TAWA gives top honors to Heavy-Duty Ram, Dakota and Patriot

The Texas Auto Writers Association named the Heavy-Duty Ram Pickup the “Heavy Duty Pickup Truck of Texas” at their annual truck Rodeo. At the event, held outside of San Antonio this year, the Dodge Dakota was selected “Mid-Size Pickup of Texas” and the Jeep Patriot earned the “Compact SUV of Texas” title.
Selections were made by [...]

Sebring, 200C: ambiguous future

Sergio Marchionne has stated that Fiat/Alfa will be using Chrysler’s mid-sized platform, in an announcement that may have stunned numerous onlookers, who expected Chrysler to move to a future Alfa Romeo platform. However, the situation is not clear.

Chrysler has two mid-sized platforms at this time: the J-cars, Sebring and Avenger, and the upcoming Chrysler 200C, [...]

Belvidere plant reopens today

Chrysler Group is recalling hundreds of employees to resume production at the Belvidere assembly plant. The plant, which builds the Dodge Caliber, Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot, will run today, tomorrow and Friday before breaking for the two-week summer furlough.
Two months ago, the company had planned to lay off 992 of Belvidere’s 2,600 employees at [...]

Mopar, all three brands reorganized

As part of the continuing transformation of Chrysler’s management structure, each of the major brand groupings has been reorganized.
At Mopar Service, Parts, and Customer Care, led by Pietro Gorlier:

James Sassorossi is in charge of parts
Aldo Pallisco is responsible for parts supply chain management and distribution
Albert Motta is in charge of service operations, including tech support [...]

Marchionne may cut more Chrysler models

He saved the PT Cruiser, but new Chrysler Group CEO Sergio Marchionne may trim some other models from Chrysler’s lineup.
While no decisions have yet been set in stone, the Chrysler Sebring and Jeep Compass could be candidates for a date with Jack Ketch. The Compass’ GS-platform stablemates could share the Compass’ fate, though it’s possible [...]

Jeep Patriot EV revealed

Time.com has revealed the Jeep Patriot EV a bit ahead of schedule, according to Jalopnik.  The truck has a 40 mile range on batteries, 400 miles with a range extender; and can do 0-60 in 8 seconds, according to Chrysler. With electric motor technology claimed to be easily adapted to regular production cars in the [...]

Jalopnik reveals Chrysler’s 2009 launches

Jalopnik has just posted details on the various launches scheduled by Chrysler for all of 2009. They noted, “Thanks to not being invited to today’s secret Chrysler future product event, we’re not covered by any embargoes. Good. Because that means we’re able to tell you all about Chrysler’s future product plans…today! … Remember to thank Chrysler PR [...]