2014 Chrysler Town & Country Touring-l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

FCA's Pentastar V6 gets more power, efficiency for 2016

Already a vital member of FCA's powertrain lineup, the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 is receiving major efficiency improvements for 2016. Thanks to a massive amount of new tech attached to the mill, fuel economy is up six percent, and torque below 3,000 rpm jumps nearly 15 percent. The updates arrive first in the 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee, but they should proliferate to other models eventually. At least in the Grand Cherokee, the tweaks push power up five horsepower to 295 ponies. FCA's engineers went through the Pentastar from top to bottom to eke out as much efficiency as possible. For example, there's now a two-speed variable-valve lift system that can run in low- or high-lift modes. This upgrade is responsible for 2.7-percent better economy, the company claims. A new intake manifold with longer runners and updated variable-valve times also helps boost the torque output. Further improvements come from pushing the compression ratio to 11.3:1, from 10.2:1 before. Perhaps most impressive is that despite all of the innovations, the latest Pentastar actually weighs four pounds less than the current version. Beyond the Pentastar improvements, all of the FCA US gasoline engines, except for the Viper's 8.4-liter V10, will be E15-compatible for 2016. The company says that it wants to be ready for the higher ethanol content fuel's greater use in the near future.

Four-horse race opens up for next Chrysler-Fiat CEO

There are some companies that could change leadership overnight and still remain more or less the operations that they are. But some have built themselves up around one central figure. Just ask Carlos Tavares, who found he couldn't escape the long shadow of Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn. Tavares recently left to find his own limelight. But Ghosn isn't the only executive who presides over two disparate automakers on opposite ends of the globe.
Having built up Fiat and Chrysler around himself, we can hardly imagine either automaker getting along without Sergio Marchionne. But the day will come when the famously sweater-clad bigwig will step down. The pressing questions remain when when that day will come, and who will take his place. The only solid clues we have are in the statements made mostly by Marchionne himself, but those statements have been all over the place. When speaking to Automotive News in 2012, he said he would step down "no earlier than 2013, no later than 2015." But a year later, he had already seemingly changed his tune, indicating he could still be at the helm in 2016. Fiat chairman John Elkann seems to think Marchionne, 61, could and should stay on longer.

Pair of 1970 Plymouth Superbird barn finds hits eBay

Here are a couple noteworthy barn finds for sale right now on eBay: a pair of 1970 Plymouth Superbird muscle cars, found with their giant rear wings, retractable headlights and 440 Super Commando V8s apparently perfectly intact after being stored for decades in a garage in Maine, with their condition reportedly "very good for 40 years of dry storage." In his lengthy writeup, the seller notes the short-lived, modified Road Runner is "One of the most collectible muscle cars with one of the most incredible automotive Aerodynamic (sic) designs in automotive history." The Superbird, which saw only one production year, is approaching its 50th anniversary, with their values expected to soar, he notes. The seller explains that he learned about the Superbirds after he purchased his own blue Superbird from the Owls Head Transportation Museum auction in Maine in August for $187,000. "Just after I won the blue 1970 Super Bird with white bucket seat interior a man approached me and sat down next to me and stated he has 2 Super Birds in storage that he has owned for the last 40 years," he wrote on his listing. "He told me he purchased them from the original owners." One was B5 blue with white bucket seats, just like the one he'd just purchased. The other was Alpine White with black bucket seats. According to the back story, both cars were originally sold off the lot in 1970 at Blouin Chrysler Plymouth Dodge in Augusta, Maine, and the man who'd been keeping them in his garage said he knew both of the original owners, having purchased both cars from them around 1978. The man, who is reportedly a Mopar expert, kept them both registered until 1985 and 1987, with the registration stickers still intact on the windshields, then prepared both for storage, putting straight antifreeze in the motors and filling the cylinders with lubricating oil. Both cars are currently being stored in a garage in Massachusetts. The Alpine White Superbird has 42,497 miles on it. The highest of 84 bids as of this writing was $135,000. The blue version has just 27,416 miles on the odometer, with the highest of 93 bids at $151,100. Both were updated with Pioneer cassette decks that the seller says "are classics in themselves." The seller also notes he hasn't tried to get either car started but that both motors turn freely and that the head and taillights all work. Bidding ends Sept. 27.