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Fiat Chrysler wins top Total Quality Award for first time

The Strategic Vision Total Quality Awards are 20 years old in 2015, and Chrysler has never topped the awards before. Until now, that is. Fiat Chrysler takes the overall award on the corporate level with six segment leaders from Fiat, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram. The Fiat 500 won Small Multi-Function Car, the 500e won Small Alternative Powertrain, the Dodge Challenger tied at the top in the Specialty Coupe category alongside the very un-coupe Mini Cooper Countryman, the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited took the Entry SUV category, the Dodge Durango won in Mid-Size SUV, and Ram took the overall in Best Non-Luxury Brand. The accolade means FCA has gone from one segment winner in 2010 to overall victory in five years. Cars have gotten so good, says Strategic Vision, that it is harder than ever to win. In fact, says the group, 18 years ago 85 percent of all vehicle brands had more than half a problem per vehicle. This year, no brand has more than half a problem per vehicle. The organization measures "over 155 specific aspects of the customer's experience," and scores are based on input from more than 46,000 customers. Other notables in and near the winner's circle include Volkswagen and General Motors, who tied for second place on the corporate scale, one point behind FCA. The Mini Cooper Roadster scored the highest of any model, the Corvette Stingray Convertible and Coupe scored the second- and third-highest. The Chevrolet Colorado is the first domestic Standard Pickup winner in more than ten years, and the Nissan Titan carried the Full-Size Pickup category. The press release below has all the details on how winners and losers are selected, and the full list of automakers and how they finished. "The Customer's 'Total' Experience Defines Quality, Fiat Chrysler Scores Highest in Total Quality," says Strategic Vision The 2015 Total Quality Awards® SAN DIEGO, Friday, July 17, 2015 — Unknown to many, when some consumer research firms rank a car company's quality performance they often do so by simply "counting problems." In the past, this may have been acceptable, but in today's modern and efficient manufacturing world the difference between the worst brand and best brand is LESS than half-a-problem per vehicle. Thus, any "quality ranking" based on this method is severely lacking in the complete picture of the "Total" Quality experience that customers actually use to judge their product ownership.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles recalls nearly 750k vehicles in two campaigns

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is recalling a total of 747,817 vehicles in the US in two separate campaigns recently added to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration database.
The first one covers about 434,581 units of the Chrysler 300, Dodge Charger, Challenger, Durango, and Jeep Grand Cherokee from the 2011-2014 model years with electric hydraulic power steering, the 3.6-liter V6 engine and a 160 amp alternator, according to FCA. In the affected vehicles, it's possible for the alternator to fail without warning and possibly cause the car to stall. According to the documentation submitted to NHTSA, the automaker began investigating the problem in August 2014 and has found possible evidence of one crash caused by the failures but no known injuries.
Customers will begin receiving notification about the recall next month, and obviously the repairs will be done at no cost to them.

Bull leads Texas police on four hour chase

A bull leading police on a chase through a Texas town may sound like something out of a country music song, but police in Arlington, Texas recently had just such a situation on their hands. According to WFAA, on the afternoon of May 9, a young bull got loose from his pen and decided to take a stroll through the streets of Arlington. "There was a cow walking down the neighborhood," said Arlington resident Jillyan Nance. "It trotted down my home and cut across our yard into the neighbor's yard." Arlington police were alerted to the escaped bull and, in a scene more Texas than Steve Earle drinking a Shiner at the Alamo, they attempted to chase it down with police cruisers. For the next four hours, police engaged the creature in a sedate, low-speed chase through Arlington, Dalworthington Gardens, and other neighboring towns. The bull, for his part, largely ignored his pursuers and the throngs of people coming out of their houses to watch the strange scene and post pictures to Facebook and Instagram. With numerous police cruisers in not-quite-hot pursuit, the bull ambled along the shady streets, stopping here and there to munch on some grass and take in the views. Eventually, a friendly local rancher showed up and lassoed the bull in Dalworthington Gardens just before 9:00 p.m. Police have not released the name of the bull's owner or any motive for its escape. Perhaps, like the unicorn that escaped into a California orchard back in February, it decided that it had had enough of working for a living and was looking for something else. Related Video: News Source: WFAA Humor Weird Car News Dodge Police/Emergency Videos Sedan police chase cow bull