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Jeep burned down by new Samsung Galaxy Note 7

A Florida family is out a Jeep Cherokee and a brand new cell phone after a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 left on a charger allegedly burst into flames on Monday and destroyed both itself and the Jeep. According to Fox 13, Nathan Dornacher and his wife Lydia were cruising garage sales in St. Petersburg, Florida on Labor Day with their daughter and their service dog. They stopped at home to unload a desk they'd purchased earlier. While they got the desk out of the Cherokee's hatch Nathan left his shiny new Galaxy Note 7 charging in the Jeep's center console. When the family went to leave again to run more errands, they were shocked to see that the Jeep's interior was engulfed in flames and thick black smoke was pouring out of the panel gaps. The St. Petersburg Fire department responded to the Dornachers', but it was too late for the Cherokee. The fire destroyed the vehicle, which was dearly loved by Nathan and heavily modified with aftermarket equipment. The Galaxy Note 7 has gained a nasty reputation for spontaneous combustion since its release in August. Samsung has recalled the phone in ten countries after thirty-five instances of Galaxy Note 7s catching fire or exploding for no good reason were confirmed. Fox 13 received a statement from a Samsung spokesperson after they reported the story about the Dornachers' poor jeep. "We are aware of the incident and we are working with Mr. Dornacher to investigate his case and ensure we do everything we can for him. Consumer safety is Samsung's highest priority. With regard to the Galaxy Note7, we are asking owners to take advantage of the Product Exchange Program announced on Friday of last week. The program offers Note7 owners the opportunity to exchange the phone for a new one. More details on the program can be found at http://www.samsung.com/us/note7exchange/." News Source: Fox 13 Auto News Recalls Weird Car News Jeep Technology Smartphone SUV fire Samsung car fire

Chrysler recalling nearly 141k vehicles over electrical woes

Software glitches that randomly illuminate warning lights and cause instrument cluster blackouts are forcing Chrysler to recall 140,800 vehicles, The Detroit News reports. The automaker is recalling 132,000 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokees, 91,559 of which are in the US. In addition to the Jeep recalls, Chrysler is adding 10,800 2014 Ram 1500, 2500 and 3500 trucks to the list for similar problems.
Chrysler reportedly says, "Both events occurred infrequently and appeared to resolve themselves by tuning the vehicle's ignition off and then on."
Engineers discovered a problem with the anti-lock-braking system software that causes the instrument cluster display of the Grand Cherokee to illuminate warning lights and black out - even its ABS and electronic stability control systems are affected. To fix the Jeeps, Chrysler will update the vehicle's software.

Vile Gossip: Ladies who launch

Jean Jennings has been writing about cars for more than 30 years, after stints as a taxicab driver and as a mechanic in the Chrysler Proving Grounds Impact Lab. She was a staff writer at Car and Driver magazine, the first executive editor and former president and editor-in-chief of Automobile Magazine, the founder of the blog Jean Knows Cars and former automotive correspondent for Good Morning America. She has lifetime awards from both the Motor Press Guild and the New England Motor Press Association. Look for more Vile Gossip columns in the future. The year was 2006. We were driving a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 across the Florida Panhandle from Jacksonville to Panama City, only because I couldn't convince Bugatti to let me be the first to drive its exotic powerhouse, the world's fastest car at that time, all the way across America. One gleaming example had arrived in time for the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, where the journos massed for their quick test drives out the front drive of the Ritz Carlton, down a short stretch of the A1A, and back to the Ritz. Not far enough for me. I wanted to take the Veyron in all of its 16-cylinder, 1,001-horsepower, $1.3-million-dollar glory on a coast-to-coast extravaganza of a road trip. Never hurts to ask. I asked. Once the Bugatti guys stopped hyperventilating, I explained that the coastal adventure would be contained wholly within the state of Florida, from the Atlantic coast to the Gulf of Mexico. My secret destination, however, was to be Vernon, Florida, home of the great Errol Morris' classic documentary about a town in the Panhandle with the highest per-capita population of citizens who'd blown off or whacked off a limb for insurance money. (Google "Nub City.") The Swiss head of Bugatti public relations thought it hilarious. He showed up in a van with a couple of German mechanics to follow us and a failed French Formula 1 driver to serve as my chaperone. I came with a photographer from Germany and one of the most infamous of bad-boy auto magazine tech editors, the irrepressible Don Sherman. Sherman had his own reason for going, and it had nothing to do with a Veyron to Vernon. Once we gave up looking for nubbies, he ordered me to veer south to the handgrip of the Panhandle, familiarly known as the Redneck Riviera. The Don was aiming to secretly execute the Veyron's first Launch Control blastoff in captivity.