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Zombie cars: Discontinued vehicles that aren't dead yet

Car models come and go, but as revealed by monthly sales data, once a car is discontinued, it doesn't just disappear instantly. And in the case of some models, vanishing into obscurity can be a slow, tedious process. That's the case with the 12 cars we have here. All of them have been discontinued, but car companies keep racking up "new" sales with them. There are actually more discontinued cars that are still registering new sales than what we decided to include here. We kept this list to the oldest or otherwise most interesting vehicles still being sold as new, including a supercar. We'll run the list in alphabetical order, starting with *drumroll* ... BMW 6 Series: 55 total sales BMW quietly removed the 6 Series from the U.S. market during the 2019 model year. It had been available in three configurations, a hardtop coupe, a convertible and a sleek four-door coupe-like shape.   BMW i8: 18 total sales We've always had a soft spot for the BMW i8, despite the fact that it never quite fit into a particular category. It was sporty, but nowhere near as fast as similarly-priced competitors. It looked very high-tech and boasted a unique carbon fiber chassis design and a plug-in hybrid powertrain, but wasn't really designed for maximum efficiency or maximum performance. Still, the in-betweener was very cool to look at and drive, and 18 buyers took one home over the course of 2021.   Chevy Impala: 750 total sales The Impala represented classic American tastes at a time when American tastes were shifting away from soft-riding sedans with big interior room and trunk space and into higher-riding crossovers. A total of 750 sales were inked last year.   Chrysler 200: 15 total sales The Chrysler 200 was actually a pretty nice sedan, with good looks and decent driving dynamics let down by a lack of roominess, particularly in the back seat. Of course, as we said regarding the Chevy Impala, the number of Americans in the market for sedans is rapidly winding down, and other automakers are following Chrysler's footsteps in canceling their slow-selling four-doors. Even if Chrysler never really found its footing in the ultra-competitive midsize sedan segment, apparently dealerships have a few leftover 2017 200s floating around. And for some reason, 15 buyers decided to sign the dotted line to take one of these aging sedans home last year.

Updated 2021 Chrysler Pacifica enters production

The updated 2021 Chrysler Pacifica entered production in Windsor, Ontario, this week, bringing with it the option of all-wheel drive to a Chrysler-branded minivan for the first time since 2004. While Chrysler, or whatever corporate name it was going by at the time, has offered all-wheel drive on minivans in the intervening years, the 2021 Pacifica offers it in combinations not previously available, most notably pairing it with the company's coveted Stow n' Go folding second-row seats. Offering both of these on the same model required re-engineering the Pacifica's exhaust and fuel system to allow room for the Stow ‘nÂ’ Go seats to fold away into the floor. The 2021 Pacifica's interior has some other noteworthy additions, such as a now-standard 10.1-inch infotainment display powered by the fifth generation of the company's Uconnect operating system. The latest infotainment suite includes upgrades to Amazon Alexa integration along with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The optional FamCam helps you keep an eye on passengers in the rear seats (joining the Honda Odyssey in offering such a feature).  "FCA invented the minivan segment, and the new-for-2021 Chrysler Pacifica continues to drive our leadership and innovation," said FCA's Tim Kuniskis. "Whether itÂ’s all-weather driving capability with Stow ‘n Go seating or more than 80 MPGe and no range anxiety with the only plug-in hybrid minivan in the segment, the new Chrysler Pacifica gives families what they want and options that best fit their busy lives." New for 2021, all-wheel drive is a long-awaited $2,995 option that brings the Touring's price up to $39,535, while selecting the hybrid model bumps that figure to $41,490. Interestingly, the Touring and Touring L models are the only front-wheel drive, non-electrified variants of the Pacifica. Called Limited and Pinnacle, respectively, the next two are only available with one or the other, and they're priced accordingly. The top-of-the-line all-wheel drive Pinnacle is priced in luxury car territory at $54,885, while the hybrid starts at $52,340.  It's worth mentioning the positioning of the all-wheel drive and hybrid models is reversed as buyers move up in the trim hierarchy. Shop for a Touring L, and you'll pay $1,155 more for a hybrid van than for one equipped with all-wheel drive. Step up to the Pinnacle model, and all-wheel drive costs $2,545 more than the hybrid system.

FCA is setting a five-year strategy: Here's how the last one played out

We're slightly more than four years removed from Sergio Marchionne last five-year plan for FCA, a tell-all where the Italian-American automaker divulged its plans for the 2014 through 2018 model years. It was a grand affair, where Sergio told FCA investors that all was right in Auburn Hills, Alfa Romeo and Maserati were making comebacks, and the fifth-gen Dodge Viper received a mid-cycle refresh. You can read every last one of those past predictions right here. We're on our way to Europe to see Sergio's sequel, coming out Friday straight from FCA's Italian headquarters. (Bloomberg reports a plan to expand Jeep and Ram globally, combine Alfa Romeo and Maserati into a single division for an eventual spinoff, and downsizing Fiat and Chrysler. Also, EVs.) But before we arrive in Italy and find out exactly what Marchionne has planned for 2019 through 2023 as his last act as CEO, let's take a minute to tally up the results of his last term based on the same scoresheet we used in 2014. Now, we're only five months into 2018, so much of this — including vehicles like the Ram HD and Jeep Grand Wagoneer — could still debut this year. For those, we'll mark things TBD. We're not going to draw any conclusions or make any objectionable remarks. We're simply going to let the stats speak for themselves.