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Chrysler recalls 88,888 Darts, Durangos, and Grand Cherokees for two separate issues

Chrysler announced a pair of recalls for the Dodge Dart, Durango, and Jeep Grand Cherokee. They're unrelated, as the Dart recall concerns windshield washer pumps, and the Durango and Grand Cherokee recall is for fuel rails. But, as Automotive News discovered, the number of cars involved in both totals up to 88,888 cars, which is rather bizarre. Breaking down the coincidental number, we first have 34,633 2016 Dodge Durangos and Jeep Grand Cherokees recalled because fasteners on the intake manifold can come into contact with the fuel rail on some vehicles. This could lead to a fuel leak, and a subsequent fire hazard. Chrysler believes only 30 vehicles will have this defect, but it's inspecting any that could have had the issue. The other part of the 88,888 cars recalled in total consists of 54,255 2016 Dodge Darts. The windshield washer pumps on affected cars could short-circuit the wiper system, disabling the wipers. Chrysler will notify owners of all vehicles, and will replace any faulty parts at no cost to the owner. Owners can also contact Chrysler's customer care center at 1-800-853-1403. Related Video: News Source: FCA, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration via Automotive News Recalls Weird Car News Dodge Jeep SUV Sedan

Dodge Durango to stay classy with Ron Burgundy as spokesperson [w/video]

The upcoming 2014 Dodge Durango has a lot of things going for it, including its 290-horsepower V6 and 360-hp Hemi V8 engine options, an eight-speed automatic and aggressive looks. And now it will have Ron Burgundy, the fictional television news anchor played by comedian Will Ferrell, as a spokesperson, Adweek reports. He follows in the footsteps of other non-fictional Chrysler brand spokespeople such as Eminem, Clint Eastwood and the late Paul Harvey.
Though the star of 2004's Anchorman and the upcoming Anchorman 2 is wildly popular, we're not sure we see a Dodge spokesperson in Burgundy. (Please, no womanizing or scotchy, scotch, scotch before test test drives). But at this point there's no turning back: Chrysler's chief marketing officer Olivier Francois previewed three ad spots at the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) Masters of Marketing conference in Phoenix on Friday, and says Chrysler has already filmed 68(!) Durango ads with the fictional newsman.
According to Adweek, one of the ads previewed had Burgundy highlighting the SUV's glovebox size, and in another he compared its horsepower to a white horse standing next to him. Will this help Dodge Durango sales improve? We can only wait and see. In the meantime, feel free to share your thoughts in Comments, and check out the trailer for Anchorman 2 below.

How Dodge dealers are earning the right to sell Hellcats

We all hate the idea of the dreaded dealer markup when it comes to buying a highly anticipated new car. Take the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, for example. You might spend hours reading about its supercharged V8 and speccing the model just right in the configurator, but when it finally comes down to laying down the cash, the dealer adds thousands of dollars as a "market adjustment" on the muscle machine of your dreams. As it turns out, when the Hellcat starts hitting showrooms in the third quarter, Dodge is trying to make sure that's not the case.
Dealer orders for the much-hyped Hellcat recently started, but Dodge boss Tim Kuniskis has put some special caveats in place to ensure that the Hellcat makes it to the road quickly. The initial allocation is based on the number of Dodge products that a showroom has sold in the last 180 days, and a second allotment in December is based on the last 90 days of sales and 30-day turnover. "You sell a lot of Darts for me, Journeys for me, Durangos for me, I'm going to give you the rights to this one, too, because this is a halo of the brand," said Kuniskis to Automotive News.
Furthermore, how quickly the Hellcat sells is also going to decide whether showrooms get more of them. "If you want to market-adjust the car, that's your right. But if your days-on-lot goes above what the other guys that are selling them at MSRP is, they will end up earning the allocation because their days-on-lot will be lower," he said to Automotive News. Obviously, this doesn't prevent dealers from marking up the Challenger SRT, but the strategy certainly discourages it.