2004 Chrysler Crossfire, Blaze Red, 6-speed Coupe, 7860 Miles, As New, 04-08 on 2040-cars

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Feds investigating FCA sales fraud focusing on strange code word

The US government is currently investigating Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) over the possibility of sales fraud, and according to The Wall Street Journal, the investigation has revealed a strange phrase about a nonexistent "unnatural acts department." People knowledgeable about the term told The Wall Street Journal that this phrase was a "rallying cry." Basically, if it looked like the company, region, or dealer wasn't going to hit sales targets, this was a sign that some outside-the-box sales solutions were needed. People told the news outlet those solutions could include selling cars at a loss or having the dealer buy a fleet of customer test-drive cars. However, this could also be evidence of some less savory ways to boost sales. In addition to the investigation, the company is already facing at least one lawsuit from a dealer group that alleges it would bribe dealers to pad monthly sales figures. FCA had an incentive to maintain sales numbers as well, considering that it was claiming a long streak of increasing sales. Under scrutiny recently, the company changed its sales reporting practices and numbers for previous years. Under the old reporting methods, it was possible for dealers to sell cars, report the sales, and then cancel or "unwind" the sales later. This wouldn't count as a lost sale, but the car also couldn't be recorded as another sale later. As a result, an unscrupulous dealer could have hypothetically used it to "sell" a car one month and "unwind" it the next. If FCA knew about this, it's also possible the company could have pushed dealers to use the system for false sales, something the Feds theorize may be related to the "unnatural acts department" phrase. It's still entirely possible this "unnatural acts department" was just a corporate term for thinking of creative ways to meet sales goals. And selling cars at a loss is definitely unnatural for businesses that are trying to make money. Whatever the phrase truly meant to dealers, it certainly is bizarre. Related Video: News Source: The Wall Street JournalImage Credit: GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP/Getty Images Government/Legal Chrysler Fiat FCA fiat chrysler automobiles fca us investigation

Chrysler Airflow EV concept gets new duds for New York

Chrysler's Airflow electric crossover returned to the stage in New York Wednesday in a new exterior finish as Chrysler's development engineers creep closer and closer to their goal of taking the brand all-electric by 2028. The brand's first electric vehicle is due by 2025, and some variant of this definitely-not-a-revived-Celine-Dion-era-Pacifica-crossover thing is likely to be it.  This version of the Airflow is dubbed "Graphite" and is the iteration Chrysler teased ahead of the show, but as we expected, not much of substance has really changed. Perhaps that's because this concept isn't yet particularly substantial. That's the beauty of an EV; once you have the basic design nailed down, the rest is really just an elaborate Lego project. Chrysler's builders are evidently still hard at work putting together a final product that lives up to the initial hype and range target of 400 miles on a charge.  In the meantime, the design team has been tweaking the looks. As we saw in the teaser, the updated Airflow gets a new grille design with a thin light bar at the Airflow's nose and acute beneath flanking the headlights forming a symmetrical pair of lightning bolts (gee, d'ya suppose it's electric?) aimed at the car's nose. The lower fascia appears a bit more sharply defined too, but it could just be the lighting.  The updates to the exterior are repeated inside on the wheel and dash, which have also had their colors inverted from the concept we saw at CES. Some of the interior details have also been tightened up from what we can see here. The selector dial on the center console appears to be more compact, as does the primary infotainment screen (though again, that could be a trick of the "photography"). The secondary display beneath the main infotainment screen has also been eliminated. We're guessing those controls have either been integrated into the main screen or as touch-sensitive elements hidden in the glossy plastic where the screen once was. The same was done to the steering wheel controls, it seems.

Junkyard Gem: 2002 Chrysler PT Cruiser Dream Cruiser Series 1

It has become fashionable to hate the PT Cruiser these days, but Chrysler really hit a home run with the idea of a retro-looking, Neon-based vehicle that — legally speaking — qualified as a light truck according to American regulations and thus didn't need to comply with the costly fuel-economy and crash-safety rules applied to cars. PT Cruisers sold like crazy for the first half of the 2000s and even developed something of a cult followingÂ… but familiarity bred contempt once every parking lot and traffic jam in the country filled up with cute-looking retrowagons. I didn't start seeing many of these cars trucks in junkyards until about a decade ago, at which point the Chrysler section of every yard instantly became about 50% PT Cruisers. Most of the time, I ignore them as car-graveyard background noise, but the rare turbocharged Cruisers or those with manual transmissions can catch my eye, as well as those with weird body kits. The more interesting special-edition PT Cruisers also seem worth documenting as historically significant Junkyard Gems, and here's one of the rarest of all: a Dream Cruiser Series 1, found last summer in Colorado. Inspired by Detroit's Woodward Dream Cruise, the '02 Dream Cruiser Series 1 was the first of many special-edition PT Cruisers (if you're going to collect them all, you'll need to find a Pacific Coast Highway Edition, a Sunset Boulevard Edition, a Woodie Edition, and all the subsequent Dream Cruiser Series cars). All the Series 1 Dream Cruisers came in metallic Inca Gold paint, allegedly inspired by the paint on the 1998 Pronto Cruiser concept car. Chrysler planned to build 7,500 of these cars trucks, but I cannot verify actual production numbers. This is the first I've seen in a self-service wrecking yard, at any rate. The Dream Cruiser Series 1 got leather seats and interesting gold-trimmed interior surfaces. This one looks a bit rough inside, but we can assume it was glorious when new. Resale value on the PT Cruiser has cratered in recent years, so even a runner has little chance of evading the cold steel jaws of the crusher, once it starts to rust. Because every performance upgrade you can do with a Neon can also be done to a PT Cruiser, it would be possible to swap all the relevant mechanical bits from an SRT-4 Neon into a snazzy-looking Dream Cruiser and have the quickest PT Cruiser in your timezone. You should do this. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences.