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Auto blog

2017 Chrysler Pacifica is perfect for town and country

The Pacifica has returned. In a surprising move, Chrysler revived the name of its old three-row CUV for the long-serving Town & Country's replacement. That's a bold strategy. Let's see if it pays off. Chrysler's new minivan offers a tremendous improvement on its predecessor in terms of interior and exterior design, available technology, and powertrain. Design inspiration is most clearly drawn from the brand's 200 sedan, both inside and out. Gone are the egg-crate grille, blocky headlights, and vertical taillights of the old van, all of which have been replaced with slim, stylish units. Doubtlessly destined for high-end trims, Chrysler will also offer a 200-style, two-tone interior with over 35 inches of screen real estate. 8.4 inches are reserved for the central UConnect display, while drivers have their own seven-inch display in the instrument cluster. As for the kiddies, they're the big winners, with a pair of ten-inch touchscreen displays in the back. Underhood, the big news is reserved for the new plug-in-hybrid powertrain. You can read all about that here. For right now, we'll focus on the familiar 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 and its accompanying nine-speed automatic transmission. There is 287 horsepower, 262 pound-feet of torque, and what will likely be a healthy improvement in fuel economy over the old Town & Country. You can read much more on the all-new Pacifica from our original post last night. We've also got a fresh gallery of live images from its big debut here at Detroit's Cobo Center, available up top.

Chrysler banks $507 million in Q2, trims 2013 earnings forecast

Chrysler has some good news and some bad news. First, profits were up 16 percent over the second quarter of 2012, bringing the Auburn Hills, Michigan-based manufacturer $507 million on the back of strong demand for trucks and SUVs (a recurring theme this quarter, particularly in the US). Q2 revenue was up as well, from $16.8 billion in 2012 to $18 billion in 2013. The bad news is that the Pentastar's overall earnings forecast for net income in 2013 has been trimmed from $2.2 billion to between $1.7 and $2.2 billion, according to Automotive News.
In addition to the adjusted net income forecast, Chrysler tweaked its operating profit from $3.8 billion to between $3.3 and $3.8 billion. This has gone largely unexplained by Chrysler, perhaps hoping the news of a three-percent increase in its transaction prices for Q2 will allow it to sweep this adjustment under the rug.
The star of the show for Chrysler has been its US sales, which saw a 10-percent jump, both bettering the industry average of eight percent and improving over the same stretch of 2012. As with the increase in transaction prices, Chrysler has the new Ram pickup and Jeep Grand Cherokee to thank. Perhaps most worrying from this report, though, is that every brand in the automaker's stable saw an increase in sales... except for the Chrysler brand itself.

Automakers, dealers are rushing cars to Houston after Harvey

DETROIT — Houston-area car retailers and automakers are rushing to reopen dealerships and beef up inventory to replace many hundreds of thousands of vehicles damaged in flooding from Hurricane Harvey. Pete DeLongchamps, vice president for manufacturer relations at Group 1 Automotive, the third-largest U.S. auto dealer group, said the company prepared for the storm with a plan designed after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. This included moving moved inventory to higher ground and cleaning roof drains to avoid cave-ins. Group 1 thus lost a "relatively small percentage" of inventory and reopened its roughly 25 dealerships in the Houston and Beaumont area by Thursday. "Things have been moving fast and furious with a large number of tow-ins already," DeLongchamps said. "Our customers have lost a lot of vehicles, we need to help them replace." Harvey brought record flooding to Houston and killed at least 35 people. The storm is expected to briefly depress already slowing U.S. auto sales but could eventually help boost demand as damaged cars are replaced. Automakers report U.S. August sales on Friday. Estimates for the number of Harvey-damaged vehicles needing replacement range up to 500,000. By Thursday, AutoNation, the largest U.S. auto retail chain, had reopened its 17 Houston stores and is moving cars and trucks from other regions, company spokesman Marc Cannon said. The company plans to move 500 to 1,000 used cars to an AutoNation USA used car store and stage a sale Sept. 21-23, when many would-be buyers should have insurance checks to replace destroyed vehicles, Cannon said. AutoNation is still assessing how many vehicles it lost, but it too moved vehicles to higher ground ahead of the storm. General Motors spokesman Jim Cain said the number of damaged vehicles at dealerships "is relatively modest." "But there are still several dealerships that are inaccessible, so the number will increase," he said. GM will move new and used vehicles to Houston, "but it won't be done until the infrastructure and our dealers are ready." Ford is still assessing damage and inventory needs, a spokeswoman said. CarMax, the biggest U.S. used car dealer, will reopen its six Houston area stores on Labor Day, spokeswoman Claire Hunter said. "We are mobilizing additional inventory to the region as we speak," Hunter said. Paul Lips, chief operating officer at ADESA, a unit of KAR Auction Services Inc., which with Manheim dominates the U.S.