complex system can have all sorts of unintended consequences. For instance, there are hundreds of new Chrysler Town and County and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans built in Windsor, Ontario, sitting in lots on the Detroit waterfront because of the energy boom in the Bakken oil field in the northern US and parts of Canada.
The huge amount of crude oil coming from these sites mostly use freight trains for transport, and that supply boom has resulted in a shortage of railcars to carry other goods. According to The Windsor Star, North American crude oil transport by train has gone from 9,500 carloads in 2008 to 434,032 carloads in 2013. Making matters worse, some North American rail infrastructure is still damaged because of this year's harsh winter, and that's slowing things down even further.
Chrysler admits to The Star that it has had some delivery delays due to the freight train shortage. In the meantime, it's using more trucks to deliver its vehicles. Trucking is a far less economical solution, partially because a train can carry so many more units at one time, but alternatives are slim. The Windsor plant alone has a deal for 33 trucks to distribute the minivans around Canada and the Midwestern US.

1990 Chrysler Imperial is a forgettable American luxury sedan

MotorWeek's Retro Review series often lets us be nostalgic about vehicles from the '80s and '90s, but this time the show looks back on the 1990 Chrysler Imperial. With atrocious styling and middling performance, it might be better that we collectively forget about this luxury sedan. When this Imperial hit the scene, the BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class were entrenched in the luxury sedan segment. Japanese automakers like Lexus and Infiniti were also making waves. The Chrysler just seems old fashioned compared to the rest, and its landau roof didn''t fit the competition's modern styling. MotorWeek also complains of poor craftsmanship and bad visibility out of the back. A 3.3-liter V6 with 147 horsepower doesn't provide much acceleration, either. Chrysler understood the demands of its aging customers for the Imperial. The sedan didn't offer anything class-leading, but there were a comfy seats and a floaty suspension to get drivers around town. In the modern world of luxury vehicles, which bristle with active safety tech and advanced infotainment system, the Imperial seems like a dinosaur. Watch Motorweek's clip to get a better understanding why there's not much nostalgia for this American sedan. Related Video: