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Ram and Fiat Professional announce plans for new trucks, vans starting in 2015

Ram Trucks CEO and President Reid Bigland got his turn among the executives elucidating the near-term futures for brands in the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles umbrella, laying out the plans for both Ram trucks and Fiat Professional. After Bigland said that the company "will continue to invest heavily in commercial vehicles" for the Italian arm, he didn't give many specifics as to where that investment would go. What we do know for now is that a new Fiat Doblo will come next year - that's the truck we've been catching spy shots of and that will be the basis for the Ram ProMaster City.
In 2016 will come the next-generation Fiorino, a small cargo van sold in markets outside the US as a Fiat, as the Citroën Nemo and Peugeot Bipper. The European and South American markets will also get a new midsize pickup that same year.
Bigland's goal for Ram Trucks and Ram commercial is just a touch more ambitious: "Build the best pickup trucks and commercial vehicles in the industry" and increase NAFTA-market sales from 463,000 in 2013 to 620,000 in 2018. The waypoints along that road include a refresh for the Ram 1500 in 2015 and then a brand new 1500 to come two years later in 2017. Bracketing that, a refresh for the Heavy Duty lineup happens in 2016, and two years later it will also get an all-new generation.

How Fiat explains its disastrous J.D. Power quality scores

Back in the '60s and '70s, Fiat didn't exactly have an enviable reputation for quality. Of course, lack of quality and a tarnished brand reputation eventually saw the Italian automaker flee the market, only to return with the 500 and the larger 500L in the last few years. However, if J.D. Power's Initial Quality Survey for 2014 is to be believed, modern Fiat products haven't improved quite as much as we might have hoped. Fiat thinks that there is a very simple explanation for its poor performance on the annual list, though.
J.D. Power's IQS looks at flaws among autos in the first 90 days that customers own their new vehicles. In 2014, Fiat wasn't only dead last, it was at the back of the pack by a significant margin. The company's cars tallied 206 problems per 100 vehicles (PP100) compared to a national average of 116 PP100. Even Jeep, the survey's second-to-last finisher, had 146 PP100. Fiat's performance was pitiful.
However, it can all be explained, at least according to US Fiat boss, Jason Stoicevich, who spoke with Ward's Auto. He qualifies the results by stating that the survey came at a particularly bad time for the brand. It produced very few 2014 500 models to allow extra time to introduce the updated 2015 version. That meant that about 91 percent of its vehicles surveyed were examples of the 500L, "which is a new car where there are always quirks to work through," said Stoicevich to Ward's. With only one model providing data, it skewed the results. Of course, that's all well and good, but it suggests that the larger 500L is even more problematic than the overall brand's 206 problems per 100 vehicles.

FCA's Pentastar V6 gets more power, efficiency for 2016

Already a vital member of FCA's powertrain lineup, the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 is receiving major efficiency improvements for 2016. Thanks to a massive amount of new tech attached to the mill, fuel economy is up six percent, and torque below 3,000 rpm jumps nearly 15 percent. The updates arrive first in the 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee, but they should proliferate to other models eventually. At least in the Grand Cherokee, the tweaks push power up five horsepower to 295 ponies. FCA's engineers went through the Pentastar from top to bottom to eke out as much efficiency as possible. For example, there's now a two-speed variable-valve lift system that can run in low- or high-lift modes. This upgrade is responsible for 2.7-percent better economy, the company claims. A new intake manifold with longer runners and updated variable-valve times also helps boost the torque output. Further improvements come from pushing the compression ratio to 11.3:1, from 10.2:1 before. Perhaps most impressive is that despite all of the innovations, the latest Pentastar actually weighs four pounds less than the current version. Beyond the Pentastar improvements, all of the FCA US gasoline engines, except for the Viper's 8.4-liter V10, will be E15-compatible for 2016. The company says that it wants to be ready for the higher ethanol content fuel's greater use in the near future.