1998 Chrysler Sebring, No Reserve on 2040-cars

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Could Chrysler leave Michigan for Tennessee?

Detroit's Big Three could become the Big Two. According to an AP report in The Detroit News, state officials have been lobbying for Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne to select Tennessee as the location for Fiat's joint headquarters with Chrysler Group LLC.
This weekend, Marchionne met with Tennessee governor Bill Haslam at a ceremony celebrating the expansion of a Fiat subsidiary plant in the city of Pulaski. The AP report does not mention any serious talks about headquarters relocation, only that Tennessee officials have been "working me over pretty well," according to Marchionne.
Fiat hopes to complete its merger with the Auburn Hills-based automaker sometime next year, and earlier reports have stated that the company is seeking $10 billion in financing to buy the remaining bits of Chrysler. If the company were to relocate, it would join Nissan and Volkswagen in having major American automotive operations in Tennessee. Of course, that whole "Imported From Detroit" thing would need to go out the window, as well.

Catching up with Chrysler's EV catch-up plan

At your home or office? Those are the key words for how Chrysler and its Fiat affiliate want to narrow the plug-in vehicle sales gap between themselves and more plug-in-centric companies like Nissan and Ford, according Wards Auto. When the gap will narrow is anyone's guess. The US automaker, long a laggard in electric-powertrain development, is working on an wireless, inductive charging system with Qualcomm and which could spur sales of plug-in vehicles for personal use. A wireless system would allow for hands-free charging for vehicles like the Fiat 500e, the company's only plug-in vehicle being sold to the public in the US as well as a plug-in hybrid minivan that's in the works for 2016. On the business front, Chrysler is working with nonprofit NextEnergy on developing a reverse-power-flow system. That would allow for fleet-owning businesses to draw power from their plug-in vehicles' batteries during mid-day peak-energy times, when electricity rates are highest. Chrysler and NextEnergy ran a one-month test of a reverse-power-flow system with four Fiat 500e vehicles last year, and the companies found that they could cut power usage enough to save $1,200. Chrysler extrapolated those numbers to estimate that such a system with just a dozen plug-in vehicles could save a company as much as $27,000 a year. Get more details over at Wards Auto. Featured Gallery 2013 Fiat 500e: Review View 40 Photos News Source: Wards Auto Green Chrysler Fiat Technology Emerging Technologies Electric wireless charging inductive charging inductive

This or That: 2005 Chrysler Crossfire SRT6 vs. 1984 Pontiac Fiero

Welcome to another round of This or That, where two Autoblog editors pick a topic, pick a side and pull no punches. Last round pitted yours truly against Associate Editor Brandon Turkus, and my chosen VW Vanagon Syncro narrowly defeated Brandon's 1987 Land Rover. In fact, it was, by far, the closest round we've seen, with 1,907 voters seeing things my way (for 50.8 percent of the vote) versus 1,848 votes for Brandon's Rover (49.2 percent). Sweet, sweet victory! For this latest round of This or That, I've roped Editor Greg Migliore into what I think is a rather fun debate. We've each chosen our favorite terrible cars, setting a price limit of $10,000 to make sure neither of us went too crazy with our automotive atrocities. I think we've both chosen terribly... and I mean that in the best way possible. 2005 Chrysler Crossfire SRT6 Jeremy Korzeniewski: Why It's Terrible: Taken in isolation, the Chrysler Crossfire isn't necessarily a terrible car. In fact, it drives pretty darn well, and there's a lot of solid engineering under its slinky shape. Problem is, that engineering was already rather long in the tooth well before Chrysler ever got its hands on it, having come from Mercedes-Benz, which used the basic chassis and drivetrain in a previous version of its SLK coupe and roadster. Granted, the SLK was an okay car, too, but even when new, it hardly set the world on fire with sporty driving dynamics. Chrysler took these decent-but-no-more bits and pieces from the Mercedes parts bin – remember, this car was conceived in the disastrous Merger Of Equals days – and covered them with a rather attractive hard-candy shell. Unfortunately, the super sporty shape wrote checks in the minds of buyers that its well-worn mechanicals were simply unable to cash, though an injection of power courtesy of a supercharged V6 engine in the SRT6 model, as seen here, certainly helped ease some of those woes. In the end, Chrysler was left with a so-called halo car that looked the part but never quite performed the part. It was almost universally panned by critics as an overpriced parts-bin special, which, I must add, was damningly accurate. As a result, sales were very slow, and within the first few months, dealers were clearancing the car at cut-rate prices, just to keep them from taking up too much of the showroom floor. Why It's Not That Terrible, After All: I can speak from personal experience when discussing the Chrysler Crossfire. You see, I owned one. Well, sort of...