1953 Chrysler Town & Country Stationwagon.. on 2040-cars

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Wish you had a world-famous auto exec give your commencement speech? Watch this

We've seen some pretty great commencement speeches over the years. There was Steve Jobs' incredibly inspiring Stanford address in 2005, John Stewart's insightful speech to the graduating class of William and Mary in 2004 and Steven Colbert's hilarious 2011 address at Northwestern, but automotive executives aren't strangers to honorary degrees. Former General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner spoke at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2011, and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne recently gave the keynote at Walsh College's 100th Commencement Ceremony. The executive knows a thing or two about success and following one's beliefs to fulfillment.
"I constantly encourage my co-workers at Fiat and Chrysler to go beyond the cliche and the conventional to try new approaches and change perspective each and every day," Marchionne said. "I exhort them not to repeat the same things, the same approaches, and I remind them they are indeed free. The freedom I am talking about is something inside you. It is determined by how open minded you remain, how receptive you are to the new and to the different, to the infinite possibilities that present themselves even if you don't go looking for them or could never have imagined. Being free means that you have the strength not to be conditioned by what others want you to do or by what may seem to be the easiest choice."
Amen to that. You can check out the brief press release on the address below as well as a video of a few highlights from the speech.

Chrysler and Google launch virtual 200 factory tour [w/video]

Google is no stranger to showing off some of the most interesting automotive destinations in the world, like the museums for Lamborghini and Ducati, or even a Tesla showroom. However, it's taking that technology even further with a new, in-depth look of the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant where the Chrysler 200 is made. Unlike these earlier online excursions, the new Chrysler factory tour is a fully guided experience that includes several 360-degree videos explaining many parts of the production process.
"Just as we pioneered a completely new Chrysler 200, we are pioneering a new way for consumers to research a vehicle. The Factory Tour is an opportunity for us to prove to consumers that the all-new 2015 Chrysler 200 is not one ever built before," said Olivier Francois, Chrysler's chief marketing officer, in the company's release.
Chrysler was already pretty proud of its nearly $1 billion in recent updates to the Sterling Heights factory having released a look at the 200's assembly process earlier this year. However, the new Google tour goes far deeper by including 12 videos, and between highlighted stops, viewers can swing the camera all over to get a full view of the action. The whole thing is an intriguing way to show the way a modern car gets built.

Chrysler 200 prototype spied for first time with new body

Chrysler is deep into testing for its next-generation 200 sedan, a new model that is utterly essential to the brand's continued health. The next iteration is tasked with wiping away anything reminiscent of the Sebring, which the current 200 is still based on. According to our spy, this is one of the first of the new 200s to wear a production body rather than the Alfa Romeo Giulietta-based mules that are thick on the ground in Auburn Hills.
Immediately apparent is that the new 200 ditches the awkwardly styled C-pillar that's typified four-door 200 sedans (and Sebrings before them) for years. The new, sleeker roofline is almost more of a four-door coupe than a traditional sedan, which hints that this new car will try to be more fashion-forward than its predecessor. The rear deck is set off by a sporty decklid spoiler, while a set of staggered rectangular exhaust pipes poke out of the bumper.
The front end appears sleeker, and we'd be lying if we didn't spy a bit of Dart through the camouflage, particularly with the headlights. A large, gaping lower air intake is visible, although our spy seems to think it'll shrink before production models debut. Whatever the new 200 ends up looking like, we expect to see a lot more of its styling from Chrysler in the coming years.