2001 Chrysler Customized Pt Cruiser Limited Wagon 4-door 2.4l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Chrysler museum to open one last time on June 8

Due to a lack of funding, Chrysler closed the doors to its Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills, MI back in December, but it sounds like the facility will be open next month for one last hurrah. According to a report in the Detroit Free Press, the Chrysler Museum will be open to the public one last time on June 8 for the annual Chrysler Employee Motorsport Association car show.
While the car show will take place in the museum's parking lot from 9:00 AM until 4:00 PM on June 8 with a theme dedicated to muscle cars past and present, all attendees will be able to be among the last people to tour the museum - with free admission. The museum is known for housing some of the more important production and concept cars from Chrysler's history. Check out the car show's flyer for more information.

Fiat Chrysler's Marchionne is done talking about alliances

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne rowed back on his search for a merger on Friday, saying the car maker was not in a position to seek deals for now and would focus instead on following its business plan. Marchionne had repeatedly called for mergers in the car industry and a tie-up has long been seen as the ultimate aim of his relaunch of Fiat Chrysler, which he is due to leave in early 2019 after 15 years at the helm. He sought a merger with General Motors two years ago but was rebuffed. Only last month he said Volkswagen - the market leader in Europe - may agree to discuss a tie-up with FCA in reaction to rival PSA Group's acquisition of Opel. Marchionne told the annual general meeting in Amsterdam he still saw the need for car companies to merge to better shoulder the large investments needed, but said Fiat Chrysler was not talking to Volkswagen. "On the Volkswagen issue, on the question if there are ongoing discussions, the answer is no," he said. He added, without elaborating, that Fiat Chrysler was not at a stage where it could discuss any alliances. "The primary focus is the execution of the plan," he said. FCA has pledged to swing to a 5 billion euro net cash position by 2018, from net debt of 4.6 billion euros at the end of 2016 - an achievement that Marchionne has said would put it in a better position to strike a deal in the future. Volkswagen, which is still reeling from an emissions scandal that hurt its profits, initially spurned FCA's approach. However, CEO Matthias Mueller said last month the group had become more open on the issue of tie-ups and invited Marchionne to speak to him directly rather than with the press. Fiat Chrysler Chairman John Elkann underlined the message that finding a merger partner was not a priority. "I'm not interested in a big merger deal," he said. "Historically, deals are struck at times of difficulty ... we don't want to be in trouble." Elkann is the scion of Fiat's founder and top shareholder the Agnelli family. He has said in the past he was prepared to have the Agnelli's stake severely diluted in exchange for a minority holding in a larger auto group. "I believe the priority for FCA is to press ahead with this ambitious (business) plan despite the difficult environment," he said. FCA pledged in January to nearly halve net debt this year, as part of the 2018 plan. Doubts remain about its exposure to a peaking U.S.

Is it time for American carmakers to give up on dual-clutch transmissions? [w/poll]

Last week, in the midst of Detroit's first days seeking relief in Chapter 9 of the bankruptcy code, Automotive News contributor Larry P. Vellequette penned an editorial suggesting that American car companies raise the white flag on dual clutch transmissions and give up on trying to persuade Americans to buy cars fitted with them. Why? Because, Vellequette says, like CVT transmissions, they "just don't sound right or feel right to American drivers." (Note: In the article, it's not clear if Vellequette is arguing against wet-clutch and dry-clutch DCTs or just dry-clutch DCTs, which is what Ford and Chrysler use.) The article goes on to state that Ford and Chrysler have experimented with DCTs and that both consumers and the automotive press haven't exactly given them glowing reviews, despite their quicker shifts and increased fuel efficiency potential compared to torque-converter automatic transmissions.
Autoblog staffers who weighed in on the relevance of DCTs in American cars generally disagreed with the blanket nature of Vellequette's statement that they don't sound or feel right, but admit that their lack of refinement compared to traditional automatics can be an issue for consumers. That's particularly true in workaday cars like the Ford Focus and Dodge Dart, both of which have come in for criticism in reviews and owner surveys. From where we sit, the higher-performance orientation of such transmissions doesn't always meld as well with the marching orders of everyday commuters (particularly if drivers haven't been educated as to the transmission's benefits and tradeoffs), and in models not fitted with paddle shifters, it's particularly hard for drivers to use a DCT to its best advantage.
Finally, we also note that DCT tuning is very much an evolving science. For instance, Autoblog editors who objected to dual-clutch tuning in the Dart have more recently found the technology agreeable in the Fiat 500L. Practice makes perfect - or at least more acceptable.