2004 Chrysler Sebring Lx Convertible 2-door 2.4l on 2040-cars

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Takata airbag deaths prompt Stellantis to warn owners to park 275,000 cars

Two additional deaths linked to exploding Takata airbags have prompted Stellantis to issue a do-not-drive order for the 2005-2010 Dodge Charger, Magnum and Challenger, along with the Chrysler 300. The company is warning any customers who have not yet had their vehicles inspected in accordance with previous recall campaigns to park their cars until they are able to do so. This order covers more than 275,000 vehicles on the road.  No new recall has been initiated to address the faulty airbags as all of the vehicles in question are within the original population of the massive 2015 campaigns carried out by virtually every major automaker after industry supplier Takata's airbag inflators were identified as the cause of several fatalities when moisture caused them to explode rather than deploy normally in a collision.  "FCA is and has been engaged in aggressive outreach to encourage vehicle owners and custodians affected by Takata recalls to obtain service," the company's statement said. "To date, through various initiatives, the company has generated nearly 210 million standard and first-class letters, courier deliveries, e-mails, text messages, while also making phone calls and home visits." Stellantis insists that its dealers have more than enough replacement inflator inventory to cover all outstanding vehicles on the road and is encouraging owners to schedule their service as quickly as possible; the company says the replacement procedure for a defective airbag inflator normally takes less than an hour. All safety recalls are performed free-of-charge for customers.  Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Car Recalled? This Is What You Should Do

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.

Stellantis wants to sell its Auburn Hills HQ and lease space in it

Ford Motor Company's global headquarters is the Henry Ford II World Center — or Ford World Headquarters, or Glass House — located in Dearborn, Michigan and completed in 1956. GM's global headquarters is 12 miles away in Detroit, Michigan, a set of seven connected towers completed between 1977 and 1981 and known as the Renaissance Center, or RenCen. Stellantis' global HQ is in a small town in The Netherlands called Hoofddorp. But home base for its U.S. outpost is about 30 miles north of the RenCen at the Chrysler World Headquarters and Technology Center, or CTC, in Auburn Hills, MI. The Detroit News reports that Stellantis might use the CTC like a giant Airbnb, selling the building and leasing back only the space it needs. This isn't a new consideration, Stellantis has been looking at options for the 500-acre campus and 15-story, 5.4-million-square-foot main building since at least early 2022, when the Detroit Free Press wrote about it. At that time, one of Covid's effects was to deepen the discussion about remote work as companies pushed to reopen offices and a fair number of employees made it clear they didn't want to resume their commutes. A company spokesperson told Freep, "As part of our companyÂ’s evolution to a more flexible work environment, called the New Era of Agility, we are currently evaluating how we work to enable our teams to be their most innovative, creative and efficient. That analysis includes potential adjustments to our real estate portfolio." As characterized by Freep based on information from an anonymous source, "The company is considering what the right 'footprint' will be going forward and whether it needs to maintain so much space." Before the Freep piece ran, the automaker had already ceded one leased building near HQ and moved those workers into the main complex. And agility might still be necessary since it's tough to tell where remote work trends are going to go. Fortune just reported that "Fewer than 26% of US households still have someone working remotely at least one day a week, a sharp decline from the early-2021 peak of 37%, according to the two latest Census Bureau Household Pulse Surveys.