Tag Archives: Jeep Cherokee

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Bailed-Out Chrysler Thriving and Ready for IPO by Year End

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By David Kiley

Chrysler 2014 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk.

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AP

Chrysler Group, pumped up by the strong demand for its Jeep vehicles and Ram pickup truck, reported healthy second quarter earnings. Its CEO said the solid performance had the company poised for an initial public offering by the end of this year.

Chrysler reported net income of $507 million for the second quarter, up 16 percent from the same period a year earlier. The company said modifications it needs to make to the Jeep Cherokee and Liberty models to prevent fires will take a bite out of earnings for 2013.

CEO Sergio Marchionne, who also serves as CEO of Italian automaker Fiat, which has a controlling stake in Chrysler, said the company is preparing paperwork for its long-awaited IPO. “November or December would be the ideal time” for the Chrysler listing, said Marchionne.

Will there be demand for Chrysler stock? Auto stocks have underperformed the market the last two years except for Tesla Motors. And General Motors, which along with Chrysler was the beneficiary of taxpayer-assisted bankruptcy in 2009, has not enjoyed great demand for its shares until recently.

For more on Chrysler’s fortunes, get the rest of the story at AOL Autos.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Automobiles

Ratios Galore: A Deep Look at ZF’s 9-speed Automatic

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By K.C. Colwell

When is enough, enough? When it comes to transmissions, the available ratios from any trans maker are on a steady climb into two-digit territory. Take ZF’s newest for example: the 9HP. It’s a nine-speed transaxle for transverse applications sporting a 9.8 ratio spread (that’s good) and it promises 10-percent better fuel economy when compared to a six-speed slushbox. In a market that goes full frenzy by one-percent here and two-percent there, 10 can’t be ignored.

The trouble with engineering a transmission for a transverse application is packaging. The gearbox, along with the engine, has to fit between the shock towers. According to ZF, which announced it will initially supply the 9HP to the Jeep Cherokee and the Land Rover Range Rover Evoque with more customers to come, the maximum width for such a transmission is about 14.6 inches. It’s no surprise, then, that the 9HP is 14.4 inches wide. With four planetary gear sets and six shifting elements (brakes and clutches) that’s a very dense 14.4 inches.

Of those four planetary gearsets, two of them are nested. In this nested pair, the annulus, or ring gear, of the smaller planetary doubles as the sun gear of the larger set. This arrangement trims some width from the four-gearset tranny.

Simply adding ratios to a transmission might not make it a tool for greater efficiency, however. More ratios require more shifting elements and these add weight, complexity, and drag to the transmission. This is why ZF implemented two dog clutches in the 9HP. The beauty of a dog clutch is there’s little-to-no parasitic loss when they aren’t engaged, whereas a conventional friction clutch zaps some efficiency, and they’re relatively compact.

The tricky part of the canine clutch is how, or rather when, to engage them. Synchromesh helps dog clutches within a manual transmission from grinding away and easing gear changes. ZF relies on computers to anticipate the precise moment both halves of each dog clutch are spinning the exact same speed, and engagement happens without the slightest crunch, as proven by our short sample in an Evoque test mule.

Internal efficiencies aren’t the only source for the claimed fuel-economy improvement, either; the nine ratios play a part, too. Internal-combustion engines are most efficient in a relatively small rpm range and the biggest ratio step is just 1.65, between first and second. Having many small ratio steps in hand allows any engine coupled to a 9HP to operate in that ideal rpm window more of the time.

Oh yeah, one of the best parts of the 9HP: it’s 100 percent American made. Every 9HP installed worldwide will come out of the supplier’s Gray Court, South Carolina, plant, with the exception of the 9HPs Chrysler builds under license (just like the longitudinal 8HP) at its Kokomo, Indiana, transmission plant. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Car & Driver

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Chrysler 2Q Profit, Sales Rise, but Cuts Full-Year Forecasts

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By The Associated Press

fiat ceo sergio marchionne chrysler earnings automotive industry manufacturing

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Paul Sancya/APFiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne

By DEE-ANN DURBIN

DETROIT — Chrysler Group’s sales picked up in the second quarter thanks to strong U.S. demand for trucks and SUVs, but the company still cut its full-year sales and profit targets after a slower than expected start to the year.

Chrysler said Tuesday that its net income rose 16 percent to $507 million in the April-June period from $436 million a year ago. It was Chrysler’s eighth straight quarterly profit.

Chrysler sold 643,000 vehicles worldwide in the second quarter, up 10 percent from a year ago. Sales were also up 10 percent in the U.S., where Chrysler sells 75 percent of its vehicles. Chrysler’s U.S. sales rose faster than the industry average of 8 percent in the second quarter.

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Revenue was up 7 percent to $18 billion from $16.8 billion.

Chrysler said it now expects to ship 2.6 million vehicles worldwide in 2013, at the low end of its target of between 2.6 million and 2.7 million. It expects to earn between $1.7 billion and $2.2 billion, down from its previous target of around $2.2 billion.

Chrysler’s first-quarter figures suffered because it was slow to release new versions of the Ram pickup and Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV, two of its most popular vehicles. Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne described the first quarter as a one-off event and urged workers to “just close your eyes and plug your nose and move on from here.”

Chrysler’s production issues were resolved and there were plenty of vehicles on the ground in the second quarter. U.S. Ram sales rose 30.4 percent over last year as construction companies and other small businesses raced to replace aging trucks. It was the Ram’s best second quarter since 2007.

Grand Cherokee sales soared 27 percent to 47,663. The Grand Cherokee is one of Chrysler’s biggest money makers. U.S. buyers paid an average of $40,294 for a Grand Cherokee in the second quarter, up 9 percent from a year ago, according to car pricing site Kelley Blue Book.

U.S. sales were up for the company’s Dodge, Fiat, Jeep and Ram brands; only the Chrysler brand, with aging vehicles like the Town and Country minivan, saw sales drop.

In the second half of this year, Chrysler should get a boost from the release of the new Jeep Cherokee, which started rolling off the line in Toledo, Ohio, last month. The Cherokee replaces the Jeep Liberty, which was phased out last year.

“Chrysler Group is poised for a very strong performance in the second half of the year,” Marchionne said Tuesday in a statement.

Chrysler is majority owned by Italian automaker Fiat SpA, which is scheduled to release its second-quarter results later Tuesday.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Automobiles

Come and Get It While You Can: 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander Priced

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By Alexander Stoklosa

Mitsubishi might be on the fritz here in the U.S., but the company continues to push forward and keep its head just above water. To wit, the new 2014 Outlander crossover made its U.S. debut at last year’s L.A. auto show, following the plug-in hybrid version’s reveal in Paris, and it goes on sale here in June. Nothing can be sold without a price tag, however, so Mitsubishi has released some basic pricing info for the Outlander. Overall, the Outlander’s sticker doesn’t budge much, if at all, compared to the 2013 model it replaces. 

The new Outlander again comes in ES, SE, and GT trim levels; the ES and SE are powered by a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine, while the up-level GT gets a 3.0-liter V-6. A base, front-drive 2014 Outlander ES starts at $23,820, only $300 more than last year’s model. The SE commands $24,620—$200 less than the 2013 iteration—and adds 18-inch aluminum wheels, a touch-screen infotainment display, heated front seats, dual-zone automatic climate control, and keyless entry with push-button starting. The GT starts at $28,620, $800 less than the all-wheel-drive 2013 GT, and adds the aforementioned V-6 engine, Mitsubishi’s Super All-Wheel Control all-wheel-drive setup, paddle shifters, HID headlights, and wood grain interior trim.

Mitsubishi’s future still solidly occupies the “questionable” category, but a new crossover like the Outlander perhaps gives the company its best shot yet at motivating a turnaround in this market. It’s priced in the thick of the compact SUV segment—Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Hyundai Tucson, Jeep Cherokee, Kia Sportage, Mazda CX-5, Toyota RAV4—but is the only rig to offer a third-row seat. What, you think the tiny, three-cylinder Mirage hatchback will be Mitsu’s ark?

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Car & Driver

Automobiles

Report: Audi rumored to buy Alfa Romeo, officials deny it

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By Jonathon Ramsey

2014 Alfa Romeo 4C live at Geneva Motor Show reveal

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For more than two years, Volkswagen has been making public statements about its willingness to buy Alfa Romeo and quadruple the Italian brand’s sales, and for just as long, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has replied with some version of “Mr. Piëch, drop it.” According to a report in Ward’s Auto, all that jousting might be over: it claims that sources close to both Marchionne and Audi CEO Rupert Stadler admit that the two are in talks for Audi to buy not just Alfa Romeo, but a production plant in Italy. In fact, a final deal could possibly include partsmaker Magnetti Marelli.

Against that backdrop, a report by German news weekly Stern quotes a Fiat spokesmen as saying it doesn’t comment on rumors and an Audi rep has said flatly that “There is no substance in the news.” If a sale is being arranged, the timing would seem to point to how eager Fiat is to raise cash to complete its major initiatives. Even though Alfa Romeo continues to delay its return to the US, it just showed off the production version of the 4C at the Geneva Motor Show (shown above) and said that preferred Fiat dealerships here would get them. Then there’s Alfa’s recently concluded deal with Mazda to develop a roadster based on the next generation MX-5 Miata – a deal that would seem to help both the Italian and Japanese brands.

The monetary issues are troublesome, though. Fiat is taking a beating in the European market and its weak-kneed balance sheet is delaying gotta-have-it products like the Jeep Cherokee. Fiat has been talking to banks about getting money to buy the rest of Chrysler and those financial institutions have also raised issues about debt and cash reserves, and the nasty game of chess Fiat is playing with the United Auto Workers (and now the court system about the portion of Chrysler it doesn’t own) could end up blowing another hole in Marchionne’s plans. It is possible that this could finally have convinced Fiat to at least see how serious Audi’s parent company, Volkswagen, is about buying Alfa Romeo. Or it could be just another rumor.

Beyond Alfa Romeo, the report says the deal being discussed would include the rather modern Pomigliano d’Arco plant built just for the production of Alfa Romeos. Audi’s interest in Magnetti Marelli is claimed to be because the German brand wants a components maker and it would also like to establish an R&D center in Italy, where its holdings already include Lamborghini, Ducati and the styling house Italdesign-Guigiaro.

Audi rumored to buy Alfa Romeo, officials deny it originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Automobiles

Report: Jeep Cherokee faces on-sale delay

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By Jonathon Ramsey

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A report in The Wall Street Journal looks at some of the obstacles to the 2014 Jeep Cherokee that go beyond its mootable yet “very contemporary” looks, almost all of them based on Fiat’s financial position. Starting with that sheetmetal, in defense of it SRT president Ralph Gilles and Jeep design head Mark Allen said they wanted to “make sure the design still looks modern five years from now.”

The WSJ piece doesn’t cite longevity as a factor, instead saying that its features originated in a design for an Alfa Romeo, the transformation into a Jeep design meant allowing Chrysler get it to market more quickly and save “hundreds of millions of dollars” in engineering.

The need for Fiat to save money while it weathers the European situation has cut budgets for development, engineering and the pace of retooling the Toledo, Ohio plant to build the Cherokee. In a familiar case of snowballing at work, among the effects will be pushing back the Cherokee’s volume sales date and delaying updates to some of Chrysler’s other products.

Things will get better when Chrysler can work through its program and get the Cherokee to dealers in bulk – especially if it finds it really can sell 250,000 per year – but the hurdles won’t help the financials in the short term.

Jeep Cherokee faces on-sale delay originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 23 Mar 2013 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Science & Technology

UFO Shoots Past While Jeep Test/Review Is Being Recorded, Feb 2013.

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By ScottCWaring

Date of sighting: July 2012, put UFO was noticed on Feb 2013.
Location of sighting: airport in Sweden

Notice the UFO at about 7-8 seconds into this recorded test/review of a Jeep Cherokee that took place at an airport in Sweden back in July of 2012. A UFO shoots overhead at incredible speeds that goes unnoticed by the cameraman and the speaker. A close up view of this object shows us it does have a diamond or disk-like shape. UFO near an airport…makes a lot of sense doesn’t it? UFOs have been seen near airports more than any other location except nuclear sites. SCW

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at UFO Sightings Daily

Automobiles

Jeep Cherokee Returns For 2014

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Jeep has revived its lauded Cherokee nameplate after more than a decade, with the new generation of the popular mid-size SUV set to be launched on the market in the third quarter of the year following a debut in New York late next month. In line with the times, the new Jeep Cherokee adopts the Compact U.S. Wide (CUSW) platform already used in a… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at The Car Connection

News, Politics, Government

Community holds fundraiser for teen killed shielding mom from bullet

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A community is raising money to cover funeral expenses for a 17-year-old family says died protecting his mother from a bullet.

Marty Kent was shot and killed outside of his home when he jumped him front of his mother, Fox40.com reported.

“It just hurts us all because this money ain’t going to bring him back,” Shelby Robertson, a cousin of Kent told the website as the family searches for answers.

The money raised during the fundraisers will also go towards a reward for any information leading to an arrest in the case. Police are following leads for a possible green Jeep Cherokee believed to have been seen driving away from the scene.

“I don’t know if anybody has seen their brother die right in front of them and his eyes close … I lost a big piece of my heart that night,” David Kent, Marty’s brother told Fox40.com.

The family is planning another car wash for Tuesday.

Click for more from Fox40.com.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News