Dodge: Ram 5500 Laramie on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Chrysler investigating complaints of vehicles with faulty power modules

Chrysler owners are hopping mad after experiencing a series of electrical gremlins in some of the company's vehicles. Issues range from mere annoyances - windows rolling down and radios turning off of their own accord - to serious safety issues, with headlights that randomly shut off at night and cars that stall and refuse to start.
The issues are being blamed on the total integrated power module, which can cost up to $1,000 for customers to replace. This, of course, has led to a hefty batch of complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, with 240 owners expressing their displeasure so far. Another site, CarComplaints.com, has registered over 300 complaints relating to the 2010 to 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango, alone, according to The New York Times.
Chrysler has acknowledged that it's investigating the complaints and is analyzing the faulty TIPMs, but that isn't quite enough for customers of the affected vehicles. The newspaper has snagged a few of the more harrowing tales with the electrically challenged Chrysler products, culled from the NHTSA complaints.

Junkyard Gem: 1992 Dodge Shadow America

A quarter-century ago, most Americans looking for a cheap transportation appliance went for cars like the miserably-stripped-down-but-bulletproof Toyota Tercel or the feature-laden-but-reliability-challenged Hyundai Excel. Chrysler, having just discontinued the elderly "Omnirizon" platform, took the Dodge Shadow and its Plymouth sibling, the Sundance and offered a car that was bigger, more powerful, and better-equipped than just about anything else for the price: the America! These cars depreciated hard and nearly all were crushed a decade ago, so sightings are extremely rare today. Here's one that I found in a Northern California self-service yard. This one still had windshield paperwork indicating that it was an insurance-company auction car (probably totaled in a fender-bender that caused $200 worth of damage) and that it was a runner at the time it got junked. Such is the fate of 24-year-old economy cars in rough shape. The Shadow was a member of the many-branched K-Car family tree, and the Shadow America came with the same 2.2-liter straight-4 engine that powered millions of Caravans, Daytonas, New Yorkers, and Lasers. You got more torque than the competition, plus a driver's-side airbag instead of the maddening automatic seat belts found in other low-priced cars of 1992. Of course, the paint tended to peel off within a few years and the build quality of the Shadow was hit-or-miss, but these cars were way nicer to drive than, say, a Tercel EZ or Subaru Justy. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. The perfect cars for an imperfect world! Related Video: Featured Gallery Junked 1992 Dodge Shadow America View 17 Photos Auto News Dodge Automotive History

Chrysler slows minivan production, hasn't built VW Routan this year

Chrysler has slowed production of its Town and Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans this week, Automotive News reports. The Windsor, Ontario plant will cut its three shifts from eight hours each to four hours each in an effort "to align production with market demand," a Chrysler spokesperson told AN. Chrysler also builds the closely related Routan minivan for Volkswagen at its Ontario facility, but has not built a single example thus far in 2013.
Sales of Chrysler's minivans fell 15 percent for the first two months of 2013, and a large part of that has to do with the 26-percent drop of the Grand Caravan alone (the T&C was only down by one percent). According to Automotive News data, as of March 1, Chrysler had an unsold inventory of 24,713 Town and Country models and 18,547 Grand Caravans - a 69- and 43-day supply, respectively.
"No sense running full speed now, then have a lot of vehicles sitting around a few months down the line," Chrysler spokeswoman Jodi Tinson told AN. Full production is expected to resume again on March 18.