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Junkyard Gem: 1964 Plymouth Valiant V-200 Wagon

When Chrysler introduced the Valiant for the 1960 model year, the automotive world had no idea that this new compact would become one of the most successful products in the company's history. Valiants and its A-Body siblings were built and sold by the millions around the world, with production continuing into the early 1980s (in Australia and South America). The sales pinnacle for the Valiant in the U.S. was 1964, and today's Junkyard Gem is one of those cars: an upscale V-200 station wagon, found in a Denver-area wrecking yard a few weeks back. The Valiant began life as its own marque, became a Plymouth for 1961, left Plymouth for 1962, then returned as a Plymouth model until American Valiant production ceased in 1976, and the Volare took its place. You'll barely see any mention of the Plymouth brand in the 1964 Valiant brochure, and Plymouth badging on the '64s was minimal. You could get the 1964 Valiant wagon as the base V-100, starting at $2,273, or as the nicer V-200 with its $2,388 price tag (that's about $21,150 and $22,220 in 2022 dollars). Valiant coupes and convertibles could be had with the even swankier (by cheap small-car standards) Signet trim level. As Ford showed us in the middle 2000s, numbers are just classier if you spell them out on emblems. In the middle 1960s, substituting an automatic for the base three-on-the-tree column-shift manual transmission jacked up the price of an affordable car by an eye-watering amount. The Torqueflite three-speed automatic and its slick-looking push-button shifter cost 172 bucks extra (around $1,600 today), which made the car more than 7% costlier. A four-on-the-floor manual was available for the first time in a new Valiant that year, but it cost $180. Also new for the 1964 Valiant was a V8 option (a 273-cubic-incher rated at 180 horsepower), but this car has the good old Slant-6. If it's the engine that came with the car when it rolled off the assembly line, it's a 101-horse example with 170 cubic inches… but these cars are notorious for getting engine swaps early and often and I didn't check the block casting numbers. The cassette deck tells us that it was being driven as recently as the late 1980s through middle 1990s. There's some rust in the usual spots, about what this car would have acquired by 1967 if it had stayed in Michigan. This car could have been restored, though the expense for rust repair and interior refurbishment wouldn't have been a good investment from a financial standpoint.

2015 Chrysler 300 swaggers into LA Auto Show [w/video]

The Chrysler 300 has always exuded a certain brashness, but the chip-on-its-shoulder styling seemed to mellow a bit after its 2011 redesign. Now, the bad boy of the premium sedan segment is getting some of its angry attitude back for 2015, and the refreshed model debuted here at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The grille is larger, the fascia is updated and the lights are redesigned. That doesn't seem like much, but when taken collectively, they give the car a more menacing glare. The inside is freshened with a new seven-inch in-cluster display, better-quality materials and an updated suite of available Uconnect features, and there's a bevy of new active safety features available, too. The engine line continues with the 3.6-liter V6 and the 5.7-liter V8, though they are now both paired with Chrysler's eight-speed automatic. The sedan also received a Sport mode button, which changes the tuning for the steering, engine and transmission, while providing a rear bias for all-wheel drive models. Pricing starts at $31,395, just as it did for the 2014 model. The lineup also gets a new Platinum model with special wood, chrome and leather finishings, though the company also has said it will discontinue the 300's high-performance SRT variant for in the United States. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. New 2015 Chrysler 300: Return of the Big, Bold American Sedan with World-class Levels of Sophistication, Craftsmanship and Technology, Once Again Putting Boulevards and Interstates On Notice The new 2015 Chrysler 300 highlights six decades of ambitious American ingenuity through iconic design proportions inspired by historic 1955 and 2005 models – world-class quality, materials and refinement, best-in-class V-6 highway fuel economy, plus segment-exclusive innovations – all at the same $31,395 starting price as its predecessor.

Fiat Chrysler execs, salaried employees taking pay cuts during coronavirus pandemic

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' top executives and salaried workers around the globe will take pay cuts in an act of "shared sacrifice" brought on by the coronavirus pandemic that has shuttered the automaker's plants in Europe and North America, according to a company memo seen by Reuters. Chief Executive Officer Mike Manley said in the memo he will take a 50 percent pay cut for three months starting April 1, while Chairman John Elkann and FCA's board of directors will forego the remainder of their 2020 compensation. FCA said most global salaried employees will be asked to take a temporary 20 percent pay cut. "Protecting the financial health of the company is everyone’s responsibility and naturally starts with myself and the leadership of FCA," Manley wrote. Members of the automaker's group executive council will also take a 30 percent pay cut, according to the memo. Last week, No. 1 U.S. automaker General Motors said it planned to keep its plants closed indefinitely and was reducing the pay of salaried employees and executives and suspending some future product programs to conserve cash. GM's chief executive and chief financial officer issued a stark warning to company employees in an internal video, saying that "significant austerity measures" were needed to preserve the companyÂ’s long-term viability. Ford also said it was temporarily cutting top executivesÂ’ salaries.