1982 Chrysler Imperial Base Hardtop 2-door 5.2l on 2040-cars

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Total auto recalls already on record pace in 2014

If you've noticed that there have been more recalls than usual this year, you may be on to something. According to a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the US market is on pace to break a record for recalls. In 2013, 22 million cars were recalled. We're only a third of the way through 2014, though, and we've already halved that figure, with 11 million units recalled. That's wild.
Considering the past few months, it shouldn't be a surprise that General Motors is leading the charge, with six million of the 11 million units recalled coming from one of the General's four brands. Between truck recalls, CUV recalls and the ignition switch recall, 2014 hasn't been a great year for GM.
Other recall leaders include Nissan (one million Sentra and Altima sedans), Honda (900,000 Odyssey minivans), Toyota (over one million units in a few recalls), Volkswagen (150,000 Passat sedans), Chrysler (644,000 Dodge Durango and Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs) and most recently, Ford (434,000 units, the bulk of which were early Ford Escape CUVs). So while it's been a bad year for GM so far, its competitors aren't doing too well, either.

Fiat's Marchionne ponders Chrysler going public again

Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne says there's a real possibility that its majority-owned Chrysler Group may eventually return to the ranks of publicly traded companies. According to Bloomberg, the Fiat and Chrysler CEO gives that a "50 percent chance" of happening, but he doesn't appear to favor that scenario: "My preference is to be one single company... we belong together."
Marchionne has seemingly been operating under the assumption that Fiat will eventually own all of Chrysler, working to buy up the shares it doesn't own and looking to buy out the retiree trust fund that it shares Chrysler ownership with. Certainly, Chrysler going independent again would be increasingly difficult, as the companies continue to blend products, technologies, facilities and staffing, a trend started immediately after the Italian automaker became custodian of the brand following Chrysler's bankruptcy in 2009.
Marchionne's remarks to the media came at Chrysler's Kokomo, Indiana plant, where he was on hand to announce a major investment at four facilities in the state to build eight- and nine-speed automatic transmissions.

Mopar celebrates 50 years of the 426 Hemi

Think of Chrysler performance and the names Mopar and Hemi are bound to come to mind. Chrysler and its Mopar performance parts division first introduced the original Hemi (so named for its hemispherical combustion chambers) back in 1951, celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2011. But it was thirteen years later - 50 years ago - that the Pentastar automaker rolled out the most iconic Hemi of them all: the Gen II 426.
The massive 7.0-liter V8 engine instantly became a muscle car icon and went on to become a favorite of racecar constructors. Two competition versions of the Gen II 426 Hemi were made: one for the track and one for the drag strip, and both went on to illustrious strings of victories. The race engine first debuted at the 1964 Daytona 500 where it powered Richard Petty's Plymouth to the checkered flag and on to the NASCAR championship.
Meanwhile on the drag strip, the Gen II 426 Race Hemi propelled Don Garlits past 200 miles per hour and down the quarter-mile in 7.78 seconds. Changes in NASCAR regulations meant that Chrysler devoted the engine to NHRA drag racing, and to this day the Gen II 426 Race Hemi is still used in Funny Car and Top Fuel dragsters.