2014 Chrysler Town & Country Touring on 2040-cars

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This forgotten Chrysler was its bid for Humvee contract

Today, the Humvee might be as associated with the dead automotive brand from General Motors as it is with the hard-working truck that has long served as one of the backbone vehicles of America's military. But Autoline host John McElroy is showing off a practically unknown part of the model's story by digging out some old photos from his personal archive.
The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle project, better known today as the Humvee, can be traced back to a US Department of Defense request for bids to build a new military truck. According to McElroy, he was invited to the Chrysler proving grounds in 1981 to check out the bid from the brand's defense division. The company's concept was that it might be able to build an inexpensive, capable vehicle by using off-the-shelf parts.
The angular body panels gave the truck a look almost like a modern, stealth vehicle. However, the flat look was actually just to make the tooling as cheap as possible to produce. Still, this Chrysler looked surprisingly futuristic for the early '80s. It's actually not too far away from the famous Lamborghini LM002, itself intended as a possible military-spec machine.

Chrysler Recalls Jeep SUVs For Ignition Switches

The ignition switch defects that engulfed General Motors are now a rapidly growing problem at Chrysler. Chrysler said Tuesday it is recalling up to 792,300 older Jeep SUVs worldwide because the ignition switches could fall out of the "run" position, shutting off the engine and disabling air bags as well as power-assisted steering and braking. That's the same problem that has forced GM to recall more than 15 million cars over the last six months. Chrysler's recall covers 2005-2007 Grand Cherokees and 2006-2007 Commanders. The company said it is not sure exactly how many will be recalled, but said it will notify customers by mid-September. Chrysler said an outside force such as a driver's knee can knock switches out of the "run" position. Engineers are working on a fix. The Auburn Hills, Michigan-based automaker, now part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, said it knows of no related injuries and only one accident. But it said owners should keep clearance between their knees and keys until repairs are made. Chrysler has now recalled more than 1.7 million vehicles for ignition-switch problems. In June, the company added 696,000 minivans and SUVs to a 2011 recall to fix faulty ignition switches. Those recalls covered Dodge Journey SUVs and Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Caravan and Volkswagen Routan minivans - which Chrysler made for the German automaker - from the 2007 to 2010 model years. Tuesday's recall is the outgrowth of two investigations opened by U.S. safety regulators last month as part of a broader probe into ignition-switch and air-bag problems across the auto industry. The agency wouldn't say Tuesday whether its investigation could lead to recalls at other automakers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in June that it was investigating Jeep Commanders and Grand Cherokees after getting 32 complaints that a driver's knee can hit the key fob or key chain, causing the ignition switch to move out of position. The federal investigation is still open. The agency said Tuesday that it is requesting additional information from Chrysler to ensure that its repairs will be effective. The investigations and recalls come after GM bungled an ignition-switch recall of older small cars. GM acknowledged that it knew of the ignition problem for more than a decade but failed to recall the cars until earlier this year, when it recalled 2.6 million small cars such as the Chevrolet Cobalt.

1950s car ads are timeless

Usually around the Super Bowl a few great car commercials show up, but for the most part auto ads today pale in comparison to the '1950s and '60s. In an era with a truly viable magazine industry, automakers would take out gorgeous full-page spreads to get the word out about their wares. It was also a time when imports were just hitting the US, and there was a boom in sports cars. Car and Driver has gone for a dig into its advertising archives from when the book was known as Sports Cars Illustrated for a truly great viewing experience. You can imagine a young Don Draper mulling over the copy for these ads, but some of it is laughably quaint today. For example, there's a great image of a driver whipping an Austin-Healey 100 around a track. The italicized red text proudly proclaims, "From 0 to 60 MPH in 10.5 seconds." One of the beautiful parts about these advertisements is that you seldom see photos of the cars. Instead, there are often detailed drawings that slightly distort the vehicles' lines. With this approach, the Porsche 356 ends up looking far more curvaceous than in real life. Plus, the front end of the Chrysler 300 looks large enough to land a helicopter on. The whole thing is worth scrolling through. There are some fascinating glimpses into auto history like an ad for Abarth exhausts before the brand was just known for tuning Fiats. Related Video: News Source: Car and DriverImage Credit: GM Heritage Center Marketing/Advertising Read This Chrysler Fiat Porsche Performance Classics porsche 356 abarth