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How the demise of Lincoln's Town Car has kick-started a limo revolution

The deaths of the Ford Crown Victoria and the Lincoln Town Car have meant overhauls of three high-profile American fleets: police, taxi and livery car. Just as police fleets are more open to considering other options and a Nissan van is the new face of the NYC taxi, livery car companies are looking at replacements for the Town Car beyond The Blue Oval. Ford, via Lincoln, has made an MKT Town Car (pictured), but an article in the Detroit News claims "it has failed to win over most of the big limousine companies." The upstarts trying to move in include livery and limo editions of the Cadillac XTS, and livery specifications of the Toyota Avalon and Chrysler 300.
Each of those challengers, however, faces challenges. The Town Car was a workhorse, American, rear-wheel-drive sedan with plenty of rear legroom. Cadillac has been in the livery space before but with decontented models that were about selling the brand, not its luxury. It is taking the opposite approach with the XTS, pointing out that its livery edition is "contented in the upper half of the XTS range." Still, the CEO of Michigan's largest livery company says "it's quite a bit smaller than what we're used to," and he also prefers rear-wheel drive.
The Chrysler 300 is rear-wheel drive, and American, which matters to some companies, but Chrysler hasn't yet revealed the livery package for it. The livery Avalon marks Toyota's first time getting into that business in the US, a natural step after having done so well with taxi clients and with the Town Car out of the way. Still, the livery client is a different to taxi buyers, so the Avalon could face other soft-touch hurdles.

Google's deal with FCA is the 'first phase' of partnership

Google and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles confirmed a partnership Tuesday in which the two companies will collaborate on creating autonomous minivans. The two companies will work together to build and test approximately 100 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans, and they first of the bunch could hit the road by the end of the year. This marks the first time Google has worked with a traditional automaker in designing a self-driving car since the start of its autonomous project in 2009. "FCA will design the minivans so it's easy for us to install our self-driving systems, including the computers that hold our self-driving software and the sensors that enable our software to see what's on the road around the vehicle," Google said in a written statement. "The minivan design also gives us an opportunity to test a larger vehicle that could be easier for passengers to enter and exit, particularly with features like hands-free sliding doors." "Those of us in the tech industry recognize how hard it is to build cars." – Jennifer Haroon. That could be particularly important if Google and FCA intend to launch the autonomous minivans as a competitor to traditional public transportation options. Chris Urmson, the director of Google's self-driving car project, indicated that may be a potential business model during a public meeting on autonomous operations last week. "Public transit executives could be buying autonomous minivans rather than expensive buses," he said. "Federal standards determine what kinds of vehicles cities can use for transit. This needs attention." In the Pacifica, Google's engineers get an all-new minivan. Chrysler showcased the vehicle for the first time in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and sales of the non-hybrid versions of the vans went on sale last month. FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne says further collaboration between his company and Google is possible. "This first phase of the operation is very targeted. It's designed to take Google technology into the minivan. It's very, very focused," he said, according to Automotive News. The collaboration won't be Google's first experience with hybrids. The Lexus RX 450h SUV is one of the two cars in its current test fleet, which consists of approximately 70 vehicles. With roughly 100 autonomous minivans slated to be part of the collaboration, Google's test fleet will more than double.

Takata airbag recall claims 209k Chrysler, Dodge vehicles

Chrysler is expanding the scope of its front passenger side Takata airbag inflator recall yet again to include 139,115 additional vehicles for a total of 208,783 units now needing these parts replaced. The latest campaign affects the passenger side inflators of the 2003-2005 Dodge Ram 1500, 2003-2005 Dodge Ram 2500, 2003-2005 Dodge Ram 3500, 2004-2005 Durango; 2005 Dakota pickup; 2005 Dodge Magnum and 2005 Chrysler 300 (pictured above), 300C and SRT8. It's limited to vehicles purchased or ever registered in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan and the US Virgin Islands. The company expects owners to be notified by February 8. The automaker just expanded the replacement campaign last week to include passenger side inflators in 149,150 pickups from the 2003 model year. However, the parts are not the same. Chrysler says this recall is for the PSPI family of components versus SPI for the last one. The company is also not aware of any injuries or accidents in its vehicles from these potentially faulty inflators, and lab testing of 600 of them finds no issues. Despite this, Chrysler is repairing these models at the request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Scroll down to read the company's full announcement of the initiative. Statement: Air-bag Inflator (Regional Field Action Expansion) December 12, 2014 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - Chrysler Group is expanding an ongoing regional field action with a recall to replace front passenger-side air-bag inflators in an estimated 208,783 older-model vehicles originally purchased or ever registered in seven U.S. states and five territories. The vehicles are equipped with front passenger-side air-bag inflators from a product family code-named "PSPI." Chrysler Group is unaware of any injuries or accidents involving PSPI inflators of the type covered by this campaign, nor has a Chrysler Group investigation identified a defect in these components. Further, laboratory tests on nearly 600 such inflators did not result in any failures. The inflators affected by this campaign differ in design and construction from PSPI inflators used by other auto makers. They also benefited from a more robust manufacturing process. However, at the request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Chrysler Group is expanding its replacement action beyond its original scope of Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S.