On Monday, May 20, a tornado touched down in the town of Moore, a suburb of Oklahoma City. Tornadoes are a fact of life in the Midwest, but this one was far from ordinary -- a fact proven by the numbers we use to describe it: 200 mph winds, 1.3 miles wide, a path of destruction 17 miles long, 377...Read More»
The launch of the Fiat 500 didn't go as smoothly as some had hoped. First, Chrysler dealers had to build special showrooms for the new model, since CEO Sergio Marchionne didn't want Fiats sold alongside other Chrysler brands. That slowed the rollout process. Then came the ads, featuring spokesmodel...Read More»
Detroit, we have a problem -- in fact, we have two. Everyone knows that younger consumers are ambivalent about owning cars. That's an obstacle that automakers around the globe are trying to overcome. But Detroit's Big Three have an additional hurdle: women don't care much for them, either...Read More»
Every year, Consumer Reports rolls out its "Brand Report Card", which ranks major auto brands based on reliability and road-test scores. CR's 2013 scoresheet has just come out, with Lexus at the top of the heap. In previous years, CR's report card has lumped all of an automaker's sub-brands under...Read More»
Chrysler has some work to do on the customer satisfaction front. In the most recent Sales Satisfaction Index published by J.D. Power and Associates, Fiat was the only one of the automaker's five brands to score above the industry average, while Dodge and Jeep battled it out at the bottom of the...Read More»
When Fiat joined forces with Chrysler in 2009, the marriage spawned rumors that Alfa Romeo would soon return to the U.S. Chrysler/Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has done plenty to encourage those rumors, though he's said that Alfas would only arrive when the time was right. Apparently, the time is now...Read More»
Toyota hasn't just bounced back, with one of the strongest reputations among automakers in the U.S. It is the most highly regarded auto-sector company in the U.S. So says one of the preeminent measures of company reputation, the 2013 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient (RQ), from Harris Interactive...Read More»
Plenty of websites and media firms rank Super Bowl ads -- in fact, we discussed several of them on Monday, the day after the big game. But when it comes to TV viewers and statistics, one authority carries more weight than nearly all of the others combined: Nielsen. After the Super Bowl broadcast...Read More»
Incentives continued their long, slow decline in January, but according to TrueCar, transaction prices fell, too, which could soften the blow for bargain-hunters. On average, incentives slipped 12.2% between December 2012 and January 2013, coming to rest at $2,274 per vehicle. The pickings are...Read More»
Plenty of surveys measure attitudes toward the auto industry. Some determine how much motorists like their vehicles, some focus on the dealership experience, and others zero in on areas like auto insurance. Marketing firm YouGov measures something a little more elusive: buzz. Every weekday, YouGov...Read More»
When the all-new Dodge Dart debuted at last year's Detroit Auto Show, the media was excited. It marked the revival of a once-loved nameplate and the first major collaboration between Chrysler and its new Italian owners (since the Dart is based on a Fiat platform). And for a reasonably priced...Read More»
Back in October, there was a lot of discussion about Chrysler and news that the company might begin producing Jeeps in China again. Some pundits screamed bloody murder, fearing that Chrysler's new Italian owner -- Fiat -- planned to shutter Jeep facilities in the U.S. and headquarter the...Read More»
The way that Americans shop for goods and services has seen a lot of changes over the past two decades. Many companies have kept pace with the times, but auto dealers? Some, yes, others, not so much. Thankfully, a few in the industry are shaking things up. Tesla and Audi are tinkering with the...Read More»
Back in December, we told you about the winners (Honda) and losers (Toyota) in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's tougher frontal-crash tests. We also told you about the new IIHS designation, "Top Safety Pick+", which recognizes vehicles that perform especially well in crash tests. Now...Read More»
Five weeks after Hurricane Sandy made landfall, life across much of the northeast has returned to normal (or a rough approximation thereof). But some automakers have followed an easier road to recovery than others. Reporting on the strong state of the U.S. auto market, Detroit News mentions that...Read More»
If you're a Jeep fan, you probably know all about the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. The special edition Wrangler is named for one of the world's most celebrated, brutal, off-road courses, and it lives up to that name with a combination of ruggedness and style. The 10th anniversary Rubicon is available in...Read More»
Chrysler is expanding the S family of models with a Town & Country version, which will make its debut this week at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show. With a clean, distinctive look, the S trim gives the people mover a more modern design with small styling adjustments. The exterior of the Town...Read More»
Chrysler has debuted a new, special edition of its Jeep Patriot SUV: the 2013 Jeep Patriot Freedom edition. The announcement came yesterday, while many Americans were observing Veterans Day. The timing isn't coincidental: like the Jeep Wrangler Freedom edition, the Patriot Freedom is billed as "a...Read More»
One week ago, after Hurricane Sandy's violent landfall, residents along America's eastern seaboard awoke to starkly different landscapes than they ones they'd known a few hours earlier. Homes and offices had been destroyed, mementos and landmarks ruined, lives changed, taken, forever altered. But...Read More»
