2009 Dodge Journey Fwd 4dr Sxt on 2040-cars

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Certain Chrysler owners eligible for buyback program

Certain car owners whose Chrysler vehicles contain dangerous defects will soon have a way to get rid of their lemons without losing money. As part of an agreement with federal regulators, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has agreed to buy back more than 500,000 vehicles susceptible to veering out of control without warning at above market-value prices. The deal mainly covers certain models of RAM trucks, the Dodge Dakota pickup and Dodge Durango SUV. Further, owners of more than 1.5 million Jeep Liberty and Grand Cherokees at heightened risk for lethal fires are eligible to trade in their vehicles at above market value or, alternately, get a gift certificate if they prefer to have repairs made. Chrysler has "a heavy responsibility to make sure the products they make are safe for the traveling public," said Mark Rosekind, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "... Here, we are sending an unambiguous signal to industry that if you skirt the laws or violate the law, or don't live up to the responsibility that consumers expect, we are going to penalize you." The buy-back and trade-in options for motorists come as part of an unprecedented penalty NHTSA slapped against Chrysler for violating federal motor-vehicle safety laws. Chrysler will pay a $105 million fine, the highest ever levied by the regulatory agency. In addition to the buy-backs, Chrysler also agreed to an independent monitor for three years. Investigators had outlined problems in the company's conduct in 23 recalls that affected more than 11 million defect vehicles. As part of a consent-order agreement, Chrysler acknowledged it did not notify vehicle owners of recalls in an effective manner and did not notify NHTSA of safety problems. Though those recalls affected millions of drivers, the buy-back and trade-in options are only for a small portion of the vehicles involved. Because Chrysler struggled to fix the problem and no repair was apparent, Rosekind said the buy-backs are reserved "for customers who didn't have a remedy." Buy-backs are for trucks and SUVs affected by three recalls that occurred in 2013 (recalls 13V-038, 13V-527 and 13V-529), that addressed a rear-axle pinion nut that could come loose and cause a loss of vehicle control. Those recalls covered 579,228 vehicles, including 2009-2012 Ram 1500, 2500, 3500, 4500 and 5500 trucks, 2009-2012 Dodge Dakotas, 2009 Chrysler Aspen and the 2009 Dodge Durango.

FCA cuts powertrain warranties to 60k miles

FCA US is cutting back the mileage of its powertrain warranty on some 2016 model year vehicles. Rather than the current five years/100,000 miles of coverage, the new amount is five years/60,000 miles for gasoline-fueled models from Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram. In March 2015, General Motors made a similar switch to five-years/60,000-miles of coverage for Chevrolet and GMC, and FCA US seems to be citing this as part of the reason for the shift. "Following changes already made by competitors, FCA US is adjusting powertrain warranty coverage for 2016 model year vehicles to be more consistent with industry practices," the automaker said in a portion of its statement. The bumper-to-bumper warranty for these vehicles is unchanged at three years/36,000 miles. According to Automotive News, Fiat's warranty is remaining at four years/50,000 miles. When it changed the mileage limit, GM also halved the number of free service visits for Chevy, GMC, and Buick to two from the previous four. The automaker claimed that the reason for the adjustments to its coverage was that a long warranty was seldom a reason for customers to buy a vehicle. Related Video: Response to Query: 2016MY Powertrain Warranty Adjustment Following changes already made by competitors, FCA US is adjusting powertrain warranty coverage for 2016 model year vehicles to be more consistent with industry practices. For 2016MY, Chrysler, Jeep®, Dodge and Ram Truck vehicles with gasoline engines will be covered by a 5 year/60,000 mile powertrain warranty. The basic coverage, also known as "bumper to bumper," remains at 3 years/36,000 miles. # # # News Source: FCA US, Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Mark Ralston / AFP / Getty Images Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM Car Buying Maintenance Ownership FCA warranty fca us powertrain

Inner Demon revealed: 840 hp and other jaw-dropping details

After months of teasers, rumors, cryptic messages, and veiled hints, the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is finally here, and it's as wonderfully insane as we hoped it would be. Finally we know the facts and figures that Dodge has been hinting at for so long. 840 horsepower. 770 lb-ft of torque. 2.3 seconds to 60 mph. A quarter-mile run of 9.65 @ 140 mph. While pricing hasn't been announced, Dodge is trying to keep it under $100,000. That horsepower figure makes this the most powerful production V8 ever. With those 0-60 and quarter-mile times, it's also NHRA certified as the quickest production car ever. Someone with the means needs to line a Demon up against a Tesla Model S P100D. All that power and all of the Demon's trick launching software and hardware will throw a driver back against their seat with 1.8 Gs. Drivers will be seeing a bit of sky, as the Demon is the first production car to pull a wheelie from a dead stop. Yes, this is all totally and 100 percent street legal. View 48 Photos In order to make all this power, the red-painted supercharged 6.2-liter Hemi V8 has been significantly improved over the Hellcat. It's equipped with a larger 2.7-liter supercharger that turns the boost up to 14.5 psi, redlines at 6,500, and has what Dodge is calling SRT Power Chiller, a system that uses the air conditioning to cool the air coming in through the new Air Grabber hood scoop. In order to keep your engine running time and time again, there is an after-run cooler than cools the supercharger after the car is shut off. The pistons and connecting rods have been strengthened to deal with the higher load. In order to feed enough juice into the engine, the Demon uses dual fuel pumps. We assume that a decent EPA rating wasn't on the top of the engineer's list. Oh, and the Demon can run on 100-octane with the press of a button. With the traditional SRT black and red keys, the Demon actually has three horsepower ratings: 500 with the black key, 808 with the red key, and the full 840 with the red key and 100-octane fuel. Don't worry, even if you have the black key, the Demon will drop the 1/4 mile in 11.59 seconds, still quicker than almost anything around. Most of the rest you already know from the seemingly endless teasers. The Demon wears lightweight wheels with sticky 315/40R18 Nitto drag radials at all four corners.