The next SRT Engineering chat session is scheduled for Wednesday, July 8th. The session will run from from 6pm to 8pm EST and will be held at Caliber Forums.
The topic of discussion will be the Dodge Caliber, but as usual all SRT-related questions on current products are welcome. Please do not ask questions about the Dodge Hornet Concept.
A thread has already been created and will be unlocked at 3pm (EST) at which time you will be able to start posting your questions.
Forget the Fusion and Avenger, the 2010 Ford and Dodge NASCAR racers will be mean street machines and real pony cars. That's right, the Mustang and Challenger.
Both cars are expected to be closer to stock than any car in recent history, but that's not saying much.
The move was made by the NASCAR governing body in an effort to help the series. In the past both GM and Ford warned that the current Cup cars would turn NASCAR into a spec-racing series with every car not only being similar but looking the same. This, they argued, would in turn lead to a lack of brand identification and, therefore, a loss of interest in the series.
It seems they were right.
NASCAR has suffered a significant drop in not only attendance figures and souvenir sales, but also in TV ratings - indicating that the problem is in fact a lack of interest and not a lack of funds.
The new cars actually won't be all that different, but they will look different, something that NASCAR is most likely hoping will be of interest to manufacturers looking to capitalize on some marketing.
Despite the move by Ford and Doge, GM will continue to run the Impala rather than the 2010 Camaro. Also, Toyota is continuing on with its Camry, mostly because it doesn’t have anything else. The sole Japanese automaker in NASCAR recently dropped the two-door Solara from its lineup.
When the U.S. Supreme Court delayed the sale of Chrysler to Fiat yesterday it put the whole contract in jeopardy, giving the Italian automaker the opportunity to walk away if the sale isn't approved by June 15th. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has, however, confirmed his commitment to the purchase, saying that it would not deter him.
"We would never walk away," he said in an interview with Bloomberg. "Never."
Late Monday afternoon Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delayed the sale but did not make clear the intentions of the court. A group of Indiana pension funds have attempted to block the sale of Chrysler to a Fiat-run group (also comprised of the U.S. and Canadian governments) by alleging that the initial bankruptcy court acted contrary to the law by putting the needs of unsecured lenders ahead of secured ones (some of which include the pension funds).
The bankruptcy court's decision was upheld by an appeals court and now the matter may go before the Supreme Court.
It is not guaranteed that the Supreme Court will hear the case but that is the speculation.
All we do know is that Fiat has an unwavering interest in the Chrysler brand and the U.S. market. This is likely due to Marchionne's belief that in a post-recession auto industry there will be far fewer major players controlling significantly larger shares of the market.
A U.S. Supreme Court judge has delayed the sale of Chrysler to a new Fiat-run company indefinitely. The move by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg came just before a 4 p.m. deadline set by a New York appeals court would have seen the sale completed.
The statement by Justice Ginsburg was just one sentence and gave no mention if or when the Supreme Court would hear an appeal by several Indiana pension funds which are challenging the sale. Representatives of those pension funds had just lost an appeal and were said to be looking to take their challenge to the U.S. supreme court. The group is arguing that by permitting the sale of Chrysler to Fiat the bankruptcy court acted contrary tot he law by putting unsecured lenders ahead of secured ones.
The Obama administration has pressured the Supreme Court against delaying the sale of Chrysler saying that such a move could have "grave consequences," namely, the liquidation of Chrysler's assets. If the sale of Chrysler to the Fiat-led group (which also includes the U.S. and Canadian governments) does not transpire by June 15, Fiat is able to walk away.
Those 789 Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep dealers that were cut loose by Chrysler as a part of its bankruptcy and restructuring plan have until June 9th (next Tuesday) to part with their remaining inventory.
Because of the dealership contract that they signed, dealers aren't allowed to sell off the cars once the contract expires. And because Chrysler is in bankruptcy protection, it doesn't have to buy the cars back either.
Chrysler has said that it will help the 789 dealers move their inventory to the remaining Chrysler dealerships, but it won't give any guarantees on the amount of money those dealerships will have to pay for the remaining vehicles. And considering the circumstances, the terminated dealers don't exactly have much faith in their parent company right now.
As a result, dealerships are slashing prices. CNN visited Pohanka Chrysler-Dodge in Leesburg, Virginia, where the dealership has slashed prices on some models by as much as 40 percent. A brand new Dodge Nitro, which lists for $29,170 now has a sticker price of just $17,510.
Owner Ray O'Bryhim even says prices may get lower as the June 9th deadline approaches.
When Chrysler's 789 dealers received noticication that their contracts would not be renewed, they had an inventory of roughly 44,000 cars.
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