G. David Felt

The Viper is a Monster and could have done so many things right. FCA like so many of their auto's is unable to move the product forward with the times. As it is, this is a great run for a Gas Guzzling V10 Monster that few can own and few can actually fit in. Trust me I have tried and while I got in, it was hell to get out and I would NOT have been happy driving it in the uncomfortable position. This in comparison to the Corvette that I can fit in and actually drive. FCA wants a Halo car, then they need to look at the up and growing EV race scene and build the new viper as a true exotic Hyrbid or EV. Having been doing my research for a paper I will publish here in the near future about EV conversion, I have to say it is very easy to get 600HP with 1000lbs of Torque in an electric motor that gives you crazy acceleration. Having an EV Viper that can trash everyone else out there with a 200 mile battery pack would sell I believe and give FCA a New Halo Car that is Green.

Interesting, but this is going to be a waste of time, GM V8s have had a knock for the last 15 years upon start up till the lubricants get through out the motor and common sense drivers just drive them easy till the engine warms up and everything works fine. Do I like hearing a knock when the engine is cold? NO Have I tried to get GM to address this knock? YES Plenty of threads out there on it and some people just say it is not right yet these engines do continue to run long life when breakin and proper change of the lubricants are done. Supposedly this is all part of the design that GM did and what is considered acceptable wear. My Trailblazer AWD SS has 60K mile on it, does not use a drop of oil and run fine other than the knock in the morning. Weird part is that the knock is almost gone when the Mobil 1 oil change is done and very noticeable when you get to 25% engine life but always goes away within a min or two of starting the car. I suspect that due to the close tolerances of the engine, during initial break-in they were changing the fluids every couple hundred miles and checking for contaminants and so the mules did not experience this issue, but like all things once in the wild, you get people who think they can just trash their engine in the first 1000 miles and not have things go wrong when it is all new and tight.

Time to finish up work and break out the wine and chocolate!

I would not buy one but it has that Soul like quality of being different that appeals to many people. If quality holds it should do well. I hate the tail lights as they look like the eyes of a dead cartoon figure. Very true the tail lights do remind me of dead cartoon characters but then anime and cartoons are big right now all over especially with Marvel Movies. What do you think about the trailer? Should GM do something like that for their twins?

Guess if I had grown up playing sports it might be different, but when you are over 6 feet tall by 12 years old, you coordination sucks and my dad took me to a gym and I fell in love with body building. Arnold was the God Everyone looked up too. Plus my parents loved to camp so every weekend we took off on Friday afternoon and camped all over washington state and came home sunday night. Had a blast hiking, fishing and seeing the beauty of the state with my sisters and parents. Cannot ask for a better family bonding time. Glad all of you guys love the sports, after all someone has to pay their crazy paychecks. Have a good one.

Personally I have only been luke warm to the Jeep Renegade with this being the best looking one I have seen. I also feel that not only should Jeep follow through with this accessory they should build and sell but I think GM should do this for the Colorado / Canyon twins.

So if FCA is expecting to make a difference then they need to get working smarter as well as harder. The F side of this group is sucking big time! Alfa is NOT going to make their sales target of 160,000 auto's based on the pathetic sales listed so far. Sergio blaming the economy should not save his sorry pathetic ass from being fired.Take the money from C,D,J, & R and reinvest in those brands only. Kill off Alfa as it should have never been done in the first place. Alfa Romeo - N/A (54 Vehicles Sold This Month, 197 Vehicles Sold So Far This Year) Chrysler - Down 5% (27,250 Vehicles Sold This Month, 248,800 Vehicles Sold So Far This Year) Dodge - Up 3% (45,170 Vehicles Sold This Month, 382,347 Vehicles Sold So Far This Year) Fiat - Up 1% (3,398 Vehicles Sold This Month, 31,819 Vehicles Sold So Far This Year) Jeep - Up 40% (77,201 Vehicles Sold This Month, 632,910 Vehicles Sold So Far This Year) Maserati - Down 33.8% (872 Vehicles Sold This Month, 8,378 Vehicles Sold So Far This Year) Ram - Up 4% (39,946 Vehicles Sold This Month, 358,488 Vehicles Sold So Far This Year) For those that say the Alfa platform will allow better other auto's under other names. BS I call you out. They could have used that platform at Maserati and reproduced it out to the others.

I love to Travel, Photography, Working out in the gym, Home Theater reviewing movies and auto's. I do love bowling and I have a wine collection that I enjoy with Chocolate.

I always find it amazing how people can get so caught up in the so called professional sports, stats, etc. Baseball the so called American sport holds no interest to me and going to a game, they are just plain boring. Sorry guys, but I could care less about the teams and who wins what. Far better and more important things than overpaid guys playing a sport and having to pay for $10 beer.

Viper was and still is a sharp looking auto, but the beast is outclassed by superior auto's like the corvette.

Nice write up, have to say that I am not a fan of the center stack. Just looks weird, not a good flowing system. Looks like an after thought. They worked to build a good racer and then said oops, we need controls for the civil stuff. Also I agree that the color is less than desirable.

Makes sense for the FWD/AWD auto maker to have a compact / subcompact entry. Glad to see they also are acknowledging the need for a plug-in hybrid. Pass on the self driving and other take over safety gear.

Good Read, will say that the Ford is the best looking out of them and the Ram is the ugliest.

Awesome Post Cmicasa the Great

Good stuff is questionable as he has a habit of making trash look good so he can sell garbage wrapped up in a pretty bow, but that does not mean everything is good stuff. The RT/SRT/Hellcat are exceptions. Jeep is doing good but has had some rough starts especially the hella 9 speed tranny in the Cherokee.

Wonder if a NONE German could end up at the head of VW? I could see a time where even if Porsche CEO stays as CEO of VW, the board at least could get more diversified as stock holders demand more transparency. This is just the tip of what I expect a full scale shake out of the Board down to entry level managers and a restructure of VW world wide.

^ I could see some investors demanding Ferrari be sold off for investor pay back. After all it is a public company now and this will bring people looking to make gains and clearly get their hands on more money.

FCA, the next company to go bankrupt and be torn apart at auction I predict.

There is still a relatively large market for minivans, more than enough to keep them in production. Just look at the monthly sales numbers. Very true as you still see a large amount of Chrysler, Toyota, Hyundai and Honda mini van sales.

The views on most VW owners you know surprised you? Everybody sees corporate greed but yourself...THAT is what surprises me!!! Laissez faire type business models dont work in 2015 corporate Earth...hell...laissez faire type business models barely worked at the start of the industrial revolution where businesses offered slave labour to people, and then very very low wages...yeah...like China standards today, and let us not forget child labour...and yeah...like China today... If you have forgotten, THAT is why unions were formed in the first place...to ensure an honest pay for an honest day's work and to ensure a safe working environment for the worker....and together with the government...made laws for the employers to follow for their employees....hardly laissez faire that is!!! Do not forget India in that labor mess of kids and unsafe practices. The amount of fires, building collapses is terrible.

Here is what pisses me off about Tesla. Tesla is the equivalent of the computer makers back in the day. Bolt together a bunch of parts developed by others and market them. By that in this case here, yes Tesla is investing heavily in the electric propulsion, but they are basically buying / stealing all the other technological development of the rest of the car from vendors and all the R&D done by the big automakers for decades. As an example, it's not like Tesla has to develop an airbag on their own. Or a brake disc. Or a wiper motor. Or a power steering system. Just buy whatever from Bosch, etc. They haven't done the work, so i don't want them to claim the prize. I'd love for GM to be the game changer in electrics but as previously mentioned the wiser and more practical solution is all the automakers getting together to standardize bits and pieces. I understand what you are saying but there is a HUGE Upside to this, let Elon have his spotlight in the sunshine. He has by doing this brought more people together and increased the experience and skill set of engineers, managers, marketing, etc. and these people are leaving to go back and work for other auto companies to help them build EV auto's. Long term, is let Tesla have their Elite Title of Luxury EV maker for now as other companies have the economy of scale to build and surpass them in the long run. This is a marathon, not a sprint and I believe GM can and will surpass Tesla in the future. This goes to say for other auto companies as well.

you act as if they are not coming out with new product and not putting money into new product which is completely false considering that within just a few years the entire Dodge, Chrysler, and Jeep lineup will be either all-new or heavily updated. I know you hate FCA, but get off of it. Besides, the Jeep truck makes MUCH more sense as the last Dakota bombed and people have been drooling for a Jeep truck since, well, forever...... Stew this is the deal. Chrysler has two new cars based on older Fiat platforms. They have only done some refreshes to the RWD cars and are selling them at large discounts other than the Hellcat. I know my In laws just bought a 300 for dirt cheap. Jeep and the Truck really have gotten the bulk of the investment but what money they are making is being dumped into Alfa and Maserati when it should be going to Dodge and Chrysler. Sorry but I am not blind to the fact Sergio is expecting Alfa to increase sales from 160,000 to over 400,000 by 2017. Well that is not going to happen and he is pissing away money that should have gone into Chrysler 5 years ago. Look at GM and Chrysler post bail out and GM is already to the point they have replaced most of their platforms with new platforms and are already into the second gen of refresh on some of theses models in the next one to two years. They even created a new Omega platform. Yet Chrysler is left with older and borrowed models. Even the RWD replacements were pushed back. Sergio is bleeding them of money that should go to them as he needs volume and they are the brands to do it not Alfa. Even you are wise enough to understand that for post bail out we have seen little done and much of what money Jeep has made went to Italy not Detroit where it should go. Sergio is looking for a dance partner because he needs one. The man is desperate and is off his rocker. The sad part other than the trucks, Jeep and Ferrari no one is really interested in the rest of the line up. They offer nothing another company already does not have or need. Sergio has turned FCA into a parasite and it is looking for a main body to suck onto and drain blood from. The car line up is far behind and not looking to be improving soon. The LX is a refresh and that is all. Improved yes but while the others have replaced or moved on with new platforms. If you are happy with re bodied Fiats that is fine but if I were a Chrysler fan I would not be happy at all. Jeep should be paying for all new Chrysler products ones imported from Italy. Again, you show how little you know. Where to start? We know the BRAND NEW ALFA platform is going to give us the replacement for LX, so great investment IMO. CUSW shares VERY little with the original Alfa platform, basically when it appeared just a couple years ago, for all intents and purposes it was a new platform. We have seen the new minivan, we know new powertrains and MANY new vehicles are coming AND CONFIRMED. You choose to ignore these facts because they DESTROY your skepticism. not to mention their sales are still INCREASING while they maintain the LOWEST percentage of rental sales of the big 3. they have also managed to outsell Ford in retail sales which is a VERY big deal. The facts are against yo. Again, ou simply hate FCA and that is your real issue. Am I saying they are perfect? no, but who is. Cadillac is floundering in sales right now, there is the huge ignition recall and government fines that make FCA's "record fines" look like chump change. Like FCA their trucks are doing great, but their cars aren't exactly setting the world on fire. I like both companies. I love my Dakota and m Silverado, but I neither is really perfect or overall really outperforming each other in a lot of areas since the bailout. Stew, Hyper makes some very solid valid points as do you for FCA. With that in mind, FCA has delayed most of the new products for RAM, Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep and are just doing updates with older tech. Hyper hits the nail on the head that Sergio is an IDIOT and wasting BILLIONS on Alfa that should NEVER have been approved by the Board or mgmt. Maserati auto's are not that great either and instead of improving them, he is trying to bring in another product line with lies on production numbers. Fiat has one of the highest turn over rates for people buying and then dumping their poor quality auto's and the amount sitting on dealer lots is scary. Gurufocus.com shows Fiat has twice the amount of inventory on lots in comparison to GM, FORD or any other brand. The money earned from Jeep, RAM, Dodge and Chrysler should be pumped back into those brands not Fiat, Maserati or trying to resurect another label that is DOA for the US and I suspect the world outside of die hard fans of old Alfa's.

Have to say they gave it the right menacing look, but I suspect this is the new 16 year old asshole birthday present for the entitled kid lot.

But Elon says his doors will offer protection from the elements!

NO WAY IN HELL!