2008 Chrysler Sebring Touring Convertible 2-door 2.7l on 2040-cars

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Detroit Three autoworkers could get huge bonuses

For a long time, being a line worker for one of the Detroit Three has meant living with an uncertain future. With the health of American automakers on the rise, though, things are also starting to look up for the men and women building the cars. The latest sign that things aren't bad? Big profit-sharing checks.
According to The Detroit News, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler could end up paying over $800 million to 130,000 workers as part of a profit-sharing plan. According to The News, the economic impact of these profits in Michigan alone could exceed $400 million, besting the NFL's Super Bowl, MLB's All-Star Game and the NHL's Winter Classic for their economic impact.
This is the third straight year the Detroit Three have issued profit-sharing checks to UAW employees, and for many workers, the checks are as close as they'll get to a raise, due to the most recent contract between the union and the manufacturers. On average, employees at GM and Ford receive $1 for every $1 million in North American (not just the US) pre-tax profits. Chrysler, meanwhile, gets a similar deal, although the Auburn Hills-based company calculates profit sharing using 85 percent of the brand's global profits.

Junkyard Gem: 1990 Plymouth Laser RS Turbo

When Diamond Star Motors, a Chrysler-Mitsubishi joint venture, came online in the late 1980s, the first products to come out of the Normal, Illinois assembly plant were versions of the first-generation of the Mitsubishi Eclipse. There was the Eclipse itself, the Eagle Talon, and the Plymouth Laser. Here's a somewhat tattered example of the latter type, spotted in a Northern California self-serve yard. This car is unrelated to the Chrysler Laser of a few years earlier, which was based on the K-platform-derived Dodge Daytona. The Plymouth Laser was a pure Mitsubishi design. This one has the DOHC turbocharged 2.0-liter Sirius engine, rated at 190 horsepower. That was plenty of power by 1990 standards, a year in which the wildest possible Chevrolet Camaro (the IROC-Z, of course) packed just 230 hp under the hood. The IROC-Z weighed 3,149 pounds versus the Laser's 2,483, giving the Laser a slightly better power-to-weight ratio, not to mention a price tag more than $500 lower. CD players in cars were still uncommon in 1990; this Laser has the much more mainstream "computer controlled deck" cassette player, complete with nine-band graphic equalizer. Badging in futuristic typefaces was all the rage when this car was new. The all-wheel-drive Eclipse/Talon/Laser didn't hit dealerships until the 1991 model year, so all the '90s are front-wheel-drive only. The torque steer experienced in these cars could be exciting. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. In the United States, Tina Turner pitched the Laser. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. North of the border, Celine Dion did the Laser's TV ads. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. In Japan, the 1990 Eclipse featured "international breeze," whatever that is. Featured Gallery Junked 1990 Plymouth Laser RS Turbo View 23 Photos Auto News Chrysler Mitsubishi mitsubishi eclipse

Chrysler reportedly to drop 300 sedan, build Portal millennial minivan

Automotive News Canada pointed its divination stick at Chrysler as part of its Future Product Pipeline series. The publication dug up two revelations, one being that the Chrysler 300 has two more years to live, ending production come 2020. The article said nothing about the 300's platform twin, the Dodge Charger. The death of the 300 would leave the Pentastar brand with just one offering, the Pacifica minivan. AN Canada's other revelation was Chrysler would allay that fate by putting the "six-passenger multi-purpose" Portal concept into production for 2020. The automaker that wants to be known for its people haulers introduced the Portal concept at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show. The big bang at the time was the Portal having been designed by millennials in Chrysler's design department, specifically for millennial buyers. Feature bait for the confounding demographic included facial and voice recognition so the Portal knew who was in the car and could tailor the driving environment and cockpit to their tastes; a panoramic dashboard; a configurable interior so the owner can create space where needed, up front or in the cargo area; vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure tech; upgradeable Level 3 autonomy; a retractable aviation-like steering wheel; and customizable light signatures. We didn't get many specs on the show car, but the all-electric powertain employed a 100-kWh lithium-ion battery, had a range of at least 250 miles, and could restore 150 of those miles in 20 minutes hooked up to a DC fast charger. Reasonable specs for a real vehicle. It wouldn't be an outrageous move for Chrysler to create a production version of the Portal. When the concept came to the 2018 Detroit Auto Show, former Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne told media he intended to roll out the "fifth generation" of family cars — the next evolution of the wagon-minivan-SUV-crossover progression — and he expected the Portal or something similar to make production at some point. The Detroit News predicted we'd get a Portal sometime after 2018. Tim Kuniskis, then head of FCA passenger cars in North America, said the company viewed the Portal as that fifth-gen product and "the future of family transportation." On top of that, the designers based the front-wheel-drive Portal on the Pacifica's platform, and Marchionne was vocal in his desire for another retail product on that architecture. He had said, "I need another minivan.