2005 Chrysler Pt Cruiser 2dr Convertible Touring 1-owenr Low Miles on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Marchionne emailed Barra about merger between FCA and GM

Sergio Marchionne is adamant that global automakers will have to merge to remain profitable in the near future, and he'll tell that to anyone who's listening. Mary Barra, however, is not interested. According to The New York Times, the Fiat-Chrysler chief proposed a merger with General Motors via email to his counterpart back in March. Marchionne proposed meeting to discuss the matter, but Barra and her team reportedly rejected even entertaining the idea. This of course is not the first time Marchionne has raised the idea of a merger. He masterminded the marriage between Fiat and Chrysler, and reports have since suggested further mergers with Volkswagen, Peugeot, Ford, and others – including GM's own Opel unit. Some have taken his calls for consolidation as a weakness, but Marchionne insists that his empire is in good health – and that it's the industry as a whole which is in an untenable position. According to his view, automakers around the world need to align themselves into larger groups in order to reduce redundancy in investment, development and infrastructure – the duplication of which he terms as wasteful. "It's fundamentally immoral to allow for that waste to continue unchecked," said Marchionne to the Times. "I think it is absolutely clear that the amount of capital waste that's going on in this industry is something that certainly requires remedy," he said in a conference call with industry analysts late last month following the rejected GM approach. "A remedy in our view is through consolidation." News Source: The New York TimesImage Credit: Paul Sancya/AP Chrysler Fiat GM Sergio Marchionne merger fiat chrysler automobiles

Fiat Chrysler wins top Total Quality Award for first time

The Strategic Vision Total Quality Awards are 20 years old in 2015, and Chrysler has never topped the awards before. Until now, that is. Fiat Chrysler takes the overall award on the corporate level with six segment leaders from Fiat, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram. The Fiat 500 won Small Multi-Function Car, the 500e won Small Alternative Powertrain, the Dodge Challenger tied at the top in the Specialty Coupe category alongside the very un-coupe Mini Cooper Countryman, the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited took the Entry SUV category, the Dodge Durango won in Mid-Size SUV, and Ram took the overall in Best Non-Luxury Brand. The accolade means FCA has gone from one segment winner in 2010 to overall victory in five years. Cars have gotten so good, says Strategic Vision, that it is harder than ever to win. In fact, says the group, 18 years ago 85 percent of all vehicle brands had more than half a problem per vehicle. This year, no brand has more than half a problem per vehicle. The organization measures "over 155 specific aspects of the customer's experience," and scores are based on input from more than 46,000 customers. Other notables in and near the winner's circle include Volkswagen and General Motors, who tied for second place on the corporate scale, one point behind FCA. The Mini Cooper Roadster scored the highest of any model, the Corvette Stingray Convertible and Coupe scored the second- and third-highest. The Chevrolet Colorado is the first domestic Standard Pickup winner in more than ten years, and the Nissan Titan carried the Full-Size Pickup category. The press release below has all the details on how winners and losers are selected, and the full list of automakers and how they finished. "The Customer's 'Total' Experience Defines Quality, Fiat Chrysler Scores Highest in Total Quality," says Strategic Vision The 2015 Total Quality Awards® SAN DIEGO, Friday, July 17, 2015 — Unknown to many, when some consumer research firms rank a car company's quality performance they often do so by simply "counting problems." In the past, this may have been acceptable, but in today's modern and efficient manufacturing world the difference between the worst brand and best brand is LESS than half-a-problem per vehicle. Thus, any "quality ranking" based on this method is severely lacking in the complete picture of the "Total" Quality experience that customers actually use to judge their product ownership.

Feds accuse Fiat Chrysler, UAW of conspiring to break labor laws

DETROIT — Top officials of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the United Auto Workers union conspired to violate U.S. labor laws, federal prosecutors alleged in a court document, saying a former executive at the automaker knew bribes paid to union leaders were designed to "grease the skids" in labor negotiations. U.S. Justice Department officials for the first time called the company and the union "co-conspirators" in a document related to a guilty plea agreed by former Fiat Chrysler director of employee relations Michael Brown. The document was filed with the U.S. District Court in Detroit on May 25. Its contents were reported by the Detroit News on Wednesday. Brown pleaded guilty to one count of concealing a felony. The plea agreement stated that he knew Fiat Chrysler executives authorized $1.5 million in improper payments and travel, liquor, cigars and other goods for UAW officials who served on the union's negotiating committee. Prosecutors say FCA executives paid UAW representatives to influence union business. including collective bargaining on contracts ratified in 2011 and 2015. The government contends money was run through the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center, via false charitable donations and training center credit cards. Fiat Chrysler Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne has said in the past that the misconduct "had nothing whatsoever to do with the collective bargaining process" and the "egregious acts were neither known to nor sanctioned" by the company. Fiat Chrysler had no further comment Monday. Outgoing UAW President Dennis Williams told union leaders at a conference in Detroit on Monday "our leadership team had no knowledge of the misconduct — which involved former union members and former auto executives — until it was brought to our attention by the government." Brown pleaded guilty on May 25, according to court documents, and will be sentenced on Sept. 20. Five other people have pleaded guilty in the government's ongoing investigation into the UAW and Fiat Chrysler, including the wife of a late UAW official, two other former UAW employees, former Fiat Chrysler vice president Alphons Iacobelli and another former Fiat Chrysler employee. Reporting By David Shepardson and Nick CareyRelated Video: Government/Legal UAW/Unions Chrysler Dodge Fiat Jeep RAM FCA