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Chrysler banks $507 million in Q2, trims 2013 earnings forecast

Chrysler has some good news and some bad news. First, profits were up 16 percent over the second quarter of 2012, bringing the Auburn Hills, Michigan-based manufacturer $507 million on the back of strong demand for trucks and SUVs (a recurring theme this quarter, particularly in the US). Q2 revenue was up as well, from $16.8 billion in 2012 to $18 billion in 2013. The bad news is that the Pentastar's overall earnings forecast for net income in 2013 has been trimmed from $2.2 billion to between $1.7 and $2.2 billion, according to Automotive News.
In addition to the adjusted net income forecast, Chrysler tweaked its operating profit from $3.8 billion to between $3.3 and $3.8 billion. This has gone largely unexplained by Chrysler, perhaps hoping the news of a three-percent increase in its transaction prices for Q2 will allow it to sweep this adjustment under the rug.
The star of the show for Chrysler has been its US sales, which saw a 10-percent jump, both bettering the industry average of eight percent and improving over the same stretch of 2012. As with the increase in transaction prices, Chrysler has the new Ram pickup and Jeep Grand Cherokee to thank. Perhaps most worrying from this report, though, is that every brand in the automaker's stable saw an increase in sales... except for the Chrysler brand itself.

Jeep to stop using bad Takata airbag inflators next week

FCA is gradually ceasing to produce vehicles equipped with Takata airbag inflaters found to be inherently faulty. These airbags, which lack a certain drying agent, have been linked with dangerous premature ruptures. According to FCA, the only vehicle still in production with the named airbag is the 2016 Jeep Wrangler, and in this case they are passenger-side airbags. Fiat Chrysler says it isn't aware of any incidents involving these air bag inflaters in Jeeps, but amidst concerns that vehicles with failure-prone airbags are still being marketed to customers, North American-market 2016 Wranglers will cease to be equipped with them starting next week. As per FCA's statement, global production is expected to end by mid-September. In addition to Toledo, Ohio, the Wrangler is produced in Egypt. FCA isn't going to sell the cars with the deemed-faulty airbags without disclosing the fact to the customers: anyone buying a 2016 Wrangler will be notified that the vehicle will most likely be subject to a recall in the future, even if there is not currently a recall announced for them. NHTSA has specified a "Coordinated Remedy Program" recall schedule for the coming years, and the airbag inflaters will degrade over a time frame of several years, when subjected to a humid environment. Related Video: News Source: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, The Wall Street JournalImage Credit: Julien Amado / Autoblog Quebec Plants/Manufacturing Recalls Chrysler Jeep Ownership Safety Takata airbag recall

Junkyard Gem: 1978 Plymouth Volare Wagon

When it came time for Chrysler to retire the beloved but antiquated Dart and Valiant in the North American market, the Dodge Aspen and its Plymouth Volare twin were introduced for the 1976 model year. While the Aspen is better remembered today (partly because Aspens were in just about every cop TV show for a good decade and partly because Chrysler revived the Aspen name for a few years in the late 2000s), Plymouth's "small car with the accent on comfort" outsold the Aspen for every one of their five model years of production. Here's one of those Volares, a '78 station wagon with the Custom exterior and Premier interior packages, found in a Denver-area car graveyard recently. I thought this car looked very familiar, and it turns out that it spent many years parked in an alley driveway in my Denver neighborhood, next to a Dodge 600 sedan (which is still on the road; I saw it moving under its own power a few weeks ago). Back in the summer of 2020, I shot this photo for an episode of 24 Hours of Lemons Carspotting. Now I wish I'd talked a local Lemons team into offering a few bucks for this Volare, because it's better to race than to get crushed. Detroit went through an accent phase that started with the Volare and then continued with the Cadillac Allante and Oldsmobile Trofeo. The interior in this car still looks pretty good. This wagon has the exact same interior and exterior colors as the one in the Volare brochure that year. It's nicely equipped, with the optional 318-cubic-inch (5.2-liter) V8 and air conditioning (via the distinctive Chrysler V-twin compressor just in front of the carburetor). The base price on this car was $4,195 (about $19,890 in 2022 dollars), while the 318 cost $129 extra ($610 now). The A/C added $484 more ($2,295 today, and you can see how the price tag got bigger in a hurry with low-priced cars back in the 1970s). Believe it or not, a four-on-the-floor manual transmission was standard equipment in the '78 Volare with 318 engine, but I've never seen one so equipped; this car has the usual three-speed automatic. A cheap wagon like the Volare certainly wasn't going to come with a radio at the base MSRP (though a dealer might throw one in to sweeten the deal). This single-speaker, AM-only radio cost $74 extra ($351 in 2022 dollars).