2023 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid Limited on 2040-cars

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Catching up with Chrysler's EV catch-up plan

At your home or office? Those are the key words for how Chrysler and its Fiat affiliate want to narrow the plug-in vehicle sales gap between themselves and more plug-in-centric companies like Nissan and Ford, according Wards Auto. When the gap will narrow is anyone's guess. The US automaker, long a laggard in electric-powertrain development, is working on an wireless, inductive charging system with Qualcomm and which could spur sales of plug-in vehicles for personal use. A wireless system would allow for hands-free charging for vehicles like the Fiat 500e, the company's only plug-in vehicle being sold to the public in the US as well as a plug-in hybrid minivan that's in the works for 2016. On the business front, Chrysler is working with nonprofit NextEnergy on developing a reverse-power-flow system. That would allow for fleet-owning businesses to draw power from their plug-in vehicles' batteries during mid-day peak-energy times, when electricity rates are highest. Chrysler and NextEnergy ran a one-month test of a reverse-power-flow system with four Fiat 500e vehicles last year, and the companies found that they could cut power usage enough to save $1,200. Chrysler extrapolated those numbers to estimate that such a system with just a dozen plug-in vehicles could save a company as much as $27,000 a year. Get more details over at Wards Auto. Featured Gallery 2013 Fiat 500e: Review View 40 Photos News Source: Wards Auto Green Chrysler Fiat Technology Emerging Technologies Electric wireless charging inductive charging inductive

Chrysler recalling 31k SUVs and vans

Chrysler is issuing recalls covering roughly 31,700 vehicles worldwide due to two separate problems. In both cases the company believes that most of the affected vehicles are either still on, or in transit to, dealer lots.
One recall covers roughly 10,700 Dodge Durango, Jeep Cherokee, Grand Cherokee and Grand Cherokee SRT models from the 2014 model year built between January 16 and April 17, 2014. The SUVs need a software update for the cruise control. It's possible that when the cruise is on and the driver presses on the throttle, the acceleration could last a second after the pedal is released or two seconds for the SRT. Afterward, they return to the speed originally set by the driver.
Chrysler says it isn't aware of any accidents, injuries or even reported incidents of this happening in the real world. Also, in all cases, if the driver presses on the brake, the cruise shuts off. The automaker believes that there are about 6,100 affected SUVs in the US, 950 in Canada, 425 in Mexico and 3,200 outside of North America. The software upgrade will be ready shortly, the company says.

Junkyard Gem: 1975 Plymouth Fury Sedan

The Plymouth Fury was once among the most commonplace vehicles on American roads, with the 1970s being the most Furious decade of all. If you've watched a lot of Malaise Era cop shows, you've seen endless examples of the 1975-1978 B-Body Fury sedan; today's Junkyard Gem in Colorado is a civilian version with a very unusual combination of features and options. Though the 1975-1978 Fury is sibling to many much more famous B Platform Chryslers, including the Dukes of Hazzard General Lee and a lot of other highly revered Mopars of the late 1960s and early 1970s, it doesn't get the recognition it deserves today. Would the world be the same if Debbie Harry had posed in her Anya Phillips dress on the bumper of, say, a Ford LTD instead of the iconic '76 Fury on the cover of Plastic Letters? I've got this album cover hanging on my garage wall, right next to Sir Mix-a-Lot's My Hooptie and its '69 Buick Electra. This sun-baked '75 left the assembly line with some nice luxury options for an affordable midsize sedan of its time, including a padded vinyl roof. Factory air conditioning was a $437 option on the Fury in 1975, a price tag that comes to an attention-grabbing $2,185 in 2020 dollars. The MSRP on a Fury sedan that year started at just $3,571 ($17,840 today), so A/C jacked up the cost by close to 15%. The base engine was a 225-cubic-inch (3.7-liter) Slant-6, but this car took the next step up on the Fury engine hierarchy for 1975: a 318-cubic-inch (5.2-liter) V8 making 145 horsepower. Here's where things get a bit weird. That shift lever on the steering column controls a three-speed manual; this rig is commonly known as a three-on-the-tree. The most popular transmission setup on Detroit cars of the 1940s through the early 1960s, the good ol' three-on-the-tree survived here all the way through the 1979 model year in new cars and 1987 in new trucks. By 1975, most lower-priced American mid- and full-sized cars had the three-on-the-tree as base equipment, but by that time nearly every new-car shopper here opted for an automatic transmission or — occasionally — a floor-shifted three- or four-speed manual. The total number of 1975 Fury buyers who sprang for the V8 engine, air conditioning, and a vinyl roof yet still kept the old-fashioned three-on-the-tree transmission setup probably can be counted in the low hundreds, if even that many.