Chrysler Lebaron Convertible 1986 Triple White 34,000 Miles Florida Car on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 2006 Chrysler Sebring Touring Convertible

Quick, what was the cheapest new convertible Americans could buy in 2006? If you guessed "Chrysler PT Cruiser" ($19,890 MSRP) you're right, but the Pontiac Solstice cost just 25 additional bucks. After that came the likes of the Miata, Mustang, New Beetle, and so forth, all priced below $25,000 in their most affordable ragtop versions that year. The Chrysler Sebring was the cheapest midsize convertible in 2006, with a price starting at just $26,115 (about $39,005 in 2022 dollars), edging out the Toyota Camry Solara SE by 825 bucks. Here's one of those roomy-yet-reasonably-priced Chrysler convertibles, now absolutely used up and residing in a Colorado self-service wrecking yard. Chrysler sold Sebrings from the 1995 through 2010 model years, in three generations. The convertible version appeared early on, starting in 1996; it started out on the same platform as the now-long-forgotten "Cloud Cars" (Chrysler Cirrus, Plymouth Breeze, Dodge Stratus), then moved in 2007 to a Mitsubishi/DaimlerChrysler-developed platform that went under everything from Outlanders to Avengers. That makes today's Junkyard Gem one of the newest American members of the Cloud Car family tree, though GAZ built Sebring-derived Volga Sibers in Russia for a few more years. By the time it got to this place, it had become a total hooptie. Rattle-can paint, duct-tape trim repair, the works. Just 16 years old, but it's done. The baling-wire repair to the torn convertible top shows ingenuity on the part of a former owner. Plywood appears to be keeping the roof from collapsing. Because so many Sebrings were invisible fleet cars, it's easy to forget that a convertible even existed. In fact, the Sebring was the best-selling new convertible in America in the middle 2000s. When the 24 Hours of Lemons race series first went to Sebring International Raceway in 2014, I used my vast powers as Chief Justice of the Lemons Supreme Court to get entry fees waived for Chrysler Sebring race cars. We got two Sebrings that year, both convertibles. The base Sebrings for 2006 got the 2.4-liter straight-four out of the just-discontinued Neon, while the Touring, GTC, and Limited trim levels got this 200-horsepower DOHC V6 (originally developed for the Chrysler LH cars) displacing 2.7 liters. Early U.S.-market Sebrings could be purchased with five-speed manual transmissions, but a four-speed automatic was mandatory by the time this car was built.

Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid recalled over fire risks

WASHINGTON — Chrysler parent Stellantis is recalling 19,808 plug-in hybrid minivans and urged owners to stop recharging them, after reports of 12 fires in parked vehicles. The automaker said the recall covers 2017-2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid vehicles. All were parked and turned off, while eight were connected to chargers. Stellantis said it was unaware of any related injuries or accidents. Stellantis is advising owners to refrain from recharging the vehicles and to park them away from structures and other vehicles. The automaker said it is working to confirm the cause of the fires. Owners can keep operating the vehicles using the internal combustion engine. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration declined to comment. The recall comprises 16,741 vehicles in the United States, 2,317 in Canada and another 750 outside North America. Other automakers have faced fire issues with plug-in hybrid or full electric vehicles. General Motors halted production of its Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle in August and has extended that halt through the end of this month. The largest U.S. automaker in August widened its recall of the Bolt to more than 140,000 vehicles to replace battery modules after a series of fires. GM has also indefinitely halted retail sales of new Bolt vehicles. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Jeep in St. Louis hacked from Pittsburgh

One of America's most popular vehicles contains a security flaw that allows hackers to remotely commandeer it from anywhere on the planet. Cyber-security researchers Chris Valasek and Charlie Miller say they've accessed critical vehicle controls on a 2014 Jeep Cherokee that allowed them to remotely control critical vehicle functions like braking, transmission function, and steering. Automakers have downplayed the possibility a car could be remotely compromised, but the significance of the findings detailed Tuesday could cause them to reevaluate the threats posed to hundreds of thousands of vehicles already on the road. A key finding – the pair needed no physical access to the Jeep to pull off the attack. Valasek and Miller accessed the controls via a security hole in the Sprint cellular connection to Chrysler's UConnect infotainment system. In the course of their research, Valasek sat in his Pittsburgh home and remotely manipulated Miller's Jeep as he drove along a highway outside St. Louis. If you know a car's IP address, they say, a hacker could control it from anywhere. "We didn't add anything, didn't touch it," Valasek told Autoblog. "A customer could drive one of these things off a lot, and they'd have no clue it had these open attack surfaces." Remotely, he disabled brakes, turned the radio volume up, engaged windshield wipers and tampered with the transmission. Further, they could conduct surveillance on the Jeep, measuring its speed and tracking its whereabouts. They conducted the experiments over multiple breaches. They made their findings public on the same day the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal agency in charge of vehicle safety, released its latest report on the readiness of government and automakers to fend off these sorts of cyber attacks. Later today, two US Senators are expected to introduce legislation that would help consumers better understand the potential risks of car hacking. In the early stages of their research, Valasek and Miller found a security flaw in the car's wi-fi that allowed them to remotely manipulate controls from a range of about three feet. But in recent months, they found another vulnerability in the Sprint cellular connection in the UConnect system. That was a key breakthrough. "Lo and behold, we found we could communicate with this thing using cellular, and then more research, and 'Holy cow,' we're using the Sprint network to communicate with these vehicles," Valasek said.