2004 Chrysler Sebring Limited Convertible 2-door 2.7l 1!owner!, Good Miles on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Fiat Chrysler parts firm Magneti Marelli sold for $7.1B

TOKYO/MILAN — Japan's Calsonic Kansei, owned by U.S. private equity firm KKR, has agreed to buy Fiat Chrysler's Magneti Marelli for 6.2 billion euros ($7.1 billion) to form the seventh-largest independent car parts supplier. The first big deal by FCA's newly-appointed chief executive Mike Manley, who took over in July after the sudden death of long-time boss Sergio Marchionne, creates a company with revenue of 15.2 billion euros ($17.5 billion), the companies said. The newly formed Magneti Marelli CK Holdings is likely to cut costs through synergies and expand its customer base as components makers try to keep up with a shift by carmakers into autonomous driving, connected cars and electric vehicles. "This combination with Calsonic Kansei has emerged as an ideal opportunity to accelerate Magneti Marelli's future growth," Manley said on Monday of the FCA unit, which specializes in lighting, powertrain and high-tech electronics. FCA shares were up 5.2 percent at 0906 GMT as investors welcomed the hefty price tag, which will boost FCA's net cash position and raises expectations of a share buyback. "Getting this transaction completed at the price agreed is a significant early milestone and accomplishment," George Galliers, an analyst at Evercore ISI, said of Manley and his team's ability to match Marchionne's deal-making reputation. Marchionne had set in motion a process to spin off the unit and distribute its shares to FCA shareholders by early 2019, but said in June that FCA would still be "receptive" to an offer. Neither FCA nor its top shareholder, Fiat's founding Agnelli family, will have a stake in the combined business, but FCA said it would enter into a multi-year agreement to secure supplies to its plants and also to maintain operations and staff in Italy. Part of a global expansion KKR bought Calsonic from Nissan and other shareholders in 2016, saying it would help the parts maker, which relies on the Japanese carmaker for most of its sales, to expand globally. Calsonic has been in talks with FCA for months and made an initial 5.8 billion euro bid, sources have said. FCA does not break out earnings for Magneti Marelli, which sits within its components unit alongside robotics specialist Comau and castings firm Teksid. The unit employs around 43,000 people and operates in 19 countries. A takeover of Magneti Marelli had remained elusive as potential bidders were offering too little or were only interested in some parts of the business.

Chrysler 300 could become an electric sedan for 2026

Australian outlet Drive says it got eyes on "insider information" that revealed Chrysler has an electric sedan in development. As has been practice for the Pentastar since long before Stellantis, this Chrysler four-door would be the platform sibling of an electric Dodge sedan, the Dodge version to arrive sometime in 2024, the Chrysler variant about two years later. Nothing in the documents identified the EV sedan as a replacement for the 300, but Drive lays out a trail of circumstantial evidence that points to this conclusion. The documents say the vehicles will run 800-volt electrical architectures, thought to mean they'll also get the most powerful versions of Stellantis' new electric motors making anywhere from 201 to 443 horsepower. And because of that, Drive expects these products to use the STLA Large platform, the platform an electric 300 would sit on. Chrysler's working up a range of new products as part of the numerous brand resets Stellantis committed to. In January, Chrysler CEO Christine Feuell told Automotive News the coming portfolio "will include a number of brand-new products that don't exist today, but also products that are still playing in segments that we're in already," calling out the fact that Chrysler only plays in the large sedan and minivan segments. Then she said, "Our intention is to redefine products for those segments, and they're certainly going to be a vast departure from what's in market today."  The automaker's first EV is expected to be the Airflow, teased during the Stellantis EV day last summer before being debuted at CES in January. With Dodge already making a muscle car, turning that into a product for Chrysler seems like a no-brainer. Thing is, Drive's information and Feuell's comments could be applied to the Airflow. It's on the STLA Large platform, will pack two motors producing a combined 402 hp, and fit a battery capable of juicing a 400-mile range. As far as we can tell, Chrysler has never called it a crossover yet. Not that the nomenclature would matter anyway, since any model name with brand equity can be turned into any other kind of vehicle (see: Aspen, Blazer, Maverick, et al). The Airflow name on an EV makes a logical tie to the original Airflow produced from 1937 to 1940, that original car so named because of its aerodynamic features. But if the Airflow EV hit the market as the new 300, we couldn't say we hadn't seen that trick before.

Chrysler recalls 1.2 million Ram pickup trucks

Chrysler has announced that it will issue three separate recalls that will cover as many as 1.2 million Ram pickup trucks for "steering-system tie rods that may have been misaligned during assembly or steering-system service." The vast majority of these trucks were sold in the United States, though some trucks in Mexico, Canada or overseas will be called in, as well.
The largest of the three recalls covers an estimated 842,400 model-year 2003-2008 Ram 2500 and 3500 trucks. Two smaller campaigns will bring 294,000 model-year 2008-2012 Ram 2500 and 3500 pickups, chassis cabs and 2008 Ram 1500 4x4 Mega Cabs; plus 43,500 model-year 2008-2012 Ram 4500 and 5500 4x4 chassis cabs into the dealer to be checked and repaired if necessary.
This is a very large recall, and Chrysler says it is "casting the net wider than necessary to identify those vehicles that require repair." The automaker estimates that "as many as 726,000 may not need repair."