2002 Chrysler Prowler on 2040-cars

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Stellantis sees vehicle loan durations extended amid banking turmoil

Stellantis is seeing clients seeking longer-term financing and leasing deals for their vehicles as a consequence of higher global interest rates, the carmaker's head for the business said. Chief Affiliates Officer Philippe de Rovira said loans which normally had a three-year maturity were now increasingly moved to four years. "This allows customers to get a car for a monthly instalment that is similar to that they had before," he said. The world's third largest carmaker by sales on Tuesday announced it had completed a plan announced in late 2021 to reshuffle and simplify its leasing and financing operations in Europe. Under its terms, Stellantis created a 50-50 single long term multi-brand leasing company named Leasys with Credit Agricole Consumer Finance. It also set up local joint ventures in European countries for its new Stellantis Financial Services unit, formerly Banque PSA Finance, with BNP Paribas Personal Finance and Santander Consumer Finance. "These banks have always had better funding conditions than those we can have as an automaker," de Rovira said. Benefits of the plan included cutting the number of financing and leasing entities the group runs in each country and the number of IT systems it uses, with expected savings exceeding 30% in this particular area, he added. De Rovira said the group had a huge portfolio of orders it had not yet delivered due to supply chain shortages impacting production. "Demand is not our main issue. The issue is to deliver as fast as we can cars that are in our order portfolio, which is still at record levels," he said. The group aims to expand its corporate leased vehicle fleet to more than one million units in 2026 and to double net income from its so-called banking activities to 5.8 billion euros ($6.3 billion) by 2030. De Rovira said Stellantis was not seeing a downward trend in vehicle pricing. "Probably the significant price increases we have seen in 2021 and 2022 will not be repeated because the context is changing, but for the moment we don't see decreases, we see stabilisation". ($1 = 0.9188 euros) (Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari and Gilles Guillaume; Editing by Jan Harvey) Earnings/Financials Plants/Manufacturing Alfa Romeo Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM

Preserving automotive history costs big bucks

$1.8 million is spent each year to maintain GM's fleet of 600 production and concept cars.
When at least two of the Detroit Three were on the verge of death a few years back, one of the tough questions that was asked of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler execs - outside of why execs were still taking private planes to meetings - was why each company maintained huge archives of old production and concept vehicles. GM, for example, had an 1,100-vehicle collection when talk of a federal bailout began.

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.