1999 Chrysler Town & Country Limited Minivan 7 Passenger Van on 2040-cars

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Chrysler Voyager minivan goes fleet-only for 2022

Private motorists will not be able to buy a new Chrysler Voyager in the 2022 model year; the minivan is now a fleet-only model. The cheaper alternative to the Pacifica loses most of its trim levels, but it gains a longer list of standard features during the transition. Fleet buyers take on many shapes and forms, but in minivan-speak the term usually denotes rental car companies. Chrysler simplified buying by paring down the lineup from three to one trim. Called LX, it gains a 7.0-inch touchscreen that runs the Uconnect 5 infotainment system, second-row Stow 'n Go seats, power-operated sliding doors, heated front seats, and a heated steering wheel; that's not bad for something you're picking up at the airport to spend a weekend in. There's also a new air filtration system shared with the Pacifica.   Related: Least expensive vehicles to insure in America   The list of options now includes a package called Safety and Premium Group that bundles a blind-spot monitoring system, rear parking sensors, rear cross-path detection, full-speed forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, and a 10.1-inch touchscreen with navigation. However, upmarket features like leather upholstery and a 19-speaker Harman-Kardon surround-sound system are not offered. Chrysler is not making mechanical changes, so power for the Voyager comes from a 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 rated at 287 horsepower and 262 pound-feet of torque. It spins the front wheels via a nine-speed automatic transmission. All-wheel drive is not available; only the Pacifica can get its power sent to four wheels. Similarly, there are no visual changes to report. The Voyager still looks like a pre-facelift Pacifica. Pricing information for the 2022 Voyager will be announced closer to its on-sale date. At launch, buyers will have five colors called Silver Mist, Brilliant Black, Bright White, Granite Crystal, and Velvet Red, respectively. The former (shown in the gallery) is new for 2022. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. How to use the Stow 'N Go seats on the 2021 Chrysler Pacifica

How GM ended up suing its crosstown rival Fiat Chrysler

DETROIT — Automakers sue each other on occasion, but no one in Detroit can remember one accusing another of bribing union officials to get an unfair labor cost advantage. Yet thatÂ’s what happened Wednesday when General Motors filed a federal racketeering lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. ItÂ’s based on a widening federal investigation into corruption involving officials of the United Auto Workers union, and shortly after the lawsuit was filed, the unionÂ’s president Gary Jones stepped down. The 95-page complaint could affect ongoing contract talks between the union and Fiat Chrysler, the lone automaker of DetroitÂ’s big three thatÂ’s still in negotiations. It also could cause jitters with French automaker PSA Peugeot, which has reached an agreement to merge with the Italian-American automaker. Here are some questions and answers about the lawsuit and its impact: Why did GM sue? GM alleges that Fiat Chrysler senior executives, including now-deceased CEO Sergio Marchionne, paid $1.5 million in bribes to UAW officials for nearly a decade and corrupted the bargaining process with the union in the 2009, 2011 and 2015 contracts to gain advantages over General Motors. The lawsuit says that because of the bribes, which were funneled through a joint UAW-Fiat Chrysler training center, the union allowed Fiat Chrysler to use more lower-paid temporary workers. Also, FCA in 2015 did not have to limit the number of newly hired workers who make less and get lower-cost benefits than older workers hired before 2007. GM contends it couldnÂ’t negotiate similar union concessions that FCA was able to get through bribery. GM could only hire a limited number of temporary and lower-paid new workers, called “second tier” workers, which unfairly increased its labor costs by billions of dollars. It alleges the higher labor costs had another purpose — to force GM into a merger with FCA that Marchionne wanted. GM did wind up with higher labor costs, which until the lawsuit had not been linked to the federal corruption probe. Before contract talks with all three automakers began last summer, the Center for Automotive Research, an industry think tank, determined Fiat ChryslerÂ’s total hourly labor costs including wages and benefits were about $55 per hour, $8 less per hour than GM and $6 lower than Ford. At a Wall Street conference in New York on Thursday, GM CEO Mary Barra said her company can compete on a level playing field.

Is Chrysler's 'America's Import' campaign outdated or offensive? [w/poll]

Chrysler launched its America's Import campaign with a splashy ad during the Super Bowl starring Bob Dylan and featuring a whole bunch of patriotic imagery that included Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, factory employees and, of course, the city of Detroit. Since then, the brand has followed the original spot with even more ads using the same tagline. Not everyone is pleased, it seems, including The Detroit Free Press auto critic Mark Phelan, who's fed up with the marketing. In an editorial for the newspaper, Phelan claims that it's insulting to the US auto industry and its workers.
"The phrase 'America's import,' with its suggestion that 'import' equals 'better,' feels terribly dated, a relic of the 1980s. It's the rhetorical equivalent of hanging a pastel-hued 'Miami Vice' poster on your office wall," writes Phelan in the piece. Also, since some of the brand's cars are made in Canada, the line isn't even entirely true, he claims. Phelan goes on to praise the company's earlier Imported from Detroit commercials for getting the right message across and showing pride in the city.
While "America's Import" might be the tagline for Chrysler's ads, it's not the whole message. Subsequent ads keep the hard-working, patriotic imagery from the original Super Bowl spot but put a bigger emphasis on the Chrysler 200 that the commercials are meant to sell.