Latest news with #Stellantis
Auto Blog
3 hours ago
- Automotive
- Auto Blog
Feds Step In As Dodge Dart Safety Issue Returns
By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe from email communication at anytime. Dodgy transmission still causing headaches for Dart owners While Japanese and even Korean brands have been able to weather the crossover storm and continue seeing demand for small sedans, American automakers have not. Models like the Ford Focus and Dodge Dart have vanished from local showrooms without replacements, but one of these is getting attention again. Discontinued in 2016, the Dodge Dart is the subject of an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for a potentially dangerous transmission issue. Even worse, this problem was supposed to be remedied by Dodge years ago, but a fresh batch of complaints has forced the NHTSA to open a new investigation. 0:00 / 0:09 When will Toyota build an EV with its simulated manual transmission? Watch More Parked Darts At Risk Of Rolling Away 2016 Dodge Dart Limited 2016 Dodge Dart Limited 2016 Dodge Dart Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (now Stellantis) previously issued a recall in 2019 for Dodge Darts produced between the 2013 and 2016 model years. Only affecting models with the six-speed automatic transmission, this recall was for shifter cable bushings that could deteriorate and detach. Not only can this prevent the car from shifting into gear at any time, but it can appear as though the car is in Park when it's not. As a result, the driver could exit the vehicle and it could roll away or crash. The recall remedy (number 19V-293) was meant to remedy this issue, but the NHTSA has received 44 new complaints of worn, misadjusted shifter cables since then, along with more shifter cable detachments. It's now over to the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) to review whether the original recall was effective and identify the root cause of these shifter cables failing. An estimated 299,000 models are potentially implicated in this investigation. No Injuries Or Fatalities, But Owners Should Be Cautious 2016 Dodge Dart — Source: Stellantis For now, the NHTSA lists no injuries or fatalities related to the transmission issue, but it's easy to see how dangerous it can be if a Dodge Dart rolls away. Autoblog Newsletter Autoblog brings you car news; expert reviews and exciting pictures and video. Research and compare vehicles, too. Sign up or sign in with Google Facebook Microsoft Apple By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe from email communication at anytime. The latest investigation doesn't do much to bolster the rather poor reliability reputation of the Dart. Its most recent J.D. Power rating for quality and reliability is just 67 out of 100, nowhere close to the Toyota Corolla of the period (88/100). Over at Car Complaints, there are a host of transmission complaints, especially for the 2013 model. Based on owner feedback, the typical repair cost is $3,420 and issues are encountered at an overage mileage of under 44,000 miles. 2016 Dodge Dart — Source: Stellantis 'I have had nothing but trouble since I bought this car,' said one Dart owner from Kansas. 'It's now on its 4th transmission and I've only had it for a year and a half.' The same owner had only clocked 45,000 miles at the time of submitting this complaint, so transmission failure does seem to occur quickly in automatic Darts. For now, we'll have to wait to see the outcome of the NHTSA's latest investigation. At the end of the Dart's life, FCA said it and the Chrysler 200 were terrible investments. Now, nine years since the Dart went out of production, Dodge is still dealing with issues related to the underwhelming small sedan. About the Author Karl Furlong View Profile
Auto Blog
3 hours ago
- Automotive
- Auto Blog
Which Cars Are Really American?
By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe from email communication at anytime. Patriotism comes in all shapes and sizes Some media outlets, such as , define American cars based on final assembly location, percentage of U.S. and Canadian parts, country of origin for the engine and transmission, and the size of the automaker's U.S. manufacturing workforce. Despite this classification, it's hard to consider a Kia EV6 an American car, no matter how much of it is made here. Given it's the July 4th weekend, it's time to choose true American cars based on their place in our hearts, not our manufacturing footprint. Oh, and by the way, all are built in America. 2023 Ram 1500 'Built to Serve' Emergency Medical Service (EMS) flag decal — Source: Stellantis Most American pickup truck: Ford F-150 2025 Ford F-150 Lobo Package — Source: Ford While no longer America's top-selling vehicle, a designation it held for 42 years, it remains America's favorite pickup truck, and with good reason. Despite being outsold by the Toyota RAV4, the Ford F-150 remains America's modern-day Conestoga, with a variety of configurations that are just right for so many American car buyers. Offered in three cab sizes and three bed lengths, it can be everything from a barebones work truck (XL trim), lavish luxury hauler (King Ranch), urban warrior (Lobo), off-road warrior (Tremor), off-road Racer (F-150 Raptor), or concerned environmentalist (F-150 Lightning). It can be powered by a V-8, twin-turbo V-6, hybrid, or battery electric powertrains, and its cred as an American icon is undisputed, since the F-Series debuted during the Truman Administration. Few American cars have such heritage or offer so much choice. Yet it's still much like America itself: outsized, overbuilt, and running on 87-octane unleaded. Most American SUV: Jeep Wrangler 2025 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon X — Source: Jeep Just as America was an offshoot of England, so too was America's most iconic vehicle. What would become the Jeep was designed by American Bantam of Butler, PA as a reorganized version of American Austin, a 1930s-era attempt to popularize the British brand stateside. When Austin pulled out, the remnants of the company soldiered on, answering the U.S. military's request for a light reconnaissance vehicle. Since American Bantam had already built tiny cars, creating the new diminutive Jeep was a snap. Autoblog Newsletter Autoblog brings you car news; expert reviews and exciting pictures and video. Research and compare vehicles, too. Sign up or sign in with Google Facebook Microsoft Apple By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe from email communication at anytime. 1941 Jeep Willys MA — Source: Jeep They completed their prototype in 49 days, whereupon their plans were given to Willys-Overland and Ford Motor Company, who ultimately won the government contract. A civilian version of the Jeep arrived at war's end, built by Willys, then Kaiser Jeep, then American Motors Corporation, then Chrysler Corporation, then Daimler-Chrysler, then Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles, and now Stellantis. It single-handedly created the SUV segment, now the dominant vehicle type in the U.S. market. It might as well be a four-wheel constitutional amendment. While it lacks the refinement of its competitors, the Jeep Wrangler remains a reminder that vehicles are tools, not tech gadgets with cup holders. Most American sedan: Lucid Air Source: Ryan Brackin Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Lincoln, Chevrolet, and Buick no longer build sedans. Cadillac still does, but the CT4 and CT5 are strikingly off-key for Cadillacs, and the Celestiq EV looks more like a Citroen SM than a Cadillac. That leaves the Lucid Air and Tesla Model S and 3. The Lucid Air makes a compelling case as to why sedans still matter. Designed in California and built in Arizona, its look is elegant and unmistakable, like a Scandinavian who went to finishing school. It boasts some of the fastest recharge times of any EV, delivers the sort of incredibly quick acceleration you'd expect from the world's premier sports cars, and has a cabin that's opulently well-dressed. It indulges you in a way few cars can, with enough comfort and athleticism to deliver a driving experience of the first order. Yet there's little to be guilty of, as it signals that your soul is green and you are doing your part and care about the planet, but not enough to take the bus. Its combination of technology, design, and extravagance makes it the ultimate American sedan. Most American sports car: Ford Mustang 2025 Ford Mustang GTD — Source: Ford Corvette partisans may take issue with this choice, but the Ford Mustang remains true to its heritage and design. There's a clear design lineage from its very start, and the basics of the car remain much the same as they did the day it was born. That's something that can't be said of the Corvette, although we do love it. The Mustang is the approachable, everyday pony car, one that spawned a whole class of imitators and which remains the only one left standing. As always, it can be equipped from mild (315-hp four-cylinder EcoBoost) to wild (500-hp supercharged V-8 Dark Horse) and can still be had with the ultimate anti-theft device, one that proves to be amazingly fun as well, aka a six-speed manual. But you can get it with a ten-speed automatic transmission as well, should you prefer it. Offered as a fastback coupe and soft-top convertible, it retains the same lighthearted, party persona it was born with 61 years ago. Thank goodness for that. Most American luxury vehicle: Cadillac Escalade The 2025 Cadillac Escalade Platinum in SoHo, New York City — Source: Cadillac Climbing inside a Cadillac Escalade SUV will evoke a reaction from everyone who remembers Cadillac's heyday that only those who have lived through it can understand. The Escalade's job is essentially the same, despite the fact that cars are very different nowadays. In other words, full-size comfort, all the mod cons, easy V8 power, and an extravagant appearance that makes it obvious you've made it. 2025 Cadillac Escalade — Source: Cadillac Overfed, arrogant, and possessing the aerodynamic profile of a garden shed, the high-performance variant, the Escalade V, sprints from 0 to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds. It's a 6,200-pound middle finger to subtlety, nuance, and everything that smells of quinoa. It's no wonder this car is the newfound favorite of black car services nationwide. It's The Incredible Bulk, a rolling fortress of indulgence with a 38-inch OLED display screen that's large enough to be put to work on Times Square. It can yank 7,000 pounds of your favorite plaything and carry up to 121 cubic feet of lifestyle debris. Whether you're driving or being driven, Super Cruise, Cadillac's hands-free driving system, lets the Escalade drive itself, indulging our willingness as Americans to let someone else do the heavy lifting. It's the anti-Puritan aesthetic that makes the Cadillac Escalade the ultimate, indulgent, modern American road servant. Most American EV: Tesla Model Y 2025 Tesla Model Y — Source: Tesla It's hard to consider the Tesla Model Y, the brand's bestselling model, without considering the man who runs the company. Regardless of what you think of Elon Musk personally, he has managed to pull off what once seemed impossible. He made electric cars a desirable item by burnishing them with a tech-like sheen, allowing them to appeal to our longing for something truly different. Its Bauhaus design sensibility is little surprise given its origins in the nerdy world of Silicon Valley. Tesla Model Y — Source: Tesla Neither is its Spartan interior with a sizable screen to feed your tech ego and cupholders capacious enough to hold your $7 organic kombucha. The Model Y will run anywhere from 227 to 337 miles, depending on the model. While that's fairly standard in the EV world these days, it's still more than acceptable, and Model Ys generate anywhere from 295 to 456 horsepower. Despite looking like a jellybean on a keto diet, it offers 106 cubic feet of passenger volume and 30 cubic feet of cargo volume, expanding to 76 cubic feet with the second row folded. It may not be your first choice in an EV, given the CEO's political shenanigans, but the Tesla Model Y earns its accolade due to its ability to lure consumers to buy electric cars, despite not ever having truly wanted them. It also came from an American automotive startup, the first to succeed since Kaiser-Frazer was formed in 1945. Final thoughts An American car emits a certain feeling, one that clearly separates it from its Asian or Old-World competition. There's a brashness, a sense of overstatement and overachievement that renders them so seductive. And that's what makes them truly American. About the Author Larry Printz View Profile
The Herald Scotland
3 hours ago
- Automotive
- The Herald Scotland
Car brand offering bungee jumps to potential customers
Up to 100 jumps are being offered free on a first-come, first-served basis. Aptly named electric car brand Leapmotor is behind the initiative. It's hoped the bungee jumps will inspire motorists yet to go electric to take the leap. There's a bungee ride in Scotland. On it, people are dropped into pitch blackness 😱 — The Random Guy (@RandomTheGuy_) May 15, 2025 Anyone brave enough to bungee will enjoy a full panoramic view of London before they jump. They'll get the chance to take in iconic landmarks such as The Shard, The London Eye, and The BT Tower in full view as they hurtle towards the ground. Damien Dally, MD of Leapmotor UK, said: 'The thought of doing a bungee jump will be quite a daunting one for many. 'But sometimes you need to get out of your comfort zone and take a leap – like making the switch to electric. 'So, if you fancy stepping out of your comfort zone, please come down to Coram's Fields and say hello.' Leapmotor officially launched in the UK in early 2025 with its city car, the T03, and its family-focused SUV, the C10. The manufacturer has partnered with Stellantis, one of the largest car brands in the world, to distribute its vehicles nationwide at 46 dealerships. Recommended reading: The joint venture is led by 51 per cent stakeholder Stellantis, which has 130 years of history in the UK automotive sector. Damien Dally added: 'As for our pop-up dealership, we couldn't think of a more fitting way to launch our brand into the UK by helping Brits literally take the ultimate leap, a bungee jump from 160-feet-tall crane. 'Leapmotor is on a mission to be the best value EV brand in the UK and make electric driving accessible to everyone. 'It is clear many drivers are still nervous about making the switch to electric, but we believe our offering is the perfect first step into electric.'
The Drive
3 hours ago
- Automotive
- The Drive
I Want To Believe in the New SRT, but I Just Can't Get There Yet
The latest car news, reviews, and features. From the very core of my being, I want SRT to thrive. I grew up with Viper posters on my walls, a Viper wallpaper on my PC, Viper die-cast models on my dresser, and Viper-inclusive racing games on whatever platform I could scrape money together for. I even watched the awful Viper TV show. Of course it was bad. It debuted when I was ten, and even I figured that out pretty quick. Suffice it to say, the trickle-down marketing worked wonders on my impressionable young mind. I automatically liked anything R/T. Neons? Durangos? Not for me, maybe, but still neat. And when R/T became SRT and rumors began swirling of a revived Hemi V8, I was all ears. Dodge showed the new Charger in New York that year. I still have magazines with the coverage in a bin someplace in the basement. On its face, it was proof that Dodge had a future selling something other than Chrysler re-badges with bright red paint. But it was more than that. It was big. It was bad. It was different . In a showroom full of four-door soap bars and bulbous pickup trucks, the 6.1-liter Charger's big nostrils made it look every bit as sinister as the Viper. I should be hyped beyond belief by this week's announcement that Stellantis is reviving SRT. But I'm not; in fact, I'm struggling to feel anything at all. Don't get me wrong, I see the parallels with the early 2000s. Much like today, Chrysler (at the time, half of DaimlerChrysler) was in a weird place. The 'Merger of Equals' with Daimler was already starting to fray, but the two companies had already crossed streams with quite a bit of their development. The Dodge/Chrysler LX platform was a product of that intermingling—a Chrysler-derived chassis altered to fit several key Mercedes-Benz components, including front and rear suspension elements along with its five-speed automatic transmission. But despite its new European backers, Chrysler was somehow broke. The Charger, 300, and Magnum looked great on the road, but their interiors were low-rent even by the standards of cars costing a third less. That cost savings extended to other key components, too. Not a single one of the company's first-generation SRT-8 models shipped with a mechanical limited-slip differential. It wasn't until the second year of Dodge Challenger SRT-8 production (2009, for the record) that one finally showed up. The Charger had to wait for its 2011 redesign. The 300's performance variant was simply killed off instead, and the Magnum was gone entirely by the time things started to get interesting. But what the big Mopars lacked in capability, they made up for in pure vintage charisma. And the timing couldn't have been better. Everywhere you looked, baby boomer nostalgia was at its peak. Every old fart with a rusting '60s muscle car seemingly expected to cash it in for a down payment on a retirement home. It didn't hurt that gas was still relatively cheap, and the truck boom had American engineers all fizzed up over what else they could put big engines into. What's the saying? History may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes? But despite those harmonizing threads, that sense of excitement is missing. And maybe that's because what Dodge is proposing this time around isn't new or different. In fact, if anything, it's the literal opposite. The 2006 Dodge Charger was a melding of a new chassis with old components to create something that stood out in the showroom. This time around, it's plainly obvious that they're desperate to have anything in a showroom at all. To be fair, if I'd struck gold with the Hemi the way Mopar did with the last generation of SRTs, I'd want to tap that vein again, too. But I'm concerned there's not nearly as much left there to mine as SRT hopes. A brand-new V8 Charger was far too rich for my blood back in 2006; I had to wait 10 years for my turn at Hemi ownership. My Plum Crazy 392 was a gently-used 2013 SRT8 with the pistol-grip six-speed. It was everything I wanted it to be—big, dumb, loud, and yet somehow completely invisible to law enforcement. It was a great car, all things considered, but once the novelty wore off, my interest faded quickly. I ended up selling it to Carvana in what was effectively a break-even deal during the height of Covid. Less maintenance and insurance—money I would have spent no matter what—I only paid about $1,500 out of pocket for four-and-a-half years of ownership. But despite my fondness for it, I have no desire to repeat the experience. I get why this strategy is appealing to Stellantis; simply put, it was the last thing that worked, and there are still some within the company who remember how. And there are many out there like me who would love to see it succeed. So why not? The ramp-up of the old SRT line was so accidentally perfect that I don't think they'll be able to replicate that success. It was the right idea for the moment, and a strong enough one that it managed to survive the relentless succession of not-so-ideal moments that followed it. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the appetite is still there. As for me? Wake me up when there's a new Viper. Do you also like two-door sports coupes with big, dumb engines? Share your feelings with the author at byron@
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Italy's Agnelli family approached by suitors for La Repubblica's publisher
TURIN (Reuters) -Italy's Agnelli family received several expressions of interest for GEDI, the publisher of Italian dailies La Repubblica and La Stampa, but no deal has been reached, a spokesperson for the family's holding company EXOR said on Thursday. Italian newspaper Il Foglio reported that EXOR, which also is the single largest shareholder in carmaker Stellantis, is considering the sale of GEDI. It added that French media group Vivendi and Greek media company Antenna Group were potential buyers. "With reference to reports regarding GEDI Group, Exor says it has received several expressions of interest in these past years, but none of them have been followed up ", a spokesperson told reporters on the sideline of an event in Turin. GEDI reported sales for 224 million euros ($263.63 million) last year, when it posted a 15 million euros loss. The business is worth 0.3% of EXOR's net asset value, or 118 million euros, according to Italian broker Intermonte. ($1 = 0.8497 euros) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
