1991 Dodge Stealth Es Hatchback 2-door 3.0l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Stellantis urges owners to fix Takata airbags after another fatality

Stellantis this morning is emphatically urging owners of older Dodge and Chrysler models equipped with recalled Takata airbags to park their cars until they can have recalls performed after the company on Friday confirmed a third fatality. The company's statement includes instructions for owners and follows this article in its entirety.  This comes just six weeks after the brands comprising the former FCA business unit urged customers to park their cars after two fatal incidents involving defective Takata airbags prompted Stellantis to issue a do-not-drive order for the 2005-2010 Dodge Charger, Magnum and Challenger, along with the Chrysler 300. The company is warning any customers who have not yet had their vehicles inspected in accordance with previous recall campaigns to park their cars until they are able to do so. This order covers more than 275,000 vehicles on the road.  No new recall has been initiated to address the faulty airbags as all of the vehicles in question are within the original population of the massive 2015 campaigns carried out by virtually every major automaker. Industry supplier Takata's airbag inflators have been identified as the cause of more than 30 fatalities when moisture caused them to explode rather than deploy normally in a collision.  Here is the full statement from Stellantis: December 19, 2022 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - FCA US LLC urges owners or custodians of certain older-model Dodge and Chrysler vehicles with unaddressed Takata driver-side air-bag recalls, to immediately stop driving them and contact the Company to obtain the required repair – free of charge. We strongly reiterate our previous warning, having confirmed a third Takata-related fatality involving this population of vehicles. They are equipped with Takata air-bag inflators whose chemical properties may deteriorate over time, particularly if exposed to hot, humid climates. Such conditions may cause the inflators to rupture on deployment, scattering razor-sharp debris capable of causing serious injury or death. “Time is a critical element here because the risk increases with each day these air-bag inflators go unreplaced,” said Tom McCarthy, global head of Technical Safety and Regulatory Compliance at Stellantis. “We have the parts, and the service is free.

2015 Dodge Challenger SRT 392

I've just started reading the third installment in a planned five-book biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson, Master of the Senate, written by the incomparable Robert Caro. Conveniently, a recent trip to drive the BMW X6 M and 228i Convertible was to be staged in Austin, TX, within easy driving distance of LBJ's birthplace, Johnson City. And yes, the city is named for his family. Having completed my duties with the Bimmers, I borrowed the spangled 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT 392 you see above, to squire me around the Texas capitol for a weekend, and as a lift out to the Hill Country homestead of our 36th President. Johnson City isn't exactly a road trip mecca, but there's a pretty good brewery, a museum, the reconstructed LBJ house to take snapshots of, and it's a nice drive to get out there if you've got a 485-horsepower muscle car at your disposal. Driving Notes With the heroic Hellcat, this 392 and the R/T Scat Pack (that Brandon Turkus reviewed recently), there are more SRT-treated Challengers to choose from than ever before. There are 707 obvious reasons that the Hellkitty is the top dog (as it were), but there are important difference between this 392 and the Scat Pack, too. Both cars make use of the 6.4-liter Hemi V8 putting out 485 horsepower and 475 pound-feet of torque, but the 392 also gets an adaptive suspension, six-piston Brembo brake calipers (instead of four-piston), wider tires, leather and Alcantara seats, a heated steering wheel, a louder stereo and HID headlights. When LBJ was campaigning for his seat in the House of Representatives, he would've loved to have something as potent as this monster of a V8 under the hood of his canvassing car. The 6.4L snorts with authority before it sends the big coupe forward to just about any speed I'd ask of it, and with a quickness. Johnson was known for haranguing drivers to step on it, when all that stood between himself and a few more votes was the ability to fit one more stump speech into the day. The 392 feels as though it could cover a quarter of the state of Texas in a morning if you throttle down deep enough (faster even than the Johnson City Windmill, I'd guess). Though there's a six-speed manual available, I'm actually quite fond of the eight-speed automatic in the 392. The two-pedal setup better suits the fast-cruiser attitude of the car, and it never served up any poorly conceived shift logic when I left it in D. Of course, the roads are better now than they were in the 1930s and 40s, too.

Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat ringtone revs up [w/video]

The best (or worst, depending on your views) thing about smartphones is that you're able to carry lots, and lots of useful stuff around in your pocket. That means you can always have a phone, messaging service, email, flashlight, calculator, dictionary, encyclopedia, and literally thousands of other things on your person at all times. Now, we can add one more thing for you to carry about in your little slab of aluminum, glass and plastic - a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat.
Now, you obviously can't carry around a 707-horsepower muscle car around in your pocket. That'd be ridiculous, impractical and uncomfortable. You can, however, carry around the noise made by said muscle car's 6.2-liter, supercharged Hemi V8, thanks to a new, free-to-download ringtone from the folks at Dodge and SRT.
We can't embed the ringtone here, so if you'd like to hear exactly how it'll sound when your phone goes off, you'll need to head over to the SRT Hellcat's page. If that's more trouble than it's worth, the same ringtone was attached to a tiny speaker on the press kit for the mighty Challenger, and was captured on video by our own Seyth Miersma (don't worry, he's already been soundly dressed down for shooting a video in portrait mode).