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Allpar has already reported on insider reports that Chrysler must pay Mercedes exorbitant fees for consulting and engineering, and that the flow is largely one-way - above and beyond the "natural" flow from a luxury car maker to a mass-production car maker. thread on dodgeintrepid.net supports and adds to this. The poster said that not only is Mercedes billing for the development costs of the various Mercedes parts in the LX cars - which was reported earlier - but that Mercedes charged for design costs of a new engine to replace the Cummins diesel in the pickups, but which was not used because it did not fit. (It should be noted that Dodge also still has a supply contract with Cummins) - we do not have confirmation of this but it is not inconsistent. To quote the poster, "Not a bad deal for Mercedes. Design a new part use it for years then send it to Chrysler and bill them for all the design cost... That's creative accounting."
Mercedes' new telematics systems, incidentally, were designed by Chrysler, and will be shared by both makes. It would be interesting to know whether Mercedes is paying Chrysler for its development costs. However, this, as well as redesign of various vehicles to use more Mercedes technology, would explain a great deal about Chrysler's 'red ink" of the post-merger years.
Detroit News is running a highly complimentary series on Ford's contributions to the world, with articles that read more as though they were written by Ford PR executives than by a serious newspaper. Neatly missing are Henry Ford's racist and anti-Jewish ravings, the abusive working conditions of employees at Ford factories, the fact that the $5 per day wage was only given to a small number of people - but was highly publicized so there would be intense competition for jobs, high turnover even in the Depression due to poor working conditions, assault of Ford workers even in their homes by Ford's thugs, and, of course, the fact that Henry Ford indirectly caused the deaths of millions of people by providing Adolph Hitler with his inspiration - according to Hitler, who made Henry Ford the only American ever awarded the Iron Cross by the Nazi government. Ford's early innovations, aside from producing inexpensive cars, included an almost total disregard for the safety of drivers and employees alike, with the company being slow to pick up important features such as hydraulic brakes.
While journalists could cover this side of Ford's history, that might put their valuable advertising dollars into jeopardy.
The one-millionth Cummins diesel engine built for the Dodge Ram Heavy Duty was shipped from Cummins' Columbus, Ind. factory today. To commemorate the milestone, Dodge will hand off the keys of its one-millionth Cummins diesel-powered Ram to a lucky sweepstakes winner.
Cummins has supplied Dodge with diesel engines since 1989 and has become the benchmark for diesel power in the heavy-duty segment. Since 1989, the exceptionally durable straight-six Cummins Turbo Diesel engine has increased its horsepower and torque ratings by 91 percent and 39 percent, respectively, culminating in the current High Ouput Cummins Turbo Diesel, which delivers 305 horsepower and 555 lb.-ft. of torque. Fitted with the High Output Cummins Turbo Diesel, the Dodge Ram Heavy Duty features a class- leading gross combined vehicle weight rating (GCVW) of 23,000 lbs.
Decades after the disastrous 4-6-8 engines, General Motors announced that it would be introducing "displacement on demand," a system where cylinders are deactivated if they are not in use. The system will eventually move to most of its light trucks, but will start on the 2005 model year Envoy XL, Envoy XUV, and TrailBlazer EXT. The system electronically adjusts the number of cylinders firing depending on driving conditions, and will be standard on the 5.3 liter engines (which are an option). GM estimates that gas mileage will increase by 1-2 miles per gallon.
The system will also be made available on a new family of V-6 engines appearing in 2006 model year cars. By 2008, GM plans to use it on more than 2 million vehicles.
Chrysler is also working on a similar system, due around 2005-2006, for truck use. Chrysler's Liberty Group also tried a number of fuel-saving measures which are less sophisticated and had, as a collective, a surprisingly high impact; but we have not had word on whether Chrysler would implement those.
Dan Minick pointed us to a positive article from the British publication CAR. He quoted CAR as saying, among others:
The Chrysler Pacifica has reached the bar set by competing vehicles by achieving the highest ratings in each type of crash test from the Federal Government. The 5 star ratings have been featured in ads from Hyundai, Ford, and Honda, and have now been given to the Chrysler Pacifica as well. Chrysler reported 27,000 orders from dealers for the new vehicle, but will limit production to 100,000 units per year to retain a premium position.
Doug Hetrick sent us this link to an unusually informative interview.
Despite an industry performance rate that remained flat for the first time since 1999, the Chrysler Group was the only major manufacturer to post quality gains for the 13th straight year, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2003 Initial Quality Studys released today. The company also made significant strides in existing models, and bucked industry trends by recording better initial quality on newly launched vehicles.
The J.D. Power report showed that the Chrysler Group as a whole posted a 3-percent gain in overall initial quality rankings, despite a flat industry average. The company's new-vehicle launch strategy was validated through the performance of the recently launched Dodge Ram light duty (4 percent improvement compared with its predecessor model) and the Dodge Ram heavy duty (10 percent improvement compared with its predecessor model). In addition, there was continued solid performance of the Jeep Liberty (6 percent improvement over 2002). Each reflects an improvement over last year's impressive initial scores, and runs counter to the slippage in quality on newly launched vehicles that often occurs in the industry.
The Dodge Ram heavy duty truck led all heavy duty competition, including models from GM and Ford which have been out for a while.
The J.D. Power Initial Quality Study (IQS) ranks new vehicles based on the first 90 days of ownership.
As Ford has presented the police with a variety of exploding and disintegrating cars, and Chrysler's first official squads in over a decade were tarnished with brake fires, General Motors stepped up its efforts to convert police to the world's largest automaker. In addition to the Impala, which trails the Intrepid in performance but has been available for a longer time, GM is now making a police version of the Tahoe available. Unlike other SUVs, GM says this one will be certified for high speed and severe duty law enforcement use, putting it up against the rear-drive Ford Crown Victoria for daily patrol use.
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