2005 Chrysler Pt Cruiser! One Owner! What A Great Buy! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2017 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid scored 84 MPGe in government testing

The 2017 Chrysler Pacific, in non-hybrid form, was already at the top of the minivan heap in terms of EPA-rated fuel economy. Now the government agency has released its official test numbers for the Pacifica Hybrid, and they're looking pretty good. The non-hybrid Pacifica achieved 28 highway, 18 city, and 22 combined miles per gallon, which compared favorably to the 2016 Honda Odyssey's 28/19/22 and Nissan Quest's 27/20/23 ratings. You can read more about the regular Pacifica's scores right here. But none of these vans compare to the Pacifica Hybrid, which is incidentally the only hybrid in the class. FCA claims that the EPA's numbers are even better than the anticipated 80 MPGe, although we can't speak to whether that's an honest admission or a too-convenient claim. But there's no denying that the official rating – 84 MPGe – is impressive. If you aren't familiar with the MPGe rating, no worries. It's not as straightforward as conventional EPA MPG ratings, but a layperson can understand how it works. MPGe stands for miles per gallon equivalent, and measures fuel economy based on the energy content of a gallon of petroleum-based gasoline. For those who like formulas, the Automotive X Prize once defined MPGe as (miles driven) / [(total energy of all fuels consumed)/(energy of one gallon of gasoline)]). As for a conventional rating, the EPA only provides a combined city/highway number on the Monroney sticker, and an FCA spokesperson told us that the rating for the Pacifica Hybrid will be 32 MPG. This represents the hybrid working as normal, not in EV-only mode. It's also an improvement of almost 10 MPG over the combined ratings of the top three conventional minivans in the segment, including the non-hybrid Pacifica. Range is also fantastic. The EPA rated the total EV-only range as 33 miles, and the overall combined range at a staggering 566 miles. And that's from a fuel tank that's just 17 gallons (compared to the 19-gallon tank in the conventional Pacifica, which nets it a 418-mile EPA-rated range). FCA is going to extraordinary lengths to credit its eFlite transmission-generator unit, which can supply electric power to the front wheels if necessary. It's a piece of equipment that represents a substantial engineering investment, and apparently that's all paid off. Chrysler tells us that the Pacifica Hybrid will go on sale next month, and that dealers will get more volume in Q1. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party.

Junkyard Gem: 1976 Chrysler Cordoba

With engine power way down and a sense of malaise settling over American roads, Detroit (and Kenosha) turned to opulent-looking personal luxury coupes on midsize platforms to lure car shoppers into showrooms. While John DeLorean's Pontiac Grand Prix started it all more than a decade before, one of the best-known of all the rococo personal luxury coupes was the Chrysler Cordoba. Today's Junkyard Gem is an early example of the Cordoba, found in a Northern California car graveyard last fall. The first generation of the Cordoba (1975 through 1979 model years) was built on Chrysler's B Platform, making it a sibling to quite a few of the most legendary Dodge and Plymouth muscle cars of the 1960s. This includes the Charger, Super Bee, Road Runner, Daytona and Superbird. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. While French and Italian cities were very popular for use as American-market car names during the second half of the 20th century, Spain wasn't completely ignored by Detroit. Ford offered the Granada, Cadillac had the Seville, and Chrysler decided to go with the ancient city of Cordoba as the namesake for its new personal luxury coupe. As native espanol mexicano speaker and longtime Chrysler pitchman Ricardo Montalban explains in the 1987 David Letterman interview above (skip ahead to 8:10), the correct Spanish pronunciation is really "CORE-doe-bah" with the emphasis on the first syllable, but Chrysler went with a spelling and pronunciation that was easier for English speakers to deal with. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. We can't talk about Ricardo Montalban and the Cordoba without watching at least one of the TV commercials that helped make the early Cordoba such a sales hit and put the term "Corinthian Leather" into everyday American discourse. Sometimes Ricardo described the leather as soft, while the terms rich and fine were applied on other occasions. This car does not have Corinthian Leather, which cost an extra $187 in 1976 (about $1,020 in 2023 dollars). Instead, it has the "Calacia velour" cloth-&-vinyl seat upgrade, which cost just $17 ($93 after inflation). The base seats were done up in "cashmere-like" cloth-and-vinyl.

Stellantis moves to set up its own lending unit

Stellantis is buying Houston-based auto lender First Investors Financial Services Group to set up its own finance arm in the U.S., a move that should support sales and eventually boost profit. The only major traditional automaker in the U.S. without its own finance company agreed to pay $285 million to a group of investors led by Gallatin Point Capital and Jacobs Asset Management, according to a statement. The transaction is expected to close by year-end. Stellantis was formed via the merger between Fiat Chrysler and PSA Group early this year. Carlos Tavares, the PSA boss who became the combined company’s chief executive officer, called the deal to acquire First Investors a milestone that will increase earnings and enhance customer loyalty. “Direct ownership of a finance company in the U.S. is a white-space opportunity which will allow Stellantis to provide our customers and dealers a complete range of financing options,” Tavares said Wednesday in the statement.  Having an in-house finance company has helped rivals General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. pad profits, especially during the global semiconductor shortage that has limited production and crimped sales. GM bought subprime lender AmeriCredit Corp. in 2010 and renamed it GM Financial. The operation generated a $2.76 billion profit in the first half -- roughly a third of the companyÂ’s adjusted earnings before interest and taxes. Trouble for Santander? The First Investors acquisition could spell trouble for Chrysler Capital, the operation that Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. and Chrysler set up in 2013 before the U.S. automaker completed its merger with Fiat. In a statement, Santander Consumer said itÂ’s committed to supporting Stellantis through the term of their existing agreement and its transition. Santander Consumer will also have “ongoing conversations with Stellantis about long-term mutually beneficial opportunities beyond 2023,” the company said, adding that its consumer business remains strong and has “delivered solid results for our shareholders.” This, along with support from its parent company, will allow the lender to “pursue additional opportunities as they arise.” The lenderÂ’s U.S.-listed stock fell 1.5% in New York trading Wednesday after Bloomberg reported Stellantis was preparing to announce a new finance partner. Stellantis shares rose as much as 1.3% in Paris trading Thursday.