2003 Chrysler Sebring Lxi Convertible 2-door 2.7l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

FCA's Pentastar V6 gets more power, efficiency for 2016

Already a vital member of FCA's powertrain lineup, the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 is receiving major efficiency improvements for 2016. Thanks to a massive amount of new tech attached to the mill, fuel economy is up six percent, and torque below 3,000 rpm jumps nearly 15 percent. The updates arrive first in the 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee, but they should proliferate to other models eventually. At least in the Grand Cherokee, the tweaks push power up five horsepower to 295 ponies. FCA's engineers went through the Pentastar from top to bottom to eke out as much efficiency as possible. For example, there's now a two-speed variable-valve lift system that can run in low- or high-lift modes. This upgrade is responsible for 2.7-percent better economy, the company claims. A new intake manifold with longer runners and updated variable-valve times also helps boost the torque output. Further improvements come from pushing the compression ratio to 11.3:1, from 10.2:1 before. Perhaps most impressive is that despite all of the innovations, the latest Pentastar actually weighs four pounds less than the current version. Beyond the Pentastar improvements, all of the FCA US gasoline engines, except for the Viper's 8.4-liter V10, will be E15-compatible for 2016. The company says that it wants to be ready for the higher ethanol content fuel's greater use in the near future.

FCA and PSA sign merger agreement

Confirming an earlier rumor, PSA Group and Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) signed a binding merger agreement to create the world's fourth-largest automaker. The partners hope to leverage the benefits of economies of scale as they develop new technologies and expand their global presence. The announcement ends FCA's years-long search for a partner, which nearly ended earlier in 2019 when it came close to merging with Renault, PSA's rival. It brings Fiat, Chrysler, Dodge, Ram, Jeep, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia, Peugeot, Citroen, DS, and Opel/Vauxhall under the same roof. That's a huge portfolio of brands that often overlap, but executives pledged to keep them all open, as well as all their respective factories as a result of the transaction. They're committed to making this big family of automakers work by building on each one's strengths, whether they're technical or regional. FCA and PSA jointly predicted they'll sell about 8.7 million cars annually around the globe, while posting an ˆ11 billion (about $12.2 million) profit. North America, a strong market for FCA, will provide 43% of its revenues, and 46% will be generated in Europe, where Peugeot's brands are doing better than ever. Together, they plan to achieve ˆ3.7 billion (about $4.1 million) in annual run-rate synergies. They'll notably have the purchasing power to negotiate a better price with suppliers, and they'll merge their research and development efforts where it makes sense to do so. Over two thirds of the group's annual volume will be built on two shared platforms. One will underpin about three million small cars annually, and the other will serve as the foundation for approximately three million compact and mid-sized cars. Details about these architectures haven't been made public yet, but a quick look at both companies' product portfolios reveals the small car will very likely come from Peugeot. Recent additions to its range, like the second-generation 208, are built on a new architecture named Common Modular Platform (CMP) developed with electric powertrains in mind. Meanwhile, Fiat is still making the cheeky 500 on an evolution of the platform found under the second-generation Panda released in 2003. The bigger architecture could come from FCA, however. The group's brands will share engines, transmissions, electric powertrains, infotainment systems, various sensors used to power electronic driving aids, and other components like wiring looms, but each one will retain its own identity.

Junkyard Gem: 1964 Plymouth Valiant V-200 Wagon

When Chrysler introduced the Valiant for the 1960 model year, the automotive world had no idea that this new compact would become one of the most successful products in the company's history. Valiants and its A-Body siblings were built and sold by the millions around the world, with production continuing into the early 1980s (in Australia and South America). The sales pinnacle for the Valiant in the U.S. was 1964, and today's Junkyard Gem is one of those cars: an upscale V-200 station wagon, found in a Denver-area wrecking yard a few weeks back. The Valiant began life as its own marque, became a Plymouth for 1961, left Plymouth for 1962, then returned as a Plymouth model until American Valiant production ceased in 1976, and the Volare took its place. You'll barely see any mention of the Plymouth brand in the 1964 Valiant brochure, and Plymouth badging on the '64s was minimal. You could get the 1964 Valiant wagon as the base V-100, starting at $2,273, or as the nicer V-200 with its $2,388 price tag (that's about $21,150 and $22,220 in 2022 dollars). Valiant coupes and convertibles could be had with the even swankier (by cheap small-car standards) Signet trim level. As Ford showed us in the middle 2000s, numbers are just classier if you spell them out on emblems. In the middle 1960s, substituting an automatic for the base three-on-the-tree column-shift manual transmission jacked up the price of an affordable car by an eye-watering amount. The Torqueflite three-speed automatic and its slick-looking push-button shifter cost 172 bucks extra (around $1,600 today), which made the car more than 7% costlier. A four-on-the-floor manual was available for the first time in a new Valiant that year, but it cost $180. Also new for the 1964 Valiant was a V8 option (a 273-cubic-incher rated at 180 horsepower), but this car has the good old Slant-6. If it's the engine that came with the car when it rolled off the assembly line, it's a 101-horse example with 170 cubic inches… but these cars are notorious for getting engine swaps early and often and I didn't check the block casting numbers. The cassette deck tells us that it was being driven as recently as the late 1980s through middle 1990s. There's some rust in the usual spots, about what this car would have acquired by 1967 if it had stayed in Michigan. This car could have been restored, though the expense for rust repair and interior refurbishment wouldn't have been a good investment from a financial standpoint.