1965 Chrysler New Yorker on 2040-cars

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Volkswagen is not cool with a Fiat Chrysler merger

Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller shot down Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne's overtures for a merger in blunt fashion this week. Mueller told Reuters at the Geneva Motor Show, "We are not ready for talks about anything ... we have other problems. I haven't seen Marchionne for months." The unusually candid – and icy – response from one chief executive to another comes after Marchionne similarly pursued General Motors (again) this week. The FCA boss suggested GM might be looking for a new European partner as it prepares to unload its troubled Opel and Vauxhall divisions to PSA. A GM spokesman told USA Today that the company is not interested. Marchionne has been openly suggesting a GM merger since at least 2015, despite GM never reciprocating interest. VW's "other problems," as Mueller notes, include legal proceedings, fines, recalls, and other issues related to its long-running diesel scandal. Marchionne has long sought industry consolidation, arguing that automakers don't get a proper return on their investments in technologies, some of which are relatively similar. He's suggested sharing chassis and powertrain components could be a benefit to the collective auto sector. Skeptics argue FCA, which is smaller than GM, VW, Toyota, and others, needs a partner to survive, while its rivals already have the necessary scale to remain competitive. Related Video:

Huge Canadian sinkhole destroys four-lane road, swallows car

A major thoroughfare in the Canadian capital city of Ottawa was closed after a huge sinkhole opened beneath it. According to the CBC, the sinkhole appeared around mid-morning on Wednesday on Rideau Street near its intersection with Sussex Drive. The sinkhole, which initially formed over an unstable vein of sand, silt, and fractured rock, quickly spread across all four lanes of Rideau Street. A high-pressure natural gas line and a water main were shattered by the road collapse, filling the deep hole with water, gas, and fumes and forcing the evacuation of numerous surrounding buildings. All traffic save for buses and taxis had already been banned from the area due to excavation for a light rail station, but a Chrysler minivan parked along Rideau street fell into the hole as it expanded. Construction workers working in the light rail site evacuated safely once the road began collapsing, and no injuries were reported. Ottawa mayor Jim Watson told The Guardian that there was no sure way to tell how long repairs to Rideau Street would take. "It's a significant sinkhole in the downtown core. It has a major impact on our largest retail shopping center, one of our major hotels as well as one of the busiest intersections and bus routes." This is the second sinkhole to appear in downtown Ottawa in recent years. In 2014, a nearly thirty-foot wide sinkhole caused by excavation for the light rail system opened just a few blocks away from Rideau and Sussex. Watson stated that it is too soon to say whether or not Wednesday's sink hole was related to light rail construction. "We can't confirm whether the tunnel had any impact on the sinkhole or whether it was a water main break or whether it was a leak of some type that destabilized the soil." Watson went on to say that he hoped that city officials would be able to pinpoint the exact cause of the collapse soon. Related Video: News Source: The Guardian, CBC News Auto News Weird Car News Chrysler Minivan/Van sinkhole road

Chrysler recalls 1.2 million Ram pickup trucks

Chrysler has announced that it will issue three separate recalls that will cover as many as 1.2 million Ram pickup trucks for "steering-system tie rods that may have been misaligned during assembly or steering-system service." The vast majority of these trucks were sold in the United States, though some trucks in Mexico, Canada or overseas will be called in, as well.
The largest of the three recalls covers an estimated 842,400 model-year 2003-2008 Ram 2500 and 3500 trucks. Two smaller campaigns will bring 294,000 model-year 2008-2012 Ram 2500 and 3500 pickups, chassis cabs and 2008 Ram 1500 4x4 Mega Cabs; plus 43,500 model-year 2008-2012 Ram 4500 and 5500 4x4 chassis cabs into the dealer to be checked and repaired if necessary.
This is a very large recall, and Chrysler says it is "casting the net wider than necessary to identify those vehicles that require repair." The automaker estimates that "as many as 726,000 may not need repair."