1992 Jeep Cherokee Limited 4-door - 4.0l 4x4 - "arizona Truck" - No Reserve on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Fiat-Chrysler shows its SEMA lineup

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles already previewed its 2014 SEMA show lineup with some slick renders. Now, the automaker has finally showed us the actual cars, and among the group there are definitely some that stand out more than others.
Dodge is really showing off its muscle at this year's show with four concepts that all pump up the power of the brand's models. Perhaps most interesting among them is the Challenger T/A Concept (pictured above) in striking Sublime Green and matte black. It's meant to resemble the classic Trans Am racer from the '70s. Under the hood is a 6.4-liter V8, and to fit the vintage style there's a pistol-grip gearshift inside.
The Charger R/T also gets some attention with the Mopar concept that shows off what FCA's aftermarket performance arm can do. Mods include an updated body kit, cold-air intake for the 5.7-liter V8 and a coil-over suspension kit. Beyond that, the Dart R/T Concept looks a lot meaner with a black hood with duct work that leads straight to the air intake. The rest of the compact sedan is dolled up in O-So-Orange paint and is fitted with upgrades to improve handling like a coil-over suspension and big brake kit from the Mopar catalog.

Feds chastise Marchionne over Jeep recall, only 13% repaired so far

Following the significant outcry surrounding the General Motors and Takata airbag safety crises this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration seems to be taking a much more aggressive role in pushing owners to repair their recalled vehicles. In the agency's latest move, it's urging Jeep drivers to get their models fixed. Acting NHTSA administrator David Friedman even sent a letter to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne pressing him to get more of the SUVs fixed. The problem goes back to the recall of the 2002-2007 Liberty and 1993-1998 Grand Cherokee because of the possibility for the fuel tank to rupture in some rear crashes. The campaign affected over 1.5 million vehicles, but Chrysler initially refused NHTSA's request for a repair campaign. The automaker eventually came up with a fix that involved adding a trailer hitch to provide extra protection to the tank. The feds believe the danger "will be reduced by the remedy now offered by Chrysler," according to the statement. However, this latest push comes out of NHTSA's concern that only three percent of the affected vehicles are repaired, although Chrysler maintains some 13.4 percent have actually been fixed. The agency is asking the automaker to reach out to owners "proactively," and get them to bring the Jeeps in dealers. According to the the feds' statement, the company "has nearly 400,000 parts available" to perform the fixes, and it's still producing more. Friedman's letter to Marchionne goes even further, alleging NHTSA has received reports that dealers are turning customers away who request the recall. He asks the CEO to prove within 15 days that these claims are false. "Given the low rates of repair that Chrysler has reported more than a year after the recall, significantly more aggressive steps are required," says a portion of the note. According to The Detroit News, Chrysler has subsequently promised to speed up the recall work, vowing that all dealers will have at least 12 repair kits in stock by Monday. Further, it has announced plans to ramp up its notification campaign with Facebook ads and public service announcements. Scroll down to read NHTSA's full statement on the matter, and Friedman's letter to Marchionne can be read in PDF format, here.

Jeep dealers worried Grand Wagoneer could be too much, too late

On January 10, 2011, an Automotive News article quoted Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne saying, "It's time we gave the market an upper-scale Grand Wagoneer." Like Babe Ruth pointing a finger at the far stands, Marchionne next predicted our date with historical destiny: "You'll see it in January 2013." Had that happened, the Grand Wagoneer would been a grand slam. Seven years later, with various economic factors in flux and still with no Grand Wagoneer in sight, it seems some Fiat Chrysler dealers are worried the luxury three-row Jeep could appear after the SUV game is over or, at the very least, much harder to play. What got in the way of the Grand Wagoneer? Shifting plans for and the need to pour money into Alfa Romeo. The debate about what kind of vehicle the Wagoneer should be — a unibody Range Rover rival, or a body-on-frame Chevrolet Suburban foe. After that, what should the thing look like? And then there's Fiat Chrysler's North American manufacturing capacity, which can't shoehorn space for Grand Wagoneer production at the same time as it needs lines running for two Ram 1500 model years. That last point is what could push Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer arrival to 2021. Outside the company, at least one Bank of America Merill Lynch analyst believes that economic forces such as a shrinking car market, more competition, higher interest rates on more expensive cars, lower used car prices, and higher gas prices will soon bring an end to the "Goldilocks" phase of crossover mania. He isn't alone, with an IHS analyst saying the same thing three years ago, another IHS analyst diving deeper into the declining numbers two years ago, and three other analysts breaking down depressed used car prices. Fuel prices are anyone's guess, but those other pressures could squeeze retailers trying to sell high-end metal. No one expects the Grand Wagoneer to fail, yet dealers don't expect the vehicle to practically sell itself. One dealer told AN, "We could have killed with [the Grand Wagoneer] if it had been available when they first told us about it, but it's a much tougher sell with interest rates and gas prices going up." Another dealer, perhaps more sanguine, said, "The Grand Wagoneer will still sell because it's a Jeep. But it would have been nice to have them already." "Nice" is an understatement. One dealership was so excited about getting the new big Jeep that it wrote a blog post in 2015 announcing the Grand Wagoneer's arrival in 2018.