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Automakers, dealers are rushing cars to Houston after Harvey

DETROIT — Houston-area car retailers and automakers are rushing to reopen dealerships and beef up inventory to replace many hundreds of thousands of vehicles damaged in flooding from Hurricane Harvey. Pete DeLongchamps, vice president for manufacturer relations at Group 1 Automotive, the third-largest U.S. auto dealer group, said the company prepared for the storm with a plan designed after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. This included moving moved inventory to higher ground and cleaning roof drains to avoid cave-ins. Group 1 thus lost a "relatively small percentage" of inventory and reopened its roughly 25 dealerships in the Houston and Beaumont area by Thursday. "Things have been moving fast and furious with a large number of tow-ins already," DeLongchamps said. "Our customers have lost a lot of vehicles, we need to help them replace." Harvey brought record flooding to Houston and killed at least 35 people. The storm is expected to briefly depress already slowing U.S. auto sales but could eventually help boost demand as damaged cars are replaced. Automakers report U.S. August sales on Friday. Estimates for the number of Harvey-damaged vehicles needing replacement range up to 500,000. By Thursday, AutoNation, the largest U.S. auto retail chain, had reopened its 17 Houston stores and is moving cars and trucks from other regions, company spokesman Marc Cannon said. The company plans to move 500 to 1,000 used cars to an AutoNation USA used car store and stage a sale Sept. 21-23, when many would-be buyers should have insurance checks to replace destroyed vehicles, Cannon said. AutoNation is still assessing how many vehicles it lost, but it too moved vehicles to higher ground ahead of the storm. General Motors spokesman Jim Cain said the number of damaged vehicles at dealerships "is relatively modest." "But there are still several dealerships that are inaccessible, so the number will increase," he said. GM will move new and used vehicles to Houston, "but it won't be done until the infrastructure and our dealers are ready." Ford is still assessing damage and inventory needs, a spokeswoman said. CarMax, the biggest U.S. used car dealer, will reopen its six Houston area stores on Labor Day, spokeswoman Claire Hunter said. "We are mobilizing additional inventory to the region as we speak," Hunter said. Paul Lips, chief operating officer at ADESA, a unit of KAR Auction Services Inc., which with Manheim dominates the U.S.

Chrysler releases Born Maker ad campaign for 2015 200 [w/video]

"The 200 sets the benchmark, for us, on how we plan to develop cars going forward." - Marissa Hunter
Is the 2015 Chrysler 200 the most important new product for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles? While it is certainly debatable, we'd be strongly inclined to say "yes." As the first competent midsize sedan that Chrysler has released in the better part of two decades, the new 200 is absolutely crucial to achieving the brand's goal of becoming FCA's "mainstream" manufacturer.

Chrysler may be testing a Hellcat 300

Another day goes by, and another mysterious, undisguised SRT prototype comes out of FCA. This time we have a Chrysler 300 SRT that looks nearly stock except for its footwear. Our spy photographer got up close and personal with this machine, and found that it has the same wheels with 315-mm tires that were on the early Dodge Demon prototypes. The only difference is the wheels on this 300 have Chrysler-branded center caps. All that extra width means these wheels stick pretty far out from the wheel wells, which would suggest that any production car running this setup would have flares to cover the wheels. Behind those wheels are four-piston Brembo calipers and slotted discs that looks similar to those on the current 300 SRT. We doubt that Chrysler is building a Demonized version of the 300, but the tires do suggest that this is a much more potent 300 than the current SRT, which was discontinued in the US in 2015 but is still sold in the Middle East and Australia. That's not all we have to go on, though, since our spy photographer says it sounded like it had Hellcat power under the hood. Equipping a 300 with a Hellcat engine would be a breeze, too, since the engine is already in the Charger, which is virtually identical mechanically. What you may be wondering is why Chrysler is adding a Hellcat version of the 300 SRT when that model hasn't been available in the US since 2015. One possible reason is that this would finally allow Aussies access to the 707-horsepower machine. Dodge is not a brand offered Down Under, so it doesn't get the Charger Hellcat, leaving the 300 as the only V8, rear-drive Mopar available. And for the Middle East, if the normal 300 SRT was selling well, it would only make sense to offer another variant. It shouldn't cost Chrysler too much to develop this model either, since the 300, mechanically, is virtually identical to the Charger. Related Video: Featured Gallery Chrysler 300 SRT Hellcat Widebody Spy Photos View 16 Photos Image Credit: Brian Williams Spy Photos Chrysler Performance Sedan chrysler 300 srt8