2005 Chrysler Town & Country Touring Handicap Van Wheelchair Van No Reserve on 2040-cars

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Question of the Day: Ever consider driving a minivan?

Since I'm supposed to know something about cars, it happens all the time: friends and relatives ask me advice about what kind of vehicle they should get. Very often, the only type of vehicle that can check every item on their wish list (e.g., hauls lots of people and stuff, gets good fuel economy, has great crash-test ratings, can take four Great Danes camping, and so on) is a modern minivan... and, of course, nobody wants to hear this. I'm not a minivan person, they will wail, and so they end up with a cramped, fuel-swilling SUV or a not-so-space-efficient minivan-in-disguise CUV. So, is it worth becoming one of those minivan people in order to get the incredible usefulness of these masterpieces of vehicle engineering, or do you hold your head high and drive something that doesn't quite meet your needs? Related Video: Auto News Design/Style Chrysler Honda Toyota Minivan/Van question of the day questions

Junkyard Gem: 1982 Chrysler LeBaron Convertible

Things looked very grim at Chrysler during the late 1970s, as Oil Crisis-shocked car shoppers avoided buying thirsty land yachts and ancient-technology compacts in droves. The Carter administration grudgingly bailed out the company with loan guarantees in 1979 (leaving "small enough to fail" American Motors to seek help from the French government) and Chrysler needed a huge sales hit in a big hurry. Under the leadership of Lee Iacocca (freshly canned by Henry Ford II), Chrysler developed the modern, front-wheel-drive K Cars and the company was saved. The very first K Cars hit the road for the 1981 model year, and I'm always on the lookout for those historic early Ks when I'm searching for interesting bits of automotive history in junkyards. The '81 and '82s have become nearly impossible to find, but this once-plush LeBaron convertible appeared in a Northern California yard last month. While a bafflingly complex family tree of K-derived vehicles grew up in Chrysler showrooms through 1995 (including the hot-selling Caravan/Voyager/Town and Country minivans), the only "true" US-market K-Cars are the Dodge Aries, Dodge 400/600 coupe, Plymouth Reliant and Chrysler LeBaron. 1982 was the first model year for the K LeBaron and this car was built in March of that year, so we're looking at one of the very early successors to the Dodge Diplomat-based LeBarons of the 1970s. Chrysler developed a homegrown 2.2-liter, overhead-cam straight-four engine that proved very successful, and a 94-horsepower version of that engine was the base powerplant for the 1982 LeBaron. This car appears to have just about every option available that year, so of course the original buyer went for the 2.6-liter Mitsubishi Astron straight-four. With hemispherical combustion chambers, the 2.6 could be called a Hemi (a few Ks even got "2.6 HEMI" badging); horsepower came to just 93 in 1982, but the 132 pound-feet of torque beat out the 117 lb-ft of the Chrysler 2.2 that year. Silver-faced gauges and complicated radio controls were all the rage during the Late Malaise Era, and this car has both. Note the Chronometer next to the HVAC controls, a digital design with green vacuum-fluorescent display lifted from the previous-generation rear-wheel-drive LeBaron. The non-cloth bits of the convertible-top mechanism look decent enough, so perhaps some junkyard-shopping LeBaron owner will rescue them.

FCA posts $716m profit in 2014, has big plans for 2015

In practically every metric, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced growing worldwide earnings for 2014 in its latest financial release. The automaker sold 4.608 million vehicles globally for the year, a 6-percent jump, and total revenue grew 11 percent to 96.090 billion euros ($109 billion). Profits before taxes also increased by 161 million euros ($182 million) from last year to 1.176 billion euros ($1.3 billion). However, net profits did tumble by 1.319 billion euros ($1.5 billion) to a total of 632 million euros ($716 million). These figures put FCA slightly ahead of what some analysts expected. According to Automotive News, the company's adjusted earnings before taxes and interest of 3.651 billion euros ($4.1 billion) beat a forecast figure of 3.4 billion euros ($3.9 billion). Regionally, Europe is showing signs of a comeback. FCA lost 109 million euros ($123 million) there in 2014, but that was almost a triumph compared to the 506 million euro ($573 million) loss in 2013. According to Automotive News, North America played a major role in the company's success, accounting for 55 percent of its revenue. While these annual figures show growth, FCA is even more optimistic about its prospects in 2015. The company is forecasting shipments of between 4.8 and 5 million vehicles worldwide next year. It also estimates earnings before interest and taxes to reach 4.1 billion and 4.5 billion euros ($4.6 billion – $5.1 billion). You can read FCA's full results in PDF format, here. While this release focuses on worldwide figures, FCA US, previously known as Chrysler Group, announces its US results on February 3. News Source: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Automotive News - sub. req. Earnings/Financials Chrysler Fiat FCA fiat chrysler automobiles