Free Republic

Chrysler Group LLC confirmed today that its new small car, the first vehicle to feature Fiat SpA (F.MI) technology, will be called the Dodge Dart. The car, in production at the automaker's assembly plant in Belvidere, Ill., will be featured in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. With this vehicle, Chrysler will have a small-car offering in its portfolio for the first time in more than a decade. The car also will allow majority stakeholder Fiat to raise its stake in Chrysler by 5 percentage points to 58.3 percent once it is certified by the U.S....

General Motors Co. may be the largest of Detroit’s Big Three, but it is the only one to not be represented on Automobile Magazine’s ‘2012 All-Stars’ list. The magazine, which ranked the 2012 Audi 7 the best vehicle of next year, feature vehicles from Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC on the top 10 list, but left GM in the dark. Ford drove onto the list with its compact Focus, which was awarded car of the year by the magazine in 2000, and the highly-acclaimed Mustang Boss 302, which the magazine dubbed “the best Mustang ever.” January 2012 issue,...

Asian brands continue to dominate Consumer Reports' 2011 Annual Auto Survey, sweeping the top nine spots. Toyota's American brand Scion leads the pack, followed by Lexus, Acura, Mazda, Honda, and Toyota. The brands scored strong on predicted reliability tests. Of the 91 Japanese models for which Consumer Reports has sufficient data, 87 (96 percent) were rated average or better. 24 Japanese models earned the highest rating.

Chrysler is getting rid of the soccer mom staple Dodge Grand Caravan minivan, the company announced on Monday. 2013 will be the last year the Caravan is sold, despite the fact it is currently the best selling Dodge vehicle on the market. The more upscale Chrysler Town and Country minivan will continue on as the only van the company offers. Chrysler created the modern minivan in when they introduced the 1984 model year Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager models. Chrysler will replace the Dodge Grand Caravan minivan and the Dodge Avenger mid-sized sedan with a single crossover in 2013, Chrysler...

America is still fighting over President Obama's costly bailout of Chrysler and General Motors. Especially the owners of Ford, the only member of Detroit's "Big Three" who rejected the government dole and emerged perfectly healthy. [Check out our editorial cartoons on President Obama.] In its most political ad in the so-called "Drive One" ads where real drivers are thrust before cameras to explain why they picked Ford, a real Ford F-150 pick-up driver is featured.

In a bid to boost flagging auto sales, the federal government will pay for any warranty repairs on a General Motors or Chrysler vehicle if either company can't because of financial problems or a bankruptcy filing, President Barack Obama said on Monday. "Let me say this as plainly as I can. If you buy a car from Chrysler or General Motors, you will be able to get your car serviced and repaired just like always," Obama said in a speech. "Your warranty will be safe. In fact, it will be safer than it has ever been. Because starting today, the...

To help American carmakers stay in business, autoworkers grudgingly gave up pay raises and some benefits four years ago. Now that General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are making money again, workers want compensation for their sacrifice. Just how much they get is the central question hanging over contract talks that start this week between Detroit and one of the nation's largest and most powerful unions. The negotiations, the first since Chrysler and GM took government aid and emerged from bankruptcy, will set wages and benefits for 111,000 members of the United Auto Workers, including those at Ford, which avoided bankruptcy...

The federal government on Thursday ended its partial ownership of Chrysler, completing a sale of its stake in the automaker to Fiat S.p.A. of Italy for $560 million. The sale, which gives Fiat majority control of Chrysler, leaves taxpayers $1.3 billion short of recovering the $12.5 billion lent to the company as it slid into bankruptcy protection a little more than two years ago. The remaining balance belongs to the “old Chrysler” — a collection of unwanted assets being liquidated in bankruptcy — and is unlikely to be repaid, the Treasury Department said in a statement. “With today’s closing, the...

The U.S government has sold its shares in Chrysler LLC at a likely loss of $1.3 billion in taxpayer money, the Treasury Department said Thursday, announcing the end of a controversial investment that resurrected the troubled auto company. Italian automaker Fiat SpA, which has run the company since it emerged from bankruptcy protection in June 2009, purchased the U.S. government's remaining 98,000 shares in the auto company for $560 million.

<p>U.S. taxpayers likely lost $1.3 billion in the government bailout of Chrysler, the Treasury Department announced Thursday.</p>

This is just too rich. As some of you may remember, late last year an investigative report from MyFoxDetroit came out catching Chrysler auto workers on camera drinking and smoking during their lunch breaks. Well, they've been busted again by the same guy- Rob Wolcheck. This was made possible from tips from inside the plant. Last year, after his first investigative report, 13 people were fired. Take a look at your tax dollars in action. This is also the same plant Obama held a pep rally at, as mentioned within the video.

President Barack Obama’s auto bailout czar Ron Bloom is under fire from the House Oversight Committee for a pro-union comment he reportedly made in 2009. David Shepardson, a reporter for The Detroit News, wrote in 2009 that Bloom told a dinner audience, “I did this all for the unions.” While testifying under oath at an Oversight subcommittee hearing in June, though, Bloom denied making those comments. Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican, asked Bloom about the comment. Bloom replied that he didn’t say it. So, Burton asked him if he thought he was “misquoted.” Bloom said “that’s correct.” Burton then...

Investigators for the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform are asking the White House official who oversaw the government bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler whether he told the truth in recent testimony before the committee. Ron Bloom, Assistant to the President for Manufacturing Policy, is quoted in a 2009 newspaper account and a 2010 book saying of the auto bailouts that he "did this all for the unions." But when Bloom appeared before the committee on June 22, he flatly denied ever saying those words. Other White House officials have reportedly defended Bloom by suggesting that he did...

I noticed that a co-worker had gotten a new car while seeing each other in the parking lot and congratulated the person. The co-worker said "thank you", but stated that I shouldn't tell anyone else. The co-worker in my opinion felt they had a Scarlett Letter attached to them for buying not only a new car but an import model.

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio restaurant mentioned last week by President Barack Obama as an indirect beneficiary of the government’s Chrysler bailout will go out of business Sunday after a more than 70-year history. Co-owner Richard Lawrence of New Chet’s Restaurant in Toledo says business has fallen victim to the economy and the workplace smoking ban approved by Ohio voters in 2006. He told The Blade newspaper of Toledo on Wednesday that auto industry cutbacks also hurt. Lawrence says he used to deliver up to $300 in food per week to Chrysler Group LLC’s Jeep plant in Toledo, but...

The government's unnecessary disruption of the bankruptcy laws will do long-term damage to the economy. President Obama's visit to a Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio, on Friday was the culmination of a campaign to portray the auto bailouts as a brilliant success with no unpleasant side effects. "The industry is back on its feet," the president said, "repaying its debt, gaining ground." If the government hadn't stepped in and dictated the terms of the restructuring, the story goes, General Motors and Chrysler would have collapsed, and at least a million jobs would have been lost. The bailouts averted disaster, and...

Proud of losing $14BRich Lowry Last Updated: 3:15 AM, June 4, 2011 It's a sign of grim times indeed when the Obama administra tion is touting a potential $14 billion loss to the taxpayers as a great economic success. The White House is running on its auto bailouts as courageous acts that saved the industrial Midwest. It's a telling point of pride. In bragging about the bailouts of GM and Chrysler, the administration is boasting of a process shot through with lawlessness and political favoritism -- not to mention reckless disregard for taxpayer dollars. The administration believes it trumps all...

The Pickups and SUVs Obama had wished culled  from the lineup in 2009 now drive sales, profitablity Marchionne pretending to listen to statist bonheads FIAT has been making a lot of positive news over the last week, first by paying off all $5.9B of the US/Canadian auto bail-out loans to the US/CN Treasuries (six years early), then three days later announcing the acquisition of the entire US Government stake. This provides FIAT-and-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne with complete control of Chrysler, thus ridding himself and his companies of the Obama Administration's unhelpful influence.Obviously Obama could use anything that resembles an economic success story right about...

DETROIT (AP) -- Chrysler Group will soon sever its ties with the U.S. government. Italian automaker Fiat agreed Thursday to buy the U.S. Treasury's 6 percent interest in Chrysler for $500 million. Once the deal closes, the government will no longer hold a stake in the auto company.