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What's the right car for the 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles' remake?

As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches so, too, does the season in which many Americans will rewatch that holiday classic, "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles." The Steve Martin and John Candy movie is a staple of holiday-season viewing. Soon, however, it will be joined by a new version. Paramount Pictures is doing a remake of "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," starring Will Smith and Kevin Hart. In the 1987 original, Martin and Candy rent a pea-soup green Chrysler LeBaron Town&Country convertible (well, sort of), which suffers a series of mishaps including catching fire yet still chugs along. It was a star turn for the wood-sided K-car droptop (though not the last), and that got us thinking: What should the Smith and Hart duo get stuck with at Marathon Rent-A-Car? Of course, it needs to be a convertible. Among the widely used rental-car convertibles, a Ford Mustang or a Chevy Camaro would be too sporty and cool. This trip is supposed to be miserable. A Buick Cascada or a Beetle convertible would be more appropriate. Of the two, a Beetle is probably better from a comedy standpoint.  But there is another car that stands out as the clear winner: the Chrysler PT Cruiser convertible. Granted, the PT convertible went out of production in 2008, making it a bit old for a current rental lot — but not too old. And the PT Cruiser was even offered with a Woodie package, providing even greater alignment with the LeBaron of old. However, the Woodie package was only offered from 2002–2004, so it predated the convertible by one model year. We think that in this case, the filmmakers should put aside strict historical accuracy and apply the faux-wood appliques to the PT convertible for maximum continuity with the original movie. Besides, the original car wasn't technically a Chrysler LeBaron: it had a different name and badging, plus a non-factory color. It wasn't too different from the Wagon Queen Family Truckster from "Vacation" in that regard. So, what do you think? Is it time for the PT Cruiser to join the great pantheon of movie road-trip cars? Or would something else make for a better movie motors classic?

Automakers donating money, vehicles and supplies to Oklahoma tornado relief effort

Judging by the destruction the Oklahoma City area experienced earlier this week, residents are going to need a lot of help in coming months. Fortunately, a number of automakers - including General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Volkswagen, Honda and Toyota - have stepped up to donate money, supplies and vehicles to aid in the recovery and rebuilding processes.
Here's a quick rundown of which automakers have pitched in and what each contributed so far:
Ford Motor Company has donating $250,000 and a Transit Connect to the American Red Cross, and it will match all other donations made to the Red Cross (up to $250,000) using a special URL tied to the latter's website (link here). Additionally, its local Oklahoma dealers have thrown in an extra $150,000 for the United Way and the automaker will be offering an extra $500 toward the purchase of a new Ford vehicle.

FCA and UAW deal could mean huge production shakeups

The big labor contract between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the United Auto Workers is likely to lead to some very serious production shakeups across the company's North American manufacturing operations. That's according to a new report from Automotive News, which details the sweeping changes at no fewer than five production facilities in Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Mexico, and Poland. So without further ado, here's what's going where, presented in easy to digest bullet form. Ram 1500 production would move from Warren, MI to Sterling Heights, MI Warren, MI would be retooled for unibody production and would handle the Jeep Grand Wagoneer and could potentially build Grand Cherokees to ease the strain on Detroit's Jefferson North factory Chrysler 200 production would move from Sterling Heights, MI to Toluca, Mexico Dodge Dart production would move from Belvidere, IL to Toluca, Mexic Fiat 500 production, which is currently handled by Toluca, would be concentrated in Poland, where the Euro-spec Cinquecento is built Jeep Cherokee production would move from Toledo, OH to Belvidere, IL to make room for Wrangler and Wrangler Pickup production Like we said, those are some big changes. But, as FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne said in an earlier interview with Automotive News, this kind of shakeup would make a lot of sense. In that August interview the exec said that automakers moved truck production to Mexico because they were "threatened" by the UAW. "The only thing [the UAW] want is to move the truck back. Which is right. If you move the truck back here, which is [the UAW's] domain, [and move] all the cars that we get killed on somewhere else, we could actually make sense of this bloody industry and actually increase the number of people employed in this country and really share wealth because we are making money," Marchionne told AN. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Bill Pugliano / Getty Images Plants/Manufacturing UAW/Unions Chrysler Dodge Fiat Jeep RAM Sergio Marchionne FCA toluca warren sterling heights