2002chrysler Concorde Lxi. C/d , Leather Seats on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2020 Chrysler 300 gets new colors, a new package, and new prices

Although the Chrysler 300 is doing a pretty good impression of a listless, drifting ghost ship, there are product planners at the helm, and they have giveth and taken away for the 2020 model year. As with the last time we got news about the 300, some of this comes from Mopar Insiders instead of Fiat Chrysler, and it appears the Chrysler build site hasn't caught up to everything yet. Perhaps most important to prospective buyers, which is reflected on the build page, prices have risen anywhere from $50 to $370 across the lineup. The 2020 prices and the changes compared to 2019 are: Touring RWD, $29,590 (+$120) Touring AWD, $32,340 (+$370) Touring L RWD, $33,115 (Unchanged) Touring L AWD, $35,865 (+$250) S RWD, $36,695 (+$50) Limited RWD, $38,595 (+$100) S AWD, $39,445 (+$300) Limited AWD, $41,345 (+$350) C RWD, $41,995 (+$50) The Sport Appearance Package on the Touring trim needs a little more money, too, going from $1,295 to $1,495. The package puts on a 300S grille with a black chrome surround, gloss black window surrounds, black headlight bezels, black LED taillights, bright chrome wing badges with black inserts, and 20-inch Black Noise wheels on the RWD model, 19-inchers on the AWD. From last year's palette of eight colors, two are no more: Maximum Steel and Ceramic Grey. Frostbite, a popular white offered on the Dodge Challenger and Charger, has been added to the 300's choices. New hues Amethyst and Canyon Sunset will be added but are late availability. Inside, Black/Linen and Mocha interior colors increase the choice. The $475 Interior Appearance Group that brought features like bright pedals and premium floor mats has been done away with, too. The build site doesn't show the Red S Appearance Package for the 300S trim, but it's a thing. The option includes Black Noise exterior badging with red inserts on the wing badge, a red "S" badge on the decklid, and 20-inch Black Noise wheels on the RWD model. It can be paired with a new Radar Red interior which is also nowhere to be found on the configurator. The Red S Appearance Package can be paired with any exterior color except Frostbite, and costs $295.

Junkyard Gem: 1976 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham Hardtop Coupe

Even after OPEC served notice that cheap oil would no longer be a given and notorious eco-fanatic Richard Nixon decreed a national 55 mph speed limit, plenty of Americans continued to buy enormous coupes equipped with big-displacement V8 engines and cubic yards of cushy upholstery as the early Malaise Era ground on during the middle 1970s. In 1976, Ford offered the Lincoln Continental Mark IV, the Mercury Marquis Brougham, and the Thunderbird. The General had too many such cars to list here, including the Buick Electra and Olds 98 Regency Coupe. Chrysler was right there in the battle for Broughamic supremacy that year, with the New Yorker Brougham at the very top of the company's prestige ziggurat. Here's a raggedy-but-still-opulent New Yorker Brougham Coupe, found in a Denver car graveyard during the winter. Just look at that spacious Whorehouse Red™ interior and its pillow-topped Corinthian Leather split-bench power seats! I admire this luxury so much that my band in the late 1980s recorded a hymn to the Chrysler New Yorker. This car appears to have the $598 (about $2,750 in 2020 dollars) St. Regis option group, which included a "boar-grain" padded vinyl roof and opera windows. A few years later, Dodge offered a full-sized model called the St. Regis. The New Yorker Brougham was the most expensive model offered by Chrysler in 1976 (the Imperial went on hiatus for the 1976 through 1980 model years, only to return as a much more modest car). The buyer of this car got rung up for at least $7,269 (about $33,520 after inflation).  Curb weight wasn't quite as high as this car's imposing bulk might suggest: 4,752 pounds. That's a bit less than a new Dodge Durango today. A junkyard shopper scored the engine, which would have been a 440-cubic-inch (7.2-liter) V8 rated at a startlingly low 205 horsepower and all the torque in the world (actually, 320 lb-ft). Numbers like that prove that we now live in the Golden Age of Car Engines; even the base V6 in the current Charger makes 292 horsepower out of half the displacement of the 440. Even in a car this swanky, any kind of an audio system cost extra (contrast that to 2020, when even the humblest econoboxes have standard-equipment Bluetooth-ready rigs with many speakers). A plain old single-speaker AM radio cost $99 ($457), while the top-of-the-line AM/FM/8-track set '76 New Yorker buyers back $375 ($1,730). This is the AM/FM stereo radio, which cost $197 ($908). Not legal for sale in California.

Chrysler Recalling Nearly 907,000 Cars, SUVs

Nearly 907,000 Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep SUVs and cars are being recalled for alternators that can fail and heated power mirror wiring that can short and cause minor fires. The recalls, posted Thursday by U.S. safety regulators, push the total number of recalls so far this year 544, totaling a record of more than 52 million vehicles. The largest of Thursday's recalls covers nearly 470,000 Jeep Grand Cherokees, Chrysler 300s, and Dodge Chargers, Challengers and Durangos from the 2011 through 2014 model years. The alternators can fail, causing the 3.6-liter V6 engines to stall unexpectedly. The problem also can cause the electrical system to fail, as well as knock out power-assisted steering, antilock brakes and electronic stability control. It can even cause fire or smoke, according to documents Chrysler filed with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NHTSA opened an investigation into the problem in July, and Chrysler began its own probe in August. The company analyzed warranty complaints and alternators that had failed. The alternator generates electricity to recharge the battery and run other devices. Chrysler investigators traced the problem to heat fatigue in an alternator diode. Chrysler said it received 322 complaints about the problem, while 55 people complained to NHTSA. The company said it knows of one crash related to the problem, but no injuries or fires. The company will replace the alternators with upgraded versions for free. Owners will be notified in November. The company says customers who see warning lights or suspect a problem should contact their dealers. The recall affects cars and SUVs sold mainly in the U.S. and Canada, but some were sold in Mexico and overseas markets. The second recall covers almost 437,000 Jeep Wranglers from 2011 through 2013. Water can find its way into the heated power mirror wiring harness and cause corrosion. That can cause a short and could cause a minor fire and smoke, as well as cause loss of function of the mirror. The problem was discovered in February after three Wranglers in Canada were damaged. Chrysler says it has 26 complaints about the problem, but it knows of no fires, crashes or injuries. Dealers will move the wiring and install a protective shield to keep water out at no cost to owners, starting in December. Most of the Wranglers are in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, but more than 78,000 were sold overseas.