A dozen vehicles from the three core Chrysler brands covering more than half of the company’s 2011 models are being recalled in the United States to fix a potential problem with the steering column. The recall covers 11,351 vehicles and affects certain 2011 model year Dodge Journey crossovers, Jeep Wranglers, Chrysler 200s, Chrysler 200 Convertibles, Dodge Avengers, Dodge Nitros, Jeep Liberty SUVs, Dodge Calibers, Jeep Compass crossovers, Jeep Patriots, Dodge Grand Caravans and Chrysler Town & Country minivans.
In a very…tongue-in-cheek move, Chrysler’s newly formed Street and Racing Technology (SRT) brand responded to fans asking them on various social media sites what future products are in development by posting this…revealing sketch on its dedicated Facebook page. Here is what Chrysler’s SRT team wrote: “Like many of you, Twitter user @DaveOrrSales asked for a taste of what's to come at SRT. We dodged death to sneak you this top-secret photo. That's all you get, crew.”
The Chrysler Group announced the repay of U.S. and Canadian government loans totaling $7.6 billion (€5.39 billion), more than six years ahead of schedule. More specifically, the Detroit automaker made a payment of $5.9 billion to the U.S. Treasury (UST) and $1.7 billion to Export Development Canada (EDC) to retire the loans granted in June 2009. EDC is the holding company through which the Canadian federal and Ontario provincial governments provided loans to Chrysler Group.
Today's video find contains three things: a police vehicle, a dangerous individual and a high-speed run that could answer the question what would Grand Theft Auto look in real life. It all started on Friday, March 13 when 38-year-old Arthur Lee Thompson allegedly attempted to steal a computer from a Walmart store in Summerville, South Carolina. According to the report, when faced by the store manager, he purportedly punched him in the mouth and took off in a green Jeep Grand Cherokee.The police were called in to investigate and it didn’t take long for an officer to locate Thompson and pull him over. From there on, the entire incident was caught on film by the police cruiser’s inboard camera.
Proving once again that there is no limit to what one can build when you let your imagination take over, a team of Swedes transformed a Dodge Viper into the menacing Saab 9-3 SRT10 MegaPower you see in these pictures. 
It all started when a man bought a wrecked Dodge Viper SRT-10 with the intention of rebuilding it. However, it soon became obvious that task was far more difficult than he originally thought due to the extent of the damages and the lack of parts. It didn’t take long to come up with a fresh idea: strip the Viper’s body clean and use the mechanical hardware and parts of the chassis on a Saab 9-3 Sport Combi.
The tuners over at Hennessey Performance have always had a thing for boosting anything that rides on four wheels. More recently, the Texas-based tuning firm applied its technical wizardry on the Ram Truck. The result is the Hennessey HPE500 Supercharged Ram, which as implied by its name, features a supercharged version of the Chrysler Group’s 5.7-liter Hemi V8 producing 505-horsepower at 5,400 rpm. The tune include numerous standard upgrades such as a sport exhaust and Hennessey embroidered seats, along with various optional parts like different alloy wheel and tire combos and suspension systems. While we’re waiting for Hennessey to pit the HPE500 Supercharged Ram against a stock Nissan GT-R or a Porsche 911 Turbo, you can watch the powerful pickup truck in some tire shredding action in the video after the break.
Thanks to the interwebs, we now have the first video clip of Zagato’s spanking new Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale that was introduced to the world just last week. Hiding underneath the Italian suit are the platform and the mechanical hardware of the now-obsolete Dodge Viper ACR including the 8.4-liter V10 engine. Zagato has not yet given information regarding output and performance numbers. The Italian coachbuilder plans to build only 9 examples of the Alfa Romeo TZ3 Stradale with the American heart, with the first three cars having already been spoken for. To get a look of the new coachbuilt Alfa in the flesh and on the road, just hit the jump below.
On Monday, the Chrysler Group LLC reported its first quarter gains since exiting bankruptcy almost two years ago in June 2009. The Auburn Hills-based automaker, which is now operated by Fiat S.p.A., said net income totaled $116 million in the first quarter of 2011 compared to a net loss of $197 million in the same period last year. At the same time, the company’s revenues grew 35 percent from $9.7 billion in Q1 2010 to $13.1 billion in Q1 2011. In addition, the automaker said it had $9.9 billion in cash reserves at the end of the first quarter compares to 2.5 billion in December 31, 2010.
The future, as we imagine it now, may be full of robots doing all kinds of things for us humans, including driving our cars. As some scientists over at Google recently proved, driver-less vehicles may become a reality sooner than we expect, so here's what an automaker that produces cars for drivers has to say about this issue. In the Chrysler Group’s latest commercial for the 2011 Dodge Charger called “The Future of Driving”, we are presented with a gloomy future, in which robots control all aspects of our lives, from choosing our diet and wardrobe to even walking our pet dogs. The hero of the commercial has nothing to say about all these things, but when a robot invites him to sit on the passenger seat of his own car, things get a little bit out of control...
