2008 Dodge Ram 1500 St Standard Cab Pickup 2-door 4.7l on 2040-cars

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Dodge, Hyundai crowdsourced-funding sites deemed successes

What's not to love about crowdsourcing? This idea, after all, has given us Kickstarter as well Local Motors, but automakers are starting to use the social platform to sell more cars (or just drum up a little PR). Both Dodge and Hyundai have used "crowd-funding" recently, and while Automotive News is reporting that neither has racked up big sales with this gimmick, both automakers are pleased with the attention.
For Hyundai, it teamed up with website Motozuma.com to help customers crowdsource money for a down payment, and the automaker matched this amount up to $500. Last year, this helped Hyundai sell an extra 1,600 units, a fraction of its total 2012 sales. That figure is far larger than Dodge fared with the Dodge Dart Registry - it netted only two sales and a small number of individual options. This registry did help University of Southern California fraternity crowdsource $18,000 to buy a Dart for a local Meals on Wheels, however. Despite the low sales figures, Dodge and Hyundai are considering their crowdsourcing programs a success since it helped them connect with younger buyers.

Stellantis sees vehicle loan durations extended amid banking turmoil

Stellantis is seeing clients seeking longer-term financing and leasing deals for their vehicles as a consequence of higher global interest rates, the carmaker's head for the business said. Chief Affiliates Officer Philippe de Rovira said loans which normally had a three-year maturity were now increasingly moved to four years. "This allows customers to get a car for a monthly instalment that is similar to that they had before," he said. The world's third largest carmaker by sales on Tuesday announced it had completed a plan announced in late 2021 to reshuffle and simplify its leasing and financing operations in Europe. Under its terms, Stellantis created a 50-50 single long term multi-brand leasing company named Leasys with Credit Agricole Consumer Finance. It also set up local joint ventures in European countries for its new Stellantis Financial Services unit, formerly Banque PSA Finance, with BNP Paribas Personal Finance and Santander Consumer Finance. "These banks have always had better funding conditions than those we can have as an automaker," de Rovira said. Benefits of the plan included cutting the number of financing and leasing entities the group runs in each country and the number of IT systems it uses, with expected savings exceeding 30% in this particular area, he added. De Rovira said the group had a huge portfolio of orders it had not yet delivered due to supply chain shortages impacting production. "Demand is not our main issue. The issue is to deliver as fast as we can cars that are in our order portfolio, which is still at record levels," he said. The group aims to expand its corporate leased vehicle fleet to more than one million units in 2026 and to double net income from its so-called banking activities to 5.8 billion euros ($6.3 billion) by 2030. De Rovira said Stellantis was not seeing a downward trend in vehicle pricing. "Probably the significant price increases we have seen in 2021 and 2022 will not be repeated because the context is changing, but for the moment we don't see decreases, we see stabilisation". ($1 = 0.9188 euros) (Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari and Gilles Guillaume; Editing by Jan Harvey) Earnings/Financials Plants/Manufacturing Alfa Romeo Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM

The first production 1992 Dodge Viper RT/10 is up for grabs

The 1992 Dodge Viper RT/10 was a game-changer both for parent company Chrysler and the U.S. auto industry at large. While it was significant for bringing its automaker out of its dull, post-1980s funk, it also lit a fire under the rest of Detroit. If it hadn't been for the Viper, the world may not have gotten the C5 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (and its many world-class successors) or the revived Ford GT.  And the very first one is headed to auction.  This Viper is particularly special for two reasons. Not only was it the first production RT/10 to roll off the line at Chrysler's Mack Avenue plant (the Viper wouldn't move to Conner Avenue Assembly until 1996), but it was immediately scooped up by industry icon and then-Chrysler executive Lee Iacocca, who famously ushered fellow great Bob Lutz on stage at the Viper concept's reveal and told him to "build the damn thing." Even if you've never heard of Iacocca, you're certainly familiar with the cars he's influenced, whether you know it or not. Whether it's the Chrysler K-Car platform (and the minivan segment it spawned) or the 1964 Ford Mustang, one of Iacocca's projects has undoubtedly touched your life in one way or another.  Showing just over 6,200 miles, this Viper remained in Iacocca's possession from day one until his passing in 2019. Even without the Iacocca connection, this would be a special lot. VIN #001 is all-original, packing the 8.0-liter V10 engine that made the Viper famous. Dodge's bruiser was also known for being light on superfluous extras, such as anti-lock brakes, which the Viper didn't receive until 2001 — just before the second-generation model was discontinued.  Bonhams projects this Viper will go for between $100,000 and $125,000. That's probably a bargain. Opportunities to own such a unique and significant piece of automotive history come around very rarely, and considering this is about the same amount FCA was charging for a brand-new Viper when it went out production in 2017, it's not an unreasonable price point.  The Viper will cross the block on Jan. 16.