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FCA names Mike Manley head of Ram brand

Sergio Marchionne seems to revel in shifting the numerous portfolios of the senior executives who work under him. Case in point: the latest round of hat-swapping announced by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Several appointments have been made at the top levels of the group, chief among them a new head of the Ram truck brand. That role will now fall to Mike Manley, who will also retain his responsibilities for the Jeep brand and as COO for the Asia-Pacific region. With his hands busy enough as it is, we'd imagine that much of the day-to-day will fall to Robert Hegbloom. He had Manley's new job until now – but will still remain head of the Ram brand for North America, where the bulk of its business is conducted. Along with the shift in leadership for the Ram brand, FCA also named Reid Bigland as head of fleet operations for North America. Bigland is also responsible for sales in the same region, and for the Alfa Romeo brand here as well. The company also named Tim Kuniskis to the Group Executive Council, charged with overseeing all the passenger-car brands in North America – including Dodge, Chrysler, and Fiat. While it was at it, FCA also named Al Gardner as head of network development for North America, and Jason Stoicevich as Bigland's deputy for US fleet and small-business sales. All these appointments take effect immediately. FCA US ANNOUNCES LEADERSHIP CHANGES October 5, 2015 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - FCA US today announced several leadership team moves in support of changes at the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) Group Executive Council (GEC) level. The moves were made to ensure proper representation of all of FCA's major brands on the GEC, the highest management level decision making body within the FCA organization. Earlier today, the following moves were announced at the GEC level. - Mike Manley is appointed Head of Ram Brand. Manley will retain his current GEC responsibilities as APAC Chief Operating Officer and Head of Jeep Brand. - Reid Bigland is appointed Head of NAFTA Fleet. Bigland will continue his current GEC responsibility for NAFTA Sales & Alfa Romeo. - Timothy Kuniskis becomes a member of the GEC and assumes responsibility for NAFTA Passenger Car Brands, consisting of Dodge and SRT, Chrysler and FIAT. In addition, the following appointments were made to the North American leadership team. - Robert Hegbloom continues as Head of Ram Brand for North America, now reporting to Manley.

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.

2019 Ram 1500 pickup shows its full face in spy photos

We're only a couple of weeks away from the 2019 Ram 1500 full-size pickup truck's public reveal at the Detroit Auto Show, but we're still getting little sneak peeks of the new Ram. In these spy photos, we get the last piece of the truck's front fascia puzzle, the badge. (UPDATE, January 2018: Here are the story and photos from the 2019 Ram's full reveal at the Detroit Auto Show.) As expected, the Ram logo fits in a little space between the split chrome bars in the middle of the grille. We're still not sure if this horizontal bar grille will be the only version or if there will be an assortment as there is on the current model. This iteration is the only version we've seen so far. These shots also show how this grille integrates nicely with the headlights. The turn signal LEDs line up with the gap in the chrome bar, the lower portion of the bar lines up with the lower running lights, and the upper portion lines up with the main headlight element. The rest of the truck will be fully revealed at the Detroit Auto Show. We know it will feature a 5.7-liter V8, which will probably be accompanied by at least a gasoline V6 if not a new version of the EcoDiesel V6, too. It may also be shown with the previously spied split tailgate. For additional peeks at the pickup, check out these previous spy shots, as well as our renderings. Related Video: