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FCA recalls 1.1 million vehicles worldwide due to confusing shifter

Fiat Chrysler is recalling 1.1 million vehicles worldwide to address the problematic shifter used on cars with eight-speed automatic transmissions. The issue is that the console-mounted shifter acts like a rocker switch and always returns to the middle position after moved. This has been deemed confusing to drivers – confusing enough to cause some to exit their vehicles without first selecting Park and leading to the car rolling away. FCA says 41 injuries are related to the shifter problem, and no evidence of equipment failure has been found. The company will enhance warning chimes and alter the shift strategy, meaning alert messages will be displayed in case the driver door is opened while the engine is running. With the door open, the transmission will prevent the car from moving even if Park is not selected. The affected vehicles are certain model-year 2012–2014 Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 sedans, as well as model-year 2014–2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs, an estimated 811,586 US vehicles in total. The recall also affects 52,144 vehicles in Canada, 16,805 in Mexico, and 248,667 vehicles elsewhere. The shifter is used with ZF-designed and ZF-built eight-speed automatic; Audi uses a similar shifter setup in some of its vehicles, including the current-generation, which predated Chrysler's use of it. Chrysler uses a different, a rotating-dial-type shifter on eight-speed-equipped Rams. The company moved away from the problem shifter design in 2015 for the Charger and 300, and the Grand Cherokee's shift lever was modified for 2016. Owners of affected vehicles will be notified of the recall when service is available. Fiat Chrysler urges customers to follow the instructions in the vehicle's owner's manual in the meantime. Related Video: News Source: FCAImage Credit: AOL Recalls Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM Ownership Safety SUV Sedan

2019 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivan gets sinister S package

If you prefer shuttling your kids and their juice boxes to soccer practices and piano recitals with a smaller carbon footprint, but you wanna look gangsta doing it, then has Chrysler got a minivan for you. Starting in July, the automaker will offer the murdered-out S Appearance Package on the Pacifica Hybrid, too, following its "wildly successful" debut in the gasoline combustion version last fall. The details appear to be mostly the same as on the gas versions. Buyers will get lots of exterior gloss black accents, including grille surrounds, eyebrow headlamp accents, and window and rear valance moldings. The front and rear Chrysler wing badges are likewise done in black, but the Hybrid version comes with a special teal insert to highlight its green bonafides. The "Pacifica," "S" and "eHybrid" badges also get the "Black Noise" finish. A black roof rack and 18-inch wheels with "Black Noise" finish are now standard. Inside, the S Appearance brings black seats with gray accents and the "S" logo, light gray stitching and black accents on the wheel, and light gray stitching and the imaginatively named Anodized Ice Cave bezels on the instrument panel and door trim. Everything else in the interior is as blacked-out as your hard-as-nails, tree-hugging soul. You can order the S Appearance Package on the 2019 Pacifica Hybrid models with any exterior paint color, not just black, starting next month, for $595. It'll arrive in showrooms in the fall. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Featured Gallery 2019 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid S Appearance Package Image Credit: Fiat Chrysler Design/Style Green Chrysler Minivan/Van Electric Hybrid chrysler pacifica hybrid options package trim

Junkyard Gem: 1983 Chrysler Cordoba

When we think of the Chrysler Cordoba, we think of the bloated, Corinthian Leather-equipped Malaisewagon pitched by Ricardo Montalban during the middle 1970s. That car lived on the Chrysler B platform, making it first cousin to the Duke Boys' 1969 Charger plus countless police vehicles in 1970s television shows. Following the downsizing trend of GM and Ford during the second half of the 1970s — and spurred along by certain geopolitical events plus a "too big to fail" government bailout — Chrysler moved the Cordoba onto the much smaller platform used by the Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volare for the 1980 model year. Production of the smaller Cordoba continued all the way through 1983; sales of these mini-Cordobas were dismal, but I managed to find this final-year survivor in a junkyard near Pikes Peak. I'm pretty sure you could still get Corinthian Leather in the '83 Cordoba, but this car has the base-grade "Monterey" cloth-and-vinyl interior. Production of more modern cars based on the brand-new, front-wheel-drive K platform was in full swing by 1983, so the rear-wheel-drive Cordoba and its siblings (the Imperial and Dodge Mirada) got the axe after that year. American car shoppers could get the closely-related Chrysler Fifth Avenue, Dodge Diplomat, and Plymouth Gran Fury all the way through 1989, though. The sturdy-but-sluggish Slant-6 engine came as standard equipment in the 1983 Cordoba, but this car has the optional 318-cubic-inch (5.2-liter) V8, rated at 130 horsepower when new. Chrysler continued to put 318s (as the 5.2 Magnum) into new trucks all the way through 2003, and the Viper's V10 was based on this engine's architecture. These American Racing aluminum wheels (and their more prestigious Centerline competitors) were serious stuff back in the 1980s. Nowadays, 15" wheels are considered far too small to be worth grabbing at the junkyard, although I'm sure someone will grab these before the car gets eaten by The Crusher. This factory AM/FM stereo radio cost $109 when the car was new (about $290 in 2020 dollars). If you wanted the radio with cassette deck and digital tuning, the cost rose to $402 ($1,070 today). These days, even the most penny-pinching subcompacts get very nice standard-equipment audio systems with Bluetooth or at least an AUX jack for your phone. The padded landau roof succumbed to the elements years ago. Base price on this car started at $9,805 with the V8, or about $26,100 today.