http://www.allpar.com/noos/allpar.rss Allpar's Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth news, covering cars, trucks, minivans, corporate changes, and some rumors and Allpar site news. http://www.allpar.com/news/?action=fullnews&id=1414 Late night on Mother’s Day, Team Mopar drivers Kasey Kahne, Brady Bacon, Gary Scelzi, Allen Johnson, Jack Beckman, Samuel Hübinette, Shaun Carlson and Brian Collins will be featured on SpeedFreaks, America’s top motorsports radio show. On Sunday, May 11, from 10 p.m. to midnight EDT (7 to 9 p.m. PDT), the drivers will make in-studio appearances as well as call in with the SpeedFreaks trio of Kenny Sargent, Crash Gladys and Statt Mann Caruthers.In the first hour, the SpeedFreaks will feature NHRA Funny Car driver Jack Beckman as their in-studio guest. Beckman, who drives for Don Schumacher Racing, has one win this year and is currently eighth in the points battle. NASCAR standout Kasey Kahne, a Team Mopar USAC owner, will make a call-in appearance in the first hour. Kahne will be joined by 18-year-old Brady Bacon, a driver for Kasey’s USAC team. Bacon is currently second in the USAC Sprint Series points standings. The second hour will feature two-time Formula Drift champion Samuel Hübinette and his team owner, Shaun Carlson, in the studio. On the phone will be four-time NHRA champion Gary Scelzi and NHRA Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson. Johnson is currently fifth in the Pro Stock points as he goes into next weekend’s O’Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway, which is Johnson’s home track. Look for another call-in, this time from Team Mopar newcomer Brian Collins, who racked up back-to-back wins at the SCORE San Felipe 250 and the SNORE Mint 400. Collins and his No. 12 Dodge Ram 1500 are preparing for the upcoming Tecate SCORE Baja 500 which gets underway on May 31. SpeedFreaks radio show is heard on over 70 stations nationwide, SIRIUS Satellite channel 122, the Armed Forces Network and live on the Internet at www.sportsbyline.com. Listeners can call in to 1-86-69-FREAKS. http://www.allpar.com/news/?action=fullnews&id=1413 (from James Hale)Every year, Huixquilucan (prononce "whisky LOOK on") hosts what has become an important car show. This town is now a suburb of Mexico City, to the west, up in the mountains.The car show displays many vintage cars, the most of which are in top shape, and some of which were inherited and have never left the family of the original owner. You won't see any special, rare or too exotic cars over there, compared to what you have in the US, but the event has earned a very good reputation.So good in fact, that Chrysler saw it fit to introduce their new Challenger, of which Mexico will get 100 units of the SRT version. The first Challenger to be sold in Mexico was put up for bids, and it fetched no less than $660,000 pesos, that is, US$62,857.14 (exhange rate: US$1.00 = Mex10.5).The car wasn't in Mexico at the time, and Chrysler Mexico president gave the winner of the bid a scale model of the car, while he waits for the real thing, which incidentally, is a production model, not a prototypePart of the proceeds will go to charity through the Chrysler Foundation. http://www.allpar.com/news/?action=fullnews&id=1412 The first 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8s rolled off the Brampton line on Thursday as workers cheered. The new muscle cars will hit dealer showrooms next week but won’t stay there long; almost all of them are already sold."We haven't seen this kind of hype for a vehicle since we launched the first Viper," said Frank Ewasyshyn, Chrysler executive vice president for manufacturing, who addressed a crowd of employees, Canadian government officials and reporters. Company executives boasted the Challenger was launched with the least expensive manufacturing startup in Chrysler history. The car went from drawing board to showroom in 21 months and it cost just $151 million to set up the factory to build it. According to Ewasyshyn, that’s the least the automaker has ever spent to launch a single vehicle. He went on to say flexible manufacturing helped control the costs. The Challenger is built with the same machinery as the Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 and many of the pilot cars were assembled without shutting down the production line. http://www.allpar.com/news/?action=fullnews&id=1411 The Dodge Challenger was officially launched today. http://www.allpar.com/news/?action=fullnews&id=1410 Chrysler has announced more details of its new “Let’s Refuel America” incentive program. The program provides a cap of $2.99 per gallon of fuel for up to 12,000 miles per year for three years. “Let’s Refuel America” runs from May 7, 2008 to June 2, 2008 and is available on all new 2008 and 2009 model year Chrysler vehicles except the following: All SRT models, Sprinter, Viper, Crossfire, Wrangler, Ram Chassis Cab, and Challenger models. Please see the Full Story for an overview of the program. http://www.allpar.com/news/?action=fullnews&id=1409 Fitch Ratings cut Chrysler issuer default ratings deeper into junk territory on Wednesday. Fitch gave Chrysler a “B” rating, five levels below investment grade, and said the company has a negative ratings outlook which means another downgrade is possible. Fitch had previously rated Chrysler as “B-plus.”"The downgrade reflects the decline in unit volumes and revenues resulting from weak economic conditions, modest share losses, certain strategic initiatives, and the effect of these factors on the company's operating performance," said Fitch in a statement.Fitch said it expects capital investments and restructuring costs will keep Chrysler's cash flow negative in 2008. On the plus side, the agency noted Chrysler’s restructuring efforts remain on track and the automaker has adequate liquidity to fund sustain it during the current weak economy. http://www.allpar.com/news/?action=fullnews&id=1408 Although Chrysler's Mexican sales fell by 11% in March 2008 (compared with March 2007), it still managed to rise above Ford in market share as Ford plummeted by 35%. The leader in Mexican sales is Nissan, with 17,800 vehicles sold in March; that's down by 3% from last year. GM fell 20%, Volkswagen 26%. Mazda sales increased but were only 1.512 units; the mighty Toyota's sales fell 11% and remain roughly half of Chrysler and Ford sales. In March 2007, Ford sold around 3,700 more vehicles than Chrysler in Mexico; in March 2008, Chrysler beat Ford by around 300 vehicles. As a whole, Mexico's car sales fell by 17%. http://www.allpar.com/news/?action=fullnews&id=1407 The Verona PBA is having a Cops and Rodders Show on Sunday June 22, 2008. There will be several Mopar sqaud cars attending. For more information, see http://copsandrodders.copcircle.com/ http://www.allpar.com/news/?action=fullnews&id=1406 Chrysler is introducing a new incentive program. “Let’s Refuel America” guarantees that customers who buy or lease a qualified new Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicle won’t pay more than $2.99 per gallon for gasoline during the first three years of ownership."Today, we are proud to introduce an unprecedented program to help put customers' minds at ease and do something to help working people who are worried about the volatility of fuel prices and vehicle cost of ownership," Jim Press, Chrysler vice chairman, said in a statement. The program "puts money in your pocket today, and allows our customers to better manage their fuel expenses."Other automakers have had various programs to take the sting out of high fuel prices, but the Chrysler program stands alone in covering the entire nation and most of the company’s current products.“Let’s Refuel America” will be available starting Wednesday at all U.S. Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealerships and will run through June 2. It provides an annual allowance based on the vehicle's estimated mileage and 12,000 miles' driving for each of the three years. It does not cover high-performance SRT models, the Crossfire, Jeep Wrangler, new Dodge Challenger and Viper. The Dodge Ram Chassis Cab and Sprinter van are also excluded. Participation in the program is optional and retail customers can still choose from other incentives. http://www.allpar.com/news/?action=fullnews&id=1405 Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli said the company is trying to move workers now in jobs banks into openings created by the departure of other workers who took voluntary separation packages.According to Nardelli, this strategy saves money while staying on the good side of the United Auto Workers union. Layoffs are expensive: employees still receive most of their base pay so putting them back to productive work generates revenue for the company and helps Chrysler’s efforts to reduce total headcount. http://www.allpar.com/news/?action=fullnews&id=1404 Chrysler’s finance unit sold $1.36 billion of asset-backed securities but paid a hefty premium to clinch the deal. The original sale was supposed to be $1 billion, but the company elected to increase the offering by roughly a third. Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG managed the sale. The 2.25-year AAA-rated securities are backed by consumer auto loans and were priced to yield 148 basis points, or 1.48 percent above the one-month London interbank offered rate, or Libor, said a person familiar with the deal. The source requested anonymity because the terms were not public. Similar AAA bonds sold by Chrysler in February were priced to yield 105 basis points, or 1.05 percent, and last November, the company only had to add 68 basis points, less than half the premium of the latest sale. The one-month Libor is currently 2.6975 percent. The cost to sell asset-backed securities has shot up in recent months as would-be investors have fled the market. Subprime mortgage defaults and problems with other types of consumer debt have made even well-rated issues more risky. http://www.allpar.com/news/?action=fullnews&id=1403 The Dodge Caravan held on to the top spot in the minivan segment in April. Honda sales figures posted today show that, while sales of the Odyssey were up, they still weren’t enough to catch the Dodge. The Chrysler Town & Country came in fourth, less than 500 sales behind the Toyota Sienna. While much was made of the decline in the minivan market, the minivan’s 17.94 percent drop was eclipsed by the 20.01 percent decline in pickup share. The SUV segment dropped 15.56 percent in April.Chrysler ended the month with an 11.84 percent market share, down 2.59 percent from April 2007 and 0.43 percent from March 2007. It was the largest share loss of any manufacturer, beating GM’s loss of 2.29 percent. Largest gain was recorded by Toyota, up 1.17 percent percent to 17.45 percent, followed by Honda which climbed to 10.84 percent, an increase of 1.39 percent.Chrysler placed only one vehicle, the Dodge Ram , in the top ten for April and only two, the Ram and Caravan, in the top twenty. Best finish for a Chrysler car was the Charger at No. 22. Top Chrysler vehicle was the Town & Country at No. 30. The T&C was also the only Chrysler-branded vehicle to top 10,000 monthly sales. The top Jeep was the Wrangler at No. 38.For more details, see the Full Story...