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Filed under: Trends , Minivans/MPVs , SUVs , Hirings/Firings/Layoffs , Plants/Manufacturing , Chrysler, LLC. , Dodge , Jeep , Earnings/Financials Click above high-res gallery of the 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT Now that General Motors and Ford have completely abandoned the minivan market for good, the American originator of the species faces only Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Kia and soon Volkswagen as manufacturers that also offer competitive choices. Perhaps you'd think that Chrysler would be benefiting as the only domestic automaker currently playing in the segment, but it seems that sales are down this year by 13 percent for the Chrysler Town and Country while the Dodge Grand Caravan is down an alarming 35 percent. High gas prices are the obvious reason why the minivan market is seeing such a harsh downward trend, and likely the culprit behind Chrysler's impending move to idle its St. Louis South minivan plant as early as December, which would leave some 1,500 employees jobless. Utility...
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Filed under: Minivans/MPVs , Etc. , Chrysler , Dodge Click the image above for a high-res view. An eagle-eyed reader has spotted a hybrid Dodge Caravan in the Chicago, Illinois area. Don't get your panties in a bunch, though, as this hybrid is not the sort consumers have come to know and love as of late. This Caravan has no electrical propulsion system, but rather two front ends. Before Honda and Toyota forever tied the hybrid term to gasoline-electric drivetrains, it was used to describe vehicles constructed out of various donor parts, such as this one. After all, no one has yet marketed a better name for dual front fascia automobiles. Now obviously this Caravan looks nothing like the one in which your mom carpooled you to soccer practice. Especially since hers probably had a rear end. However, that might be where the differences end, at least from what we can tell. Besides the obvious exterior alterations, there are no hints at what other tricks the minivan might have up its sleeve...
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Filed under: Podcasts , Hybrids/Alternative , Minivans/MPVs , Trucks/Pickups , Wagons/Estates , Crossovers/CUVs , Cadillac , Chrysler , Ford , GM , Mercury , Saab For three weeks in a row, now, we've brought you a new Autoblog Podcast courtesy of the B-Team. Here's episode #96 of the Autoblog Podcast, where Chris Shunk, Sam Abuelsamid, and Dan Roth kibbitz over some morsels of recent news. There's the requisite trip to the Autoblog Garage to start things off, then we move into actual discussion points like the CTS Wagon, a gasp of life on the Ford Ranger front, the massive confusion around Cerberus and Chrysler, and Hyundai's nose-thumbing at Toyota's hybrid technology. Remember to send in questions, comments, and suggestions for ways to mark the passing of upcoming episode #100 to podcast at autoblog dawt com. See you next week! SUBSCRIBE to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes ADD the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator DOWNLOAD the show now Permalink | Email this...
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Filed under: Minivans/MPVs , Safety , Chrysler , Dodge The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has smashed up a 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan and the results are mostly good. In front crash tests , the newly redesigned minivan gets all green Gs, the highest rating the Institute gives and in side crashes , the Dodge's multiple airbags helped it get all Gs except in the "structure/safety cage" category, where it got the next lower Acceptable rating. The IIHS Web site doesn't have any explanation for that slightly lower rating. The Caravan got an overall rating of Marginal in the rear crash protection test, though. For more info on what that means, the IIHS goes into detail here . [Source: IIHS ] Gallery: 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan Crash Tests Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Time Warp , Minivans/MPVs , Etc. , Chrysler , Dodge Think of what the automotive landscape looked like nigh on 25 years ago. Mentioning "family car" in 1983 would have conjured a station wagon. Some of us dig wagons, while others think we're daft because of the stigma they still carry. There's no denying that a wagon is an excellent way to transport kids and stuff, but those beasts of yesteryear often led to yearnings for an alternative. We all remember getting carsick while sitting in the rear-facing third row torture chamber, cut off from the rest of the family and their future-looking vantage point. The tailgunner position was a great way to test out new hand gestures on following motorists, though. When the Chrysler minivans were revealed to the world in 1983 as 1984 models, they were a revelation. The Caravan and Voyager were not the first vans based on compact chassis, but they were such a successful combination of the elements that sales took off and...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Gadgets , Minivans/MPVs , Sedans/Saloons , Chrysler , Dodge The interior woes of recent Chrysler products have been well documented , and consumers rightly expect better these days. Chrysler has come to realize this fact and is taking appropriate measures to fix the problem and be sure that its future products come better equipped to face the competition. While stylish exterior and interior designs with high quality materials have come to be expected in modern vehicles, technology and gadgets are often what separate one automaker's vehicles from another. Chrysler recognizes this and is working to offer desirable options as standard equipment on some of their popular models. Now, Chrysler has started a new tactic that is unique among car manufacturers: adding improvements as they become available , as opposed to waiting for the next design refresh. These improvements include a new mileage-saving all-wheel-drive system for their 2009 300C and Dodge Charger as...
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Filed under: Minivans/MPVs , Plants/Manufacturing , Chrysler Around 12:30PM EST today, Chrysler's Windsor assembly plant in Canada, which produces an assortment of the automaker's minivans, caught fire after a reported explosion. Eyewitness reports claim that the explosion was followed by large plumes of black smoke emanating from the northwest corner of the center. Fire crews have cordoned off part of the plant around Drouillard Road and all of the employees have been evacuated. We'll update this post with more information as it becomes available, so stay tuned. Thanks for the tip, Alan. [Source: Canada.com , Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Garage , Minivans/MPVs , Videos , Chrysler , Dodge , Driving click to view more high-res images of the 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT Chrysler has had a lot of ups and downs over the years, riding the wave of one or two hot products at a time in a fight for survival. Fads at the Pentastar have come and gone, but the Auburn Hills-based automaker has had one mainstay since 1983: the minivan. Sure the VW Microbus came first, but here in the States it was Chrysler that started the minivan craze. From the minute that first Caravan rolled off the assembly line in the Reagan-era, this family-friendly minivan has been Chrysler's most important vehicle. With Ford and GM bowing out of the minivan segment altogether in recent years, the 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan becomes even more important for Chrysler, as it has the ability to scoop up sales from its domestic competition to counteract the segment shrinking as a whole. Chrysler has fought hard to remain innovative in the minivan segment...
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Filed under: Concept Cars , Detroit Auto Show , Minivans/MPVs , Dodge click above for more images of the Dodge Caraven R/T Concept var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/autos/Dodge_Caravan_R_T_sport_minivan_spotted_at_Detroit_Auto_Show'; Tucked away among its more pedestrian brethren was Dodge's Caravan R/T concept. We have no details on the powertrain or what else may lie beneath its skin, but the appearance changes are rather obvious. Sporting 20" forged Alcoa wheels and 245/45-20 Goodyear Eagle RS-A rubber, the fast family hauler sits just a bit lower to the ground, as well (we suggest telling your significant other that this feature makes it easier for the kids to get in and out of the vehicle). A scooped hood feeds air to whatever powerplant resides underneath, and a dual exhaust out back facilitates the removal of spent combustion gases. Inside, white-faced gages communicate information to the driver, and each occupant gets two-tone leather buckets with bright-red stitching...
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Filed under: Minivans/MPVs , SUVs , Trucks/Pickups , Plants/Manufacturing , Chrysler , Dodge , Jeep , UAW/Unions The 2009 Dodge Ram can't come soon enough. Chrysler, along with GM and Ford , will be turning out the lights in its Warren Truck Assembly Plant for a few weeks as of this month. The Jefferson North Assembly and Windsor Assembly plants will also be shut down. The Warren plant that assembles the Dodge Ram and Dakota pickups will be closed the longest, from December 21 to February 4. Jefferson North, which builds the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Commander SUVs, will close for three weeks as of January 4, 2008. That plant will also lose 911 workers, and will lose its second shift as of February 4. The Windsor plant, in Ontario, Canada, which builds the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans, will go silent on January 14 for two weeks. The acronym to describe it is "volume-related downtime," which is yet another painful step that needs to be taken to...
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Filed under: Minivans/MPVs , Etc. , Chrysler , Dodge , Honda The moral of a certain African tale is: no matter whether you're the lion or the gazelle, when you get up every morning you better be ready to run. That counts for rams, as well. One of Chrysler LLC's most profitable divisions is getting run down in a historically dominant specialty: minivans. The Dodge Caravan (and Grand Caravan), specifically, is in danger of losing its best selling minivan title to the Honda Odyssey. The Detroit Free Press reports that year-to-date, Dodge has sold 154,824 Caravans, which is a 21.4-percent decline from last year. Part of that has been explained with the arrival of a new model and the elimination of the cheaper, short wheelbase version. Honda meanwhile has sold 158,139 Odysseys so far this year, which is only a 2.3-percent decline from last year. Honda also has a new version of the Odyseey this year, introduced in August, and has outsold Dodge for the past six months -- which means the...
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Filed under: Minivans/MPVs , Etc. , Chrysler , Lifestyle Click image to see video Car commercials are notorious for showing us stuff that the vehicles being advertised can't do, all in the interest of looking cool. The Ford Edge cruising along building ledges springs immediately to mind. With the advent of its new minivans, Chrysler released a TV spot for the Town and Country that ends with a depiction of kids playing Jenga at the Swivel 'n Go table while the van shoots down the road. Having played Jenga on an actual fixed surface, we know that the idea of doing so with any level of success in a moving vehicle is ludicrous at best. We weren't alone. Our friends at Consumer Reports thought the same thing, and as luck would have it, they own a new Town & Country, their very own test track, and Jenga. So they tested it. Click the image above to see the video. [Source: Consumer Reports] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Car Buying , Minivans/MPVs , Chrysler Perhaps the rhetoric coming from Chrysler that the market for minivans is alive and well is just that: rhetoric. The automaker's year end Event of a Lifetime sale happens to include its brand new minivans, the Town & Country and the Dodge Caravan, which can be had until December 3rd with $1,000 on the hood or long-term financing as low as 1.9% APR. Other Chrysler models included in the sale are the 300 ($1,500), 300C ($3,000, excluding the SRT-8), Sebring Convertible ($2,000), Aspen ($1,000), PT Cruiser ($1,000) and the Pacifica in both five- ($1,500) and six-passenger ($2,000) models. You can check out what Dodge and Jeep are offering, as well as any other automaker, on the Cars.com Incentive Page that's always up to date. [Source: Kicking Tires] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Car Buying , Minivans/MPVs , Trucks/Pickups , Marketing/Advertising , Chrysler , Earnings/Financials Chrysler is already offering five-year, interest-free loans on some of its cars. As of today, it is also offering six-year, interest-free...
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Filed under: Minivans/MPVs , Chrysler , Ford , GM Just 12 years ago, minivans made up 8.5% of the overall vehicle market here in the US. Since that time, a string of SUVs and then later CUVs have cut into those vehicles with the magical sliding doors...
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