2010 Chrysler Town & Country Lx on 2040-cars

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Five automakers now being investigated by NHTSA for airbag woes

It appears that Toyota's renotification to owners of recalled vehicles from last year is just the tip of the iceberg for what could potentially be a much larger industry-wide recall. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is opening a preliminary evaluation investigation into roughly 1.1 million vehicles from Chrysler, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Toyota and parts supplier Takata regarding faulty airbag inflators in several models.
NHTSA has received six reports - three directly, two from Takata and one from Toyota - of vehicles with ruptured airbag inflators from 2002-2006, which resulted in three injuries. So far, all six incidents have occurred in high humidity areas like Florida and Puerto Rico. According to Toyota's latest recall announcement, the inflators may have an improper propellant that could cause it to rupture in a crash and the bag to deploy abnormally.
This new investigation follows a previous recall from April 2013 of about 3.4 million vehicles worldwide for the airbag inflators from Takata. As Autoblog reported, Toyota jumpstarted the new situation when it found that the original list of serial numbers for the faulty part was incomplete and discovered more cars in need of replacement. Honda and Nissan told us that they were investigating whether further models would need called in again as well. Mazda told Autoblog: "Regarding the current Takata situation, we're working closely with NHTSA and investigating the situation, but nothing else to report at this time." Chrysler Group responded to us with the statement: "Chrysler Group engineers are conducting the appropriate analysis. The Company will cooperate fully with the National Highway Traffic Administration."

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles recalls nearly 750k vehicles in two campaigns

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is recalling a total of 747,817 vehicles in the US in two separate campaigns recently added to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration database.
The first one covers about 434,581 units of the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, Challenger, Durango, and Jeep Grand Cherokee from the 2011-2014 model years with electric hydraulic power steering, the 3.6-liter V6 engine and a 160 amp alternator, according to FCA. In the affected vehicles, it's possible for the alternator to fail without warning and possibly cause the car to stall. According to the documentation submitted to NHTSA, the automaker began investigating the problem in August 2014 and has found possible evidence of one crash caused by the failures but no known injuries.
Customers will begin receiving notification about the recall next month, and obviously the repairs will be done at no cost to them.

FCA CEO Manley says alliances are still possible but aren't necessary

DETROIT — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Chief Executive has a message for Renault SA and other would-be partners: We are happy to talk, but we can go it alone. "Strategically, we have a solid future and clear plans that are being invested in and are underway now," Mike Manley said during a session with reporters the day after the company released better than expected second-quarter results. "That isn't to say if there is a better future through an alliance or partnership or merger we wouldnÂ’t be open and interested to it." Fiat Chrysler is open to re-starting merger negotiations with French automaker Renault, Manley said, but added the French car maker is not the only potential partner to gain scale or plug gaps in Fiat Chrysler's technology or vehicle lineup. "To say are they the only opportunity, the answer to that question would be a definitive ‘No,Â’" Manley said. Fiat Chrysler in June withdrew a $35 billion merger proposal with Renault after French government officials intervened in the talks and sought to delay a decision on the deal. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Renault and Nissan are trying again to reshape their alliance and resolve disagreements that helped to derail the merger talks with Fiat Chrysler. Fiat Chrysler has a commercial vehicle partnership with French rival Peugeot SA, and the two companies discussed a broader combination before Fiat Chrysler made its offer to Renault, people familiar with the situation have said. Manley said automakers are not the only potential partners. "There are cooperations that can help in specific technologies. There are cooperations as we think about the consumer-car interface," he said. "You could see collaborations that never would be there in the past." Fiat Chrysler's North American business is strong thanks to Ram trucks and Jeep SUVs, but in other markets the automaker faces continued challenges. The company is overhauling its mass-market business in Europe, which is anchored by the Fiat brand. Fiat Chrysler's Europe, Middle East and Africa operations were marginally profitable in the second quarter and achieved 1.8% profit margin in 2018. Manley has set a goal of 3% operating margins, well short of the 10% margins the company forecast for North America.