2004 Chrysler Sebring Touring Sedan 4-door 2.7l on 2040-cars

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Final Toledo Jeep decision may have nothing to do with city's efforts

Toledo, OH is doing all that it can to keep production of the Jeep Wrangler in its boundaries, but the biggest issue facing the plant may be insurmountable, no matter how desperately the city wants to keep the Wrangler local. The Wrangler is built in a rather interesting manner at the Toledo Supplier Park: Fiat Chrysler only handles the very final assembly of each vehicle, while two other companies, Kuka, a German firm, and Hyundai-Mobis, a member of the sprawling Hyundai empire, produce the body and chassis, respectively. The vehicles are then transferred over to the FCA part of the park, where they're painted and completed. This was, as The Detroit News explains, a convenient arrangement back in 2006 when the supplier park opened. Chrysler, which was still owned by Daimler at the time, arranged for Kuka and Mobis to handle production, saving it a huge sum of money. Both suppliers own their own machinery and buildings and employ their own workers. Now that FCA is a relatively healthy entity, though, there's not a lot of need to be sharing profits with two other companies. "What [FCA boss Sergio Marchionne] would like is to have the advantages of high-capacity utilization, owning that capacity and taking advantage of that for himself versus having a supplier doing some of the things his competitors do internally," David Cole, chairman emeritus at the Ann Arbor, MI-based Center for Automotive Research, told The News. "It really adds another level of complexity to the situation." While Sergio Marchionne is a man that generally gets what he wants, it seems unlikely that either Mobis or Kuka would give up their role quietly. According to Jon Zapf, Mobis North America's chairperson for UAW Local 12, the company "definitely wants to maintain their part of this production process." According to The News, Jeep is likely to announce the location of next-generation Wrangler production in June. Expect to hear much more on this one in the coming months.

Rising aluminum costs cut into Ford's profit

When Ford reports fourth-quarter results on Wednesday afternoon, it is expected to fret that rising metals costs have cut into profits, even as rivals say they have the problem under control. Aluminum prices have risen 20 percent in the last year and nearly 11 percent since Dec. 11. Steel prices have risen just over 9 percent in the last year. Ford uses more aluminum in its vehicles than its rivals. Aluminum is lighter but far more expensive than steel, closing at $2,229 per tonne on Tuesday. U.S. steel futures closed at $677 per ton (0.91 metric tonnes). Republican U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is weighing whether to impose tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, which could push prices even higher. Ford gave a disappointing earnings estimate for 2017 and 2018 last week, saying the higher costs for steel, aluminum and other metals, as well as currency volatility, could cost the company $1.6 billion in 2018. Ford shares took a dive after the announcement. Ford Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks told analysts at a conference in Detroit last week that while the company benefited from low commodity prices in 2016, rising steel prices were now the main cause of higher costs, followed by aluminum. Shanks said the automaker at times relies on foreign currencies as a "natural hedge" for some commodities but those are now going in the opposite direction, so they are not working. A Ford spokesman added that the automaker also uses a mix of contracts, hedges and indexed buying. Industry analysts point to the spike in aluminum versus steel prices as a plausible reason for Ford's problems, especially since it uses far more of the expensive metal than other major automakers. "When you look at Ford in the context of the other automakers, aluminum drives a lot of their volume and I think that is the cause" of their rising costs, said Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting at auto consultancy LMC Automotive. Other major automakers say rising commodity costs are not much of a problem. At last week's Detroit auto show, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne reiterated its earnings guidance for 2018 and held forth on a number of topics, but did not mention metals prices. General Motors Co gave a well-received profit outlook last week and did not mention the subject. "We view changes in raw material costs as something that is manageable," a GM spokesman said in an email.

2023 Chrysler 300 gets one new option, otherwise unchanged

Chrysler dropped the goss on the 2023 Chrysler 300 sedan, a bit of whispering that took barely half a minute to read. There is one change coming to next year's 300: The entry-level Touring trim gains the option of the SafeyTec Plus Group. That bundle of features includes advanced brake assist, rain-sensing windshield wipers, LaneSense Lane Departure Warning with Lane Keep Assist, ParkSense front and rear park assist, auto high-beam headlamp control, Full-speed Forward Collision Warning with Active Braking, adaptive cruise control (ACC) with stop, an Alpine audio system with six speakers and a 276-watt amplifier, and an 80-amp alternator. The package costs $2,495 on the next model up, the Touring L, which is probably close to what Chrysler will charge on the Touring. The other new news is a special edition inbound for next year, but the automaker hasn't divulged anything about it. Mopar Insiders says Chrysler will hold a special event at the Detroit Auto Show next week, perhaps we'll find out more then. For a car old enough to have transported Walter P. Chrysler to work and gets effectively zero support in a dying segment, the 300 still looks and performs well and sells adequately. Whereas the Dodge Charger has averaged about 78,000 sales in each of the past two years in the U.S., the 300 had averaged about 17,000 sales in each of the past two years. We'd love to see Chrysler do something — anything — with it before the rumored electric successor arrives. The brand has a huge revamp in the works, though, so we'd also understand Chrysler leaving the old girl in a corner to do her best. Prices haven't been announced yet. We'd expect nominal increases over the current range, which starts at $35,140 for the entry-level rear-wheel-drive Touring and tops out at $46,945 for the 300S with the Hemi V8 before incentives. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.