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Marchionne offers belated apology for 'wop engine' comment

Automotive News reports Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has issued a written apology for his comments regarding his decision to stick with an Italian engine for the upcoming Alfa Romeo 4C. As you may recall, back in January, Marchionne was quoted as saying, "I cannot come up with a schlock product, I just won't. I won't put an American engine into that car. With all due respect to my American friends, it has to be a wop engine." The CEO penned an apology to the Italian American ONE VOICE Coalition for using the racial epithet, saying that he made the comment in jest. Marchionne also said he realizes his remarks were unacceptable.
ONE VOICE, an organization aimed at fighting discrimination and stereotyping of Italian Americans, thanked Marchionne, Chrysler and Fiat for the apology. Marchionne is an Italian-born Canadian citizen, and he's gotten in trouble for other comments in the past. In 2011, he called high interest rates Chrysler was paying to the Canadian government "shyster rates." He apologized a day later.

Junkyard Gem: 2006 Chrysler PT Cruiser Route 66 Edition

The world has fallen out of love with the Chrysler PT Cruiser, the small truck (legally speaking, it was a truck by American government definition) that started with off-the-shelf Neon chassis components and added a retro-looking roomy body. In its heyday, though, the PT Cruiser looked cool and different, and sold very well for the better part of its 2000-2010 production run. Chrysler sold some special-edition PT Cruisers, most of which seem to have disappeared without a trace, but I managed to catch this discarded '06 Route 66 Edition in a self-service wrecking yard in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Route 66 Edition came in either black or yellow paint, with yellow brake calipers and these Route 66 badges. PT Cruisers with manual transmission are surprisingly easy to find in junkyards (the manual was significantly cheaper than the automatic), but this is a luxurious two-pedal version. This one had already been hit hard by parts shoppers, who took most of the front body components and a big chunk of the interior. Note the kicky yellow dash trim. The PT Cruiser, being classified as a truck, didn't have to pass the stricter emission-control and crash standards the US federal government applies to cars. That made it a good bargain when it came to capacity-per-dollar for buyers. Eventually, though, the American public tired of the onslaught of faux-retro-styled PT Cruisers (and Chevy HHRs and Volkswagen New Beetles), and now the resulting low resale value of used PT Cruisers sends them to the wrecking yards in record numbers. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Exercise your right foot! Related Video:

Junkyard Gem: 2002 Chrysler PT Cruiser Dream Cruiser Series 1

It has become fashionable to hate the PT Cruiser these days, but Chrysler really hit a home run with the idea of a retro-looking, Neon-based vehicle that — legally speaking — qualified as a light truck according to American regulations and thus didn't need to comply with the costly fuel-economy and crash-safety rules applied to cars. PT Cruisers sold like crazy for the first half of the 2000s and even developed something of a cult followingÂ… but familiarity bred contempt once every parking lot and traffic jam in the country filled up with cute-looking retrowagons. I didn't start seeing many of these cars trucks in junkyards until about a decade ago, at which point the Chrysler section of every yard instantly became about 50% PT Cruisers. Most of the time, I ignore them as car-graveyard background noise, but the rare turbocharged Cruisers or those with manual transmissions can catch my eye, as well as those with weird body kits. The more interesting special-edition PT Cruisers also seem worth documenting as historically significant Junkyard Gems, and here's one of the rarest of all: a Dream Cruiser Series 1, found last summer in Colorado. Inspired by Detroit's Woodward Dream Cruise, the '02 Dream Cruiser Series 1 was the first of many special-edition PT Cruisers (if you're going to collect them all, you'll need to find a Pacific Coast Highway Edition, a Sunset Boulevard Edition, a Woodie Edition, and all the subsequent Dream Cruiser Series cars). All the Series 1 Dream Cruisers came in metallic Inca Gold paint, allegedly inspired by the paint on the 1998 Pronto Cruiser concept car. Chrysler planned to build 7,500 of these cars trucks, but I cannot verify actual production numbers. This is the first I've seen in a self-service wrecking yard, at any rate. The Dream Cruiser Series 1 got leather seats and interesting gold-trimmed interior surfaces. This one looks a bit rough inside, but we can assume it was glorious when new. Resale value on the PT Cruiser has cratered in recent years, so even a runner has little chance of evading the cold steel jaws of the crusher, once it starts to rust. Because every performance upgrade you can do with a Neon can also be done to a PT Cruiser, it would be possible to swap all the relevant mechanical bits from an SRT-4 Neon into a snazzy-looking Dream Cruiser and have the quickest PT Cruiser in your timezone. You should do this. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences.