2002 Chrysler Town Country Limited Awd 38k Miles Wow on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Detroit Three autoworkers could get huge bonuses

For a long time, being a line worker for one of the Detroit Three has meant living with an uncertain future. With the health of American automakers on the rise, though, things are also starting to look up for the men and women building the cars. The latest sign that things aren't bad? Big profit-sharing checks.
According to The Detroit News, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler could end up paying over $800 million to 130,000 workers as part of a profit-sharing plan. According to The News, the economic impact of these profits in Michigan alone could exceed $400 million, besting the NFL's Super Bowl, MLB's All-Star Game and the NHL's Winter Classic for their economic impact.
This is the third straight year the Detroit Three have issued profit-sharing checks to UAW employees, and for many workers, the checks are as close as they'll get to a raise, due to the most recent contract between the union and the manufacturers. On average, employees at GM and Ford receive $1 for every $1 million in North American (not just the US) pre-tax profits. Chrysler, meanwhile, gets a similar deal, although the Auburn Hills-based company calculates profit sharing using 85 percent of the brand's global profits.

Stellantis and Foxconn will announce a strategic partnership on Tuesday

MILAN — Automaker Stellantis and iPhone assembler Foxconn said on Monday they would announce a strategic partnership on Tuesday. Last year, then-Fiat Chrysler, now part of Stellantis, said it planned to set up a joint venture with Hon Hai Precision Industry, Foxconn's parent company, to build electric cars and develop internet-connected vehicles in China. Fiat Chrysler merged with France's Peugeot maker PSA at the beginning of the year to create Stellantis, the world's fourth-largest carmaker, and relaunching in China is one of its main goals. The two companies will hold a conference call on Tuesday to present the partnership, with Stellantis Chief Executive Carlos Tavares and Foxconn Chairman Young Liu among others, the groups said in a joint statement. In January Taiwan's Foxconn and China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group said they were joining hands to provide contract manufacturing for automakers. They have said they were in talks to provide contract manufacturing services to electric vehicle maker Faraday Future, while Foxconn will also help building electric sport-utility vehicles in 2022 for Chinese startup Byton. And last week, Fisker Automotive signed with Foxconn to build an electric car at a factory in the United States. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. 2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe plug-in hybrid powertrain feature walkthrough | Autoblog

Ford, Chrysler and Mazda expand scope of Takata airbag recalls

The scope of the Takata airbag inflator recall is ballooning once again across the United States. Where Honda has elected to take its driver-side airbag campaign nationwide, Chrysler Group and Ford have now announced expanded regional actions to cover some passenger-side airbag inflators. Mazda is adding more regions, as well. For Chrysler Group, the campaign covers the inflators on 149,150 examples of the 2003-model-year Ram 1500, 2500 and 3500 pickups. The recall is limited to vehicles sold or ever registered in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and the territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan, and the Virgin Islands. The company will begin notifying affected customers on January 19. According to Chrysler's announcement of the action, the passenger side inflators in these trucks "are of a type that is not used in any of the other vehicles affected by Chrysler Group's regional field action." The automaker says that it's not aware of any actual failures or accidents in these pickups and even claims there are no "observed failures in laboratory testing of its airbag modules." The company is continuing to study the problem, though. Ford is taking a similar step by issuing a recall of inflators for 38,500 examples of the 2004-2005 Ranger and 2005-2006 Ford GT. The campaign only affects vehicles originally sold or ever registered in Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Certain zip codes of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Guam, Saipan and American Samoa are also covered. There's already precedent for passenger-side airbags to be covered under the Takata inflator recall. When many automakers announced campaigns in June, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, Honda, Mazda, Nissan and Toyota all included that side in some of their repairs. Subaru subsequently did, as well. In addition, Mazda is expanding the scope of its recall to add Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Saipan, Guam, American Samoa, US Virgin Islands, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas to the affected areas. The company estimates that it has a total of 86,773 vehicles in need of repair. Mazda is also teaming with Toyota to begin independent testing of the Takata inflators. Scroll down to read all of the automakers' announcements of these newly expanded recalls. Statement: Air-Bag Inflators December 3, 2014 , Auburn Hills, Mich.