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2017 Chrysler Town & Country shows its 200-inspired face

Chrysler's new Town & Country is expected to debut in the next several months, featuring a new plug-in hybrid powertrain on top of a new look. While we're still short on details about the new propulsion system, a new round of spy photos is giving us a great look at the T&C's modernized aesthetic. In short, think of a puffed up, ultra-versatile Chrysler 200, and you'll have an idea of what the new Town & Country will look like. Spied on what we're guessing is Fiat Chrysler's US headquarters – seeing body shells like this just hanging around the Auburn Hills, MI campus isn't strange, although this does seem like an especially haphazard case – the new van's look is far less upright than the current model. In general, this new vehicle should be sleeker and, dare we say, more compact than the current Town & Country. Alongside the all-wheel-drive plug-in model, our spies report the new T&C will be offered with a 3.2-liter V6, which we're betting was pilfered from the Cherokee, the only other FCA model to use the smaller version of the Pentastar. It's unclear if all-wheel drive will be featured on the ICE-only model. Beyond the class-exclusive PHEV powertrain, our spies report the new van will combat the Honda Odyssey's nifty, built-in vacuum cleaner with a unit of its own. Other innovations will include hands-free side doors – we're guessing these would be some version of the increasingly popular smart tailgates, which simply require a kick of the foot to open. Of course, we'll know all about the new Town & Country early next year, with its expected debut slated for the 2016 Detroit Auto Show. Featured Gallery 2017 Chrysler Town and Country: Spy Shots Image Credit: Brian Williams / SpiedBilde Green Spy Photos Detroit Auto Show Chrysler Green Driving Minivan/Van Hybrid chrysler town and country

180,000 new vehicles are sitting, derailed by lack of transport trains

If you're planning on buying a new car in the next month or so, you might want to pick from what's on the lot, because there could be a long wait for new vehicles from the factory. Locomotives continue to be in short supply in North America, and that's causing major delays for automakers trying to move assembled cars.
According to The Detroit News, there are about 180,000 new vehicles waiting to be transported by rail in North America at the moment. In a normal year, it would be about 69,000. The complications have been industry-wide. Toyota, General Motors, Honda and Ford all reported experiencing some delays, and Chrysler recently had hundreds of minivans sitting on the Detroit waterfront waiting to be shipped out.
The problem is twofold for automakers. First, the fracking boom in the Bakken oil field in the Plains and Canada is monopolizing many locomotives. Second, the long, harsh winter is still causing major delays in freight train travel. The bad weather forced trains to slow down and carry less weight, which caused a backup of goods to transport. The auto companies resorted to moving some vehicles by truck, which was a less efficient but necessary option.

Ferrari to be spun off from Fiat Chrysler

The recently merged Fiat Chrysler Automobiles empire has ambitious plans for growth, and it's going to need some big bucks in its coffers in order to enact them. Part of that cash injection is coming from the floating of its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, but now FCA has announced a further capital campaign to be based on the enormous asset that is Ferrari.
FCA's board of directors has just approved the separation of Ferrari from the rest of the group as a separate entity. Once that separation is complete, Ferrari will put 10 percent of its shares on the stock market "in the United States and possibly a European exchange" as well.
This isn't the first time that the idea of a Ferrari IPO has been raised. Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of Chrysler, Fiat and Ferrari (pictured above), first raised the idea four years ago. Former Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo nixed the idea, but now that he's been discharged, it appears there's nothing to get in the way of Marchionne's desires.