WheelTronix

In the fall of Fiat and Chrysler’s union subsequent to Chrysler’s bankruptcy, the future of the Viper became a back-burner issue. In spite of this Mike Accavitti who is the Dodge President and CEO today, declared that the Vipers’ production will carry on under the company’s new leadership.

He added that “The Viper lives. The new leadership team the Chrysler Group gets it.”

Now the Chrysler Group comes under the leadership of Fiat and Sergio Marchionne’s and due to this the Viper will persist forward. It will serve its niche of quality performance fanciers. (more…)

General Motors speedily came out from its May 31st Chapter 11 filing this morning.  This will benefit the company from the Chrysler insolvency procedure and the Auto Task Force drive to return the corporate giant back on its feet.

The changeover from old to new GM thought to be quite flawless for consumers, at least primarily.
GM has plucked 4 divisions from its portfolio and at some time in the future it plans to considerably decrease its dealer body by not reviving franchise agreements.

These 1,100 dealerships form about 18% of GM’s total dealer. They have time with them till October 2010 to sell their residual cars. The number of products in the line up will fall from 48 to 34.

The new GM will have the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands. GM has peeled Pontiac, Hummer, Saab, and Saturn from its range of brands. The latter 3 divisions are being sold to other companies.

Continuing business and restructuring will be carried out simultaneously by Chrysler, since it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the USA.

20% of the stake of Chrysler will be taken up by Fiat and this will be augmented to 35% in increments- Fiat has confirmed to this extent today. This is being done under an ‘agreement in principle’ mode.
The increments will be done in the following ways:

• First 5% when Fiat brings a proposal for a 40mpg car for Chrysler to assemble in the US;
• 5% when Chrysler can manufacture a sequence of fuel-effective Fiat engines in the US;
• Finally a 5% when Chrysler can make use of Fiat’s global sharing network for exports.

Fiat will be not be given full ownership of Chrysler till all the debt of Chrysler’s to the US government are paid off.
The governments of both US and Canada will take up 8% and 2% stakes respectively. A new organisation known as the Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) will possess 55% of the stakes.

Outgoing US president George W Bush has agreed a $17.4billion (£11.6billion) loan to two of America’s struggling car companies.

The money will be taken from the $700billion ring-fenced for the Wall Street bail-out, with $13.4billion available in the short-term and a further $4billion to follow later next year.

The loan to General Motors and Chrysler (Ford is in a less desperate situation) is contingent upon their submitting a viable ongoing business plan by the end of March 2009.
The US Senate had earlier rejected appeals from the car companies for direct aid, but Bush said that ‘these are not ordinary circumstances. In the midst of a financial crisis and a recession, allowing the US auto industry to collapse is not a responsible action.’

GM and Chrysler will be expected to come to an agreement with workers’ unions over pay and benefit deals, offering packages on a par with the less generous deals given by the foreign car-makers manufacturing in North America, and to reduce their debt.

They will also be required to make concessions such as getting rid of private corporate jets and cutting executive pay and bonuses.

If the companies’ submitted survival plans do not meet with approval next March, the Senate has the power to recall the loans and, if these are not repaid, thus instigate bankruptcy procedures. The ultimate decision on this, however, will be down to President-elect Barrack Obama.

Chrysler has revealed the Dodge EV, a Lotus-based vehicle with an electric power train.

The Dodge EV is founded on the Lotus Europa coupe, but has a Tesla Roadster-like electric power train which gives 0-60mph speedup in less than 5 seconds. It’s said to have a series of 150-200 miles between recharges and can be fully charged in 4 hours, using a 220-volt domestic power supply. A model is presently under screening.
Chrysler is also functioning on a 4 door Jeep Wrangler-based extended-range electric vehicle which can do 40 miles in electric-only mode and up to 400 miles with its small engine in operation and a similarly-propelled Town & Country/Voyager MPV. The company will have at least one of these vehicles in production by 2010.

Chrysler is also in the process of formulating a fully-electric car codenamed ENVI and a tiny electric runaround called ‘peapod’.

Another great car of Dodge is off course the Dodge Viper. Well here you find some specs of the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT-10 ACR. What a ride! To bad it ain’t listed in the top10 fastest cars. What we do know is, that you need a good car insurance for this ride!