1990 Chrysler Lebaron on 2040-cars

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Chrysler 300 performance model teased for Detroit Auto Show reveal

The Chrysler 300 will not go out quietly, both literally and figuratively. A new teaser from Chrysler blasted across the company website’s homepage tells the story of whatÂ’s going on here. ItÂ’s a photo of what we have to assume is the wheel and brake caliper of what Chrysler plans on revealing September 13. The car this wheel and caliper are attached to? A Chrysler 300. Yes, it appears as though Chrysler is going to reveal a performance model of the 300 next week, and weÂ’re excited about it. Chrysler doesnÂ’t divulge much about the car, but the description attached to the photo tells us a few things. WeÂ’ll re-paste the text from the teaser below for easy reading. “Tune in September 13th at 6:00 p.m. ET to get a front-row seat for the reveal of one of the most powerful and luxurious special edition vehicles in Chrysler Brand history. WeÂ’ll also share details on how you can reserve a vehicle of your own from this limited production run. Limited Quantities available. Vehicle availability in Spring 2023. Visit your dealer for vehicle availability.” What could this be? For starters, thereÂ’s precedent for a Chrysler 300 SRT8 re-creation. Chrysler discontinued this muscle sedan after the 2014 model year, and in the end it had a 6.4-liter V8 under its hood that made 470 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque. Today, that 6.4-liter V8 can be found under the hood of the 300Â’s sibling car, the Dodge Charger R/T Scat Pack where it makes 485 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque. It seems reasonable that Chrysler could bring the big 6.4-liter back to the 300 as a sendoff — after all, the Charger and Challenger in their current forms are being discontinued after the 2023 model year. The caliper design looks like that found on the current Scat Pack cars, but itÂ’s only a glimpse of the wheel and brakes, so we canÂ’t be 100% sure about anything. As much as weÂ’d love to see Chrysler stick a Hellcat engine inside the 300 as its final hurrah, that theory is definitely the longshot at this point. Chrysler says this model will be “one of the most powerful” special edition vehicles in its history, but it didnÂ’t explicitly call it the most powerful car its ever made. If that was ChryslerÂ’s wording, weÂ’d have to assume it would be a Hellcat, but thatÂ’s not the case here. Regardless of what performance level 300 comes at us on Tuesday next week, weÂ’re hyped. Make sure to tune back in here to see what Chrysler has in store for us.

To grease the skids for Stellantis, PSA offers to boost Toyota's fortunes

BRUSSELS/MILAN — Peugeot maker PSA has offered to boost Japanese rival Toyota to try to address EU antitrust concerns about its plan to create the world's fourth-biggest carmaker, to be called Stellantis, by merging with Fiat Chrysler, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. PSA has offered to increase the production capacity for Toyota in their van joint venture, one of the sources said. Another source said the French company would sell the vans at close to cost. PSA makes vans for Toyota in its Sevelnord plant in northern France. The van collaboration started in 2012. PSA submitted its offer to the European Commission earlier on Friday, three months after the EU enforcer opened a full-scale investigation into the deal with FCA on concerns that it would hurt competition in small vans in 14 EU countries and Britain. "As of now, the transaction has obtained merger clearance in 14 jurisdictions. As previously stated, closing of the transaction is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2021," PSA and FCA said in a joint statement. The Commission, which temporarily halted its investigation into the deal in July while waiting for the companies to provide requested data, did not set a deadline for its decision. "The deadline is still suspended. This procedure in merger investigations is activated if the parties fail to provide, in a timely fashion, an important piece of information that the Commission has requested from them," the EU executive said. It is now expected to seek feedback from customers and rivals before deciding whether to demand more concessions, or either clear or block the deal. Government/Legal Chrysler Fiat Peugeot Stellantis

Total auto recalls already on record pace in 2014

If you've noticed that there have been more recalls than usual this year, you may be on to something. According to a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the US market is on pace to break a record for recalls. In 2013, 22 million cars were recalled. We're only a third of the way through 2014, though, and we've already halved that figure, with 11 million units recalled. That's wild.
Considering the past few months, it shouldn't be a surprise that General Motors is leading the charge, with six million of the 11 million units recalled coming from one of the General's four brands. Between truck recalls, CUV recalls and the ignition switch recall, 2014 hasn't been a great year for GM.
Other recall leaders include Nissan (one million Sentra and Altima sedans), Honda (900,000 Odyssey minivans), Toyota (over one million units in a few recalls), Volkswagen (150,000 Passat sedans), Chrysler (644,000 Dodge Durango and Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs) and most recently, Ford (434,000 units, the bulk of which were early Ford Escape CUVs). So while it's been a bad year for GM so far, its competitors aren't doing too well, either.