Touring Convertible 2.7l Cd Front Wheel Drive Power Steering Abs Aluminum Wheels on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Chrysler officially rebrands as FCA US LLC

Detroit's third-largest automaker has had a lot of names over the years. It was founded as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925, a name it held until 1998 when it was bought by ze Germans in 1998 to form DaimlerChrysler AG, then it went independent in 2007 under the name Chrysler LLC before being retitled once again as Chrysler Group LLC in 2009. And now the automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, MI, is getting yet another new name. Announced today and effective immediately, the company formerly known as Chrysler will now be called FCA US LLC. That's a lot of letters, but they make a lot of sense, too: FCA stands for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, the US telling us this is the company's American division and the LLC tells us it's a limited liability company – a legal classification similar to (but not quite the same as) a corporation. The announcement comes shortly after the company decided to phase out its long-serving Pentastar logo. The sum total is that the once-independent industrial giant is now formally part of a larger European parent company, owned by Fiat and (for taxation purposes, anyway) based in the Netherlands. What the company formerly known as Chrysler wants to emphasize, however, is that FCA US LLC will remain based in Auburn Hills and retain its "holdings, management team, board [and] brands." Chrysler Group LLC Announces New Company Name: FCA US LLC U.S.-based Automaker's New Name Aligns With Global Parent December 16, 2014 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - Chrysler Group LLC, the Auburn Hills, Michigan-based automaker, today announced that it has changed its company name to FCA US LLC. The name change is effective immediately and follows the naming convention of its global parent company, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA), which officially adopted its new name in October when it listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The name change to FCA US LLC does not affect the company's headquarters location in Auburn Hills, Michigan, its holdings, management team, board or brands. FCA US, together with parent FCA, continues to work toward the business plan presented on Investor Day in May 2014. Additionally, the Company remains proud of its joint heritage. FCA US continues to build upon the solid foundations first established by Walter P. Chrysler in 1925 as well as a rich Fiat heritage that dates from 1899. FCA US employs more than 77,000 employees worldwide, with 96 percent of its workforce based in North America.

NHTSA closes book on Jeep 'trailer hitch' recall after all

After much debating and hand-wringing, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration now says it has "no reservations" with Chrysler's plan to recall certain Jeep Liberty and Grand Cherokee models over concerns that their fuel tanks, which are located behind the rear axle, could rupture or leak in the event of a rear impact. The longstanding argument between the two entities saw Chrysler openly defy the Feds after a request to recall 2.7 million units back in June.
Chrysler's "voluntary campaign" will instead see it recall 1.56-million 1993-2004 model year Grand Cherokee SUVs, along with 2002-2007 Liberty models. Affected vehicles will get a trailer hitch installed free of charge, which Chrysler says will provide an additional degree of protection for the fuel tanks in the event of a crash. Jeeps with Mopar-branded hitches or hitches that were installed at the factory aren't affected by this recall.
Chrysler's argument throughout this battle has been that the Jeeps in question are no more susceptible to fires than comparable vehicles from the same time period, a position that NHTSA has seemingly arrived at as well. "Those vehicles performed at a rate similar to their peers. That is the keystone analysis as to whether something poses an unreasonable risk to safety," said outgoing NHTSA boss David Strickland during an interview with the The Associated Press.

Detroit 3 and UAW set for showdown over tiered wages

This week, thousands of United Auto Workers will converge on Cobo Center in Detroit for the Special Convention on Collective Bargaining, an every-four-year event that lets members tell UAW leaders what the negotiating priorities should be during contract negotiations. This is where a lot of sand and a lot of lines start coming together in preparation for contract negotiations between the UAW and the Detroit 3 automakers, which will happen later this year. Number one on the UAW agenda is the end of the two-tier wage system created in 2007 to help the automakers get through bankruptcy; veteran workers are paid the Tier 1 rate of around $29.00 per hour, new hires are paid the Tier 2 rate of between $15 and $20 and get about half the benefits of Tier 1. Tier 2 hiring has been an undoubted success for the automakers, allowing them to keep factories in the US and hire more workers. By agreement, it is capped at a certain percentage of each automaker's workforce, and while the union's ultimate position is to get rid of the dual-scale system entirely; one leader said Ford could easily afford the $335 million it would take to convert all its workers to Tier 1 out of its $6.9 billion in 2014 North American profit, and General Motors could do the same out of the $5 billion it is handing to investors through the (admittedly forced) share buyback. Other delegates say that at the very least they'd be happy with enforcement of the current caps in the new contract. The automakers, conversely, would welcome expansion of the Tier 2 ranks. Including benefits, import automakers pay workers "in the high $40 range" per hour, according to an analyst, while Ford and GM pay about $59 in wages and benefits per hour. More Tier 2 workers on the rolls would let those two companies get labor cost parity with the competition. Fiat-Chrysler pays wages closer to the imports because of special exceptions in its UAW contract that allow unlimited Tier 2 hiring; those exceptions will end on September 14 and bring FCA into line with the other domestics, unless the new contract maintains them. FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne is opposed to the two-tier system, having called it "almost offensive." One analyst says the UAW might win a sizable pay raise for Tier 2 and a small increase for Tier 1, but the keystone issue will be how the hiring matrix can help the automakers keep overall wages in line with the imports.