2012 Fiat 500 Abarth Turbo 1.4l I4 16v Manual Front Wheel Drive Hatchback Bose on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Weekly Recap: Chrysler forges ahead with new name, same mission

Chrysler is history. Sort of. The 89-year-old automaker was absorbed into the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles conglomerate that officially launched this fall, and now the local operations will no longer use the Chrysler Group name. Instead, it's FCA US LLC. Catchy, eh? Here's what it means: The sign outside Chrysler's Auburn Hills, MI, headquarters says FCA (which it already did) and obviously, all official documents use the new name, rather than Chrysler. That's about it. The executives, brands and location of the headquarters aren't changing. You'll still be able to buy a Chrysler 200. It's just made by FCA US LLC. This reinforces that FCA is one company going forward – the seventh largest automaker in the world – not a Fiat-Chrysler dual kingdom. While the move is symbolic, it is a conflicting moment for Detroiters, though nothing is really changing. Chrysler has been owned by someone else (Daimler, Cerberus) for the better part of two decades, but it still seemed like it was Chrysler in the traditional sense: A Big 3 automaker in Detroit. Now, it's clearly the US division of a multinational industrial empire; that's good thing for its future stability, but bittersweet nonetheless. Undoubtedly, it's an emotion that's also being felt at Fiat's Turin, Italy, headquarters as the company will no longer officially be called Fiat there. Digest that for a moment. What began in 1899 as the Societa Anonima Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino – or FIAT – is now FCA Italy SpA. In a statement, FCA said the move "is intended to emphasize the fact that all group companies worldwide are part of a single organization." The new names are the latest changes orchestrated by CEO Sergio Marchionne, who continues to makeover FCA as an international automaker that has ties to its heritage – but isn't tied down by it. Everything from the planned spinoff of Ferrari, a new FCA headquarters in London and the pending demise of the Dodge Grand Caravan in 2016 has shown that the company is willing to move quickly, even if it's controversial. While renaming the United States and Italian divisions were the moves most likely to spur controversy, FCA said other regions across the globe will undergo similar name changes this year. Despite the mixed emotions, it's worth noting: The name of the merged company that oversees all of these far-flung units is Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Obviously the Chrysler corporate name isn't completely history.

MoMA displays a classic Fiat 500 at its Good Design exhibition

The original, rear-engined Fiat 500 is a design icon thanks to its distinctly recognizable rounded shape and diminutive size. Millions were made from 1957 to 1975, plenty survive, and the car has received not one but two revivals, first in 1991 in the form of the literally named Cinquecento and then with the 2007-present, retro-styled "Nuova" 500. But it's the original that's still worth celebrating, and a new exhibition at New York's MoMA museum is doing just that. The industrial design exhibition, The Value of Good Design, displays an F series 500 as an "expression of form following function." The rear-engined 500 of 1957 was well-timed as Italy rose from the ruins of war and families needed an affordable car that could fit four -- and the 500's spacious packaging was found handy enough to warrant strong sales. And choosing a 500 didn't mean you would need to give up style, especially as a folding fabric roof made the 500 good for sunny weather outings as well (while also saving a bit of steel). Recently, Fiat's small-car know-how has been in the spotlight at various exhibitions. At the Grand Basel show in Switzerland, Italian design professor Paolo Tumminelli celebrated a beat-up, original Fiat Panda as "The very last car made for people, the last surviving witness of a time when the car was still serving humans -- and not the other way around." That is certainly true of the 500 as well, along with its successors, the 600 and 126 models. The below promotional Fiat video from 1957 shows just how cool the 500 was when it was new. MoMA's The Value of Good Design runs from February 10 to May 27. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Apple enthusiasts sleuth out some Project Titan details

With apologies to Tesla fans, there are, perhaps, no brand enthusiasts quite as enthusiastic as Apple enthusiasts. Every scrap of rumor, innuendo and speculation about the company and its endeavors gets thoroughly investigated, with the results promptly posted to the internet, frequently at the AppleInsider website. So, when news of the Cupertino corporation's Project Titan surfaced – deerstalkers were donned, secret sources tapped, and the game was afoot. So, what have they learned so far? A bit, it seems. Perhaps the most tangible nugget takes the unique shape of the Fiat 600 Multipla, pictured above. SixtyEight LLC, thought by AppleInsider to be the corporate sub-entity under which Project Titan is being conducted, imported a 1957 example of this unique bit of Italian automotive history. We don't know if the this "minivan-type" hauler of yore was brought stateside to serve as inspiration for a new design or whether it might end up being a whimsical technology demonstrator. Perhaps neither. We can only hope – or hope not, depending on how you view this variation of the 600 – that an Apple car will carry some Multipla DNA. What we can be pretty sure of is this: Apple enthusiasts will continue to seek out more clues about this program until it's completely revealed, officially or otherwise. You can read more on the Project Titan sleuthing discoveries here. Feel free, of course, to voice your opinions, clues and speculations in Comments below. Related Video: News Source: AppleInsiderImage Credit: Elmar Peiffer Green Rumormill Fiat Minivan/Van Electric project titan icar