2011 Chrysler 300c Base on 2040-cars

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Waymo picks Detroit factory to build self-driving fleet by mid-2019

SAN FRANCISCO — Alphabet Inc's Waymo said on Tuesday it had chosen a factory in Detroit to mass produce self-driving cars, looking to the historical heart of the auto industry to build the vehicles of the future. The company's chief executive, John Krafcik, said in a blog post that Waymo would partner with American Axle & Manufacturing to lease and repurpose an existing Detroit facility that will be operational by mid-2019. The facility belongs to American Axle, next to the GM Hamtramck facility that is at risk of being shuttered, and is across the Detroit River from Windsor, where the Chrysler Pacificas that Waymo uses are built. Presumably Waymo will do the self-driving fitment of Pacificas at the new facility. Waymo said in January it had chosen Michigan for its first production facility, adding it would receive incentives from the public-private partnership agency, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and create up to 400 jobs over time exclusively related to self-driving. Krafcik said in his blog post Tuesday that it's the "perfect facility," with up to 200,000 square feet to expand into. He said Waymo will hire the region's auto manufacturing talent. Waymo plans to buy 62,000 Pacificas and 20,000 Jaguars and convert them for autonomous driving. By 2022, it intends to conduct about 1 million trips per day. In a sea of rivals, Waymo is generally thought of as far ahead in the self-driving race. It already operates a robotaxi service in Arizona that it plans to expand geographically over time. Global automakers, large technology companies and startups are all engaged in self-driving efforts, but experts expect it will be years before systems are ready to be rolled out in all areas, with software and regulations among the many challenges. Waymo is competing with rivals General Motors and Uber Technologies to deploy such vehicles for the masses. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has also announced the company plans to launch a robotaxi service in 2020. Waymo, which has been working on self-driving technology for a decade, provided few new details. American Axle, with which Waymo is partnering for its Detroit facility, was formed in 1994 when an investment team purchased five plants that General Motors had put up for sale. GM plans to end output at its last Detroit factory next year, after announcing in November a plan to halt production at five North American assembly plants and cut about 15,000 jobs.

Junkyard Gem: 2002 Chrysler PT Cruiser Convertible Conversion

Chrysler started selling PT Cruisers for the 2001 model year, and these "trucks" (yes, they were considered trucks for American regulatory purposes) proved quite popular for at least the first half of the 2000s. A factory-built version with a convertible top appeared for 2005 (and later "won" the Top Gear Worst Car of the Last 20 Years award), but what about the PT Cruiser shoppers who wanted a drop-top before then? It turns out the aftermarket had the solution: the Newport Convertible Engineering conversion, which took new PT Cruisers and added a fully functioning convertible top. According to a discussion on Allpar, 54 of these conversions were performed, and I found one of them in a Denver-area self-service yard last month. Newport Convertible Engineering is still around, though they're in Huntington Beach instead of Placentia these days. If you want a Tesla Model S or Range Rover convertible, they'll build it for you. The NCE conversion for the PT Cruiser cost $9,900 (about $15,715 in 2022 dollars) plus the $17,000 sticker price of a new PT Cruiser, and included the needed chassis-stiffening modifications and a shortened, hydraulically-actuated rear hatch. The materials used look pretty good, even after 20 years of abuse and neglect. This one had the convertible mechanism ziptied shut in many locations when I found it. Naturally, I cut all those zipties to see if the roof mechanism still worked. It was very, very stiff but proved semi-functional (the zipties appeared to be an attempt to keep a faulty latch mechanism from letting the roof pop open at speed). The roof assembly weighs a lot, though you could spend an extra $3,000 to get a power-actuation system from NCE. This cab must have been extremely noisy and buffety with the top down at speed, but so what? Convertibles are cool. Mechanically, it's an ordinary Touring Edition with a Neon's 2.4-liter four-cylinder making 150 horsepower. You could get a PT Cruiser with a five-speed manual transmission, and many did, but this one has the extra-cost automatic. Starting in the 2003 model year, a 215-horse turbocharged engine became available. Rare, but not valuable. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This commercial is for the factory convertible, but you get the idea.

Undersized grille was #1 complaint of 2011-2014 Chrysler 300 owners

Not only did the 2005-2011 Chrysler 300 have a big ol' grille, it jutted ahead of the car. The grille was the metaphorical figurehead for the USS 300, and it did its job, making the sedan the Central Casting submission for "in-your-face styling" that rolled down the street winning the game of "Made You Look." The one-billion-dollar redesign for 2011 (pictured above) aimed for more upscale and less aggression - "a more grown-up look" - so the grille shrunk. And Chrysler 300 buyers hated that. So said Chrysler brand president Al Gardner to Edmunds, relating that the smaller grille was "the No. 1 issue" on the list of customer complaints about the model years from 2011 to 2014. It doesn't appear to have been much loved in-house, either, with Ralph Gilles having said of it, "Our previous generation of leaders didn't understand the car very well, and kind of forced this front end on us." That's why the grille on the 2015 model (pictured in 300S trim, inset) was aggrandized by 33 percent, although it's still not as large as on the first generation, and the more fluid design of the current car doesn't let it stand out as before. Gardner went on to say that designers "spent more time on the front end than on anything else," in search of, as Gilles put it, "the attitude it deserves." We'll soon find out if that increases the number of buyers it deserves as well. Related Gallery 2015 Chrysler 300: First Drive View 40 Photos News Source: EdmundsImage Credit: Copyright 2014 AOL Design/Style Chrysler Sedan