G. David Felt

Alfa / Maserati are bleeding cash, Jeep / Ram is what is keeping FCA afloat.

Sweet I would love to get my hands on the Australian 300 SRT that they still sell.

I have always liked the current 300 over the Charger. For me, I would be willing to go for a low mileage 300 SRT as I would love the 6.4 L over the current 5.7 L V8. AutoTrader Listing Amazing how many low mileage 300 SRTs are available.

Loved the Impala SS, One car I really wanted to own, but just was never financially able too when they were being built and sold. Loved it in the Maroon color they had.

Seems that Lego has felt we need a new Supercar in our stable at a cost of $400 for the 3,599 piece kit per their newest news release. https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news-room/2018/june/lego-technic-bugatti-chiron/ The 1:8 scale LEGO Technic Bugatti Chiron is over 5" tall, 22" long and 9" wide or 14cm high, 56cm long and 25cm wide for our metric friends. Crazy but this model has a fully moving engine, transmission, wheels, and so much more. As to be expected you have an 8-speed gearbox with paddle shifters on the steering wheel with the iconic Bugatti logo. http://legoexternal.23video.com/video/27694211/2018-lego-technic-bugatti-chiron-revealmp4 https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/technic/products/bugatti-chiron-42083 Motor1 has the story too now and all the pictures posted to look at versus downloading them from the Lego Website. https://www.motor1.com/news/243617/bugatti-chiron-lego-technic-kit/

@balthazar Yoda of all things old, what do you think of the style? @ocnblu Ignoring the EV powertrain which is pretty cool as an AWD Trike. Would you drive one of these Nobe's in Green?

Sergio has been very clear about not selling off Jeep / Ram without the others. Jeep / Ram is what is keeping FCA afloat. Chinese wanting an established dealership network would be the only reason if cheap enough to buy Dodge / Chrysler / Fiat. If Chinese did get approval to buy DCF, they would probably be pretty quick to swap out models with Chinese made versions rebadged as those brands. I honestly see more value in Dodge / Chrysler than I do in Fiat.

I agree, at this point, I could see Sergio selling off Dodge, Chrysler and Fiat for pennies on the dollar to unload those brands and all associated to a chinese auto company wanting to get feet in the door for selling in America. The only problem is Potus 45's trade war makes this unlikely to happen. Partial close down for various lame reasons coming from FCA. FCA soon to be JRAM corporation

Seems Waymo likes what they built with the 600 Pacifica Hybrid Self driving minivans. According to this story, Waymo and FCA are going to build 62,000 more of them for use across North America. https://www.autoblog.com/2018/05/31/fca-waymo-62000-self-driving-pacificas-public-sales/

Nobe 100 - AWD 3 Wheeled, 136 Mile Range Vintage Cuteness My NOBE Web site Nobe's founder and CEO, Roman Muljar believes what people want is a simple low maintenance easy to use means of transportation. In this he is bringing to the global market the Nobe 100. This is an all-wheel-drive trike. Yes a trike that has a top speed of 68 miles per hour, travels 136 miles per charge can be had in a hardtop or convertible and is to quote the CEO's primary goal: "to create something so effortlessly stylish that you want to lick it." Mr. Muljar says here you will find a little bit of Alfa, Mercedes 300SL, Fiat 500, Saab 96 and Tesla as his inspiration. This is a theme of minimalist inside and out. The Nobe 100 has room for 2 in the front and 1 in the back. This 3 person EV auto goes 0 to 60 in 5.9 seconds, recharges the battery pack in 2 hours. Sales are to begin in the US in 2020 priced at approximately $34,000. For more info see the link below. Autoblog Story Jalopnik Story

Add Alfa to the list that can die and should have never been brought back.

Nothing has been stated other than this design should help batteries hit the magic $100 per kWh of the battery pack.

@ccap41 @Drew Dowdell Per the web site: Sion will be made of polycarbonate plastic body panels over an aluminum space frame. https://sonomotors.com/

Polymer, Replacement for Lithium-ion Batteries? Lithium-ion batteries are known to be flammable and like all batteries require time to charge back up. What if you could change hours into minutes with no flammable issues and do it all at room temperature? This funding comes from a variety of strategic investors from the battery manufacturing, consumer electronics and electric vehicle ecosystem who will be working with Ionic to speed development into a commercial produced solid state battery. IONIC Materials has secured $65 million in funding to speed up their Revolutionary Polymer Electrolyte Solid State Battery. According to other reports, Dyson who had invested $90 million into new solid state battery technology only to walk away from it due to patents held by a michigan university is one of the principle investors. Samsung is another one along with China's A123, Hitachi of Japan and Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi also of Japan. To Quote what has been published by Axios: Top assertions by Ionic: Lithium ions move as fast or faster through its polymer than they can through a liquid electrolyte system with a separator. That alone has boggled a lot of battery researchers, since, physically speaking, it should be harder for ions to move through a solid. The polymer works at 5 volts — another surprising leap in energy performance — and can be manufactured like plastic wrap, unlike the expensive and absurdly complex methods that have hobbled other solid state efforts. And all of this happens at room temperature, rather than 60 degrees centigrade, approximately the level at which everyone else's polymer functions. Why it matters: If Ionic's claims are independently validated and its material can be improved to withstand a punishing regime of up to 1,000 cycles, it could usher in much more affordable electric cars and longer-running smartphones. It would seem that the Holy grail is a solid state fast charging battery at room temperature. IONIC Materials web site News Release Axios story Dyson Story

Yet Potus 45 buys Rolls Royce, owned by BMW. So Supporting Germany as he pounds his Imperial America first drum. ? I honestly cannot see this really happening as I think he will hit some very hard road blocks. It will be interesting to see how MB and BMW respond considering that they import in their performance lines last time I checked, so M and AMG would be the hit points more so than the regular auto lines or as the story points out the G-Wagon. The world is getting more and more crazy. ?

on the style, but love the color of the paint.

Crazy https://jalopnik.com/trump-threatens-to-push-german-carmakers-from-the-u-s-1826448454 Why is there now a push to wipe out the german auto companies from America? Makes no sense to me.

Sadly they had their first death on the first day of qualifying. I will have to say that it is an adrenaline rush junkies dream. http://www.thedrive.com/opinion/11287/the-isle-of-man-tt-is-the-worlds-deadliest-race-and-thats-why-people-come This brings to 254 deaths since the race was started in 1907. Crazy.

@balthazar Thought you would like this as the storm took down the doors to uncover this 1949 Ford Convertible. Interesting story and pics. http://www.thedrive.com/news/21186/virginia-storm-damage-reveals-abandoned-1949-ford-convertible-hidden-in-an-alley-garage DOH I even now read Escape and thought Focus. So weird of me. In regards to Panasonic, I would think they will want to at some time build their batteries there, but as an investor, their commitment is to Tesla first.

Seems Panasonic is aiming to remove cobalt from all their batteries starting with the ones they make for Tesla. https://www.autoblog.com/2018/05/30/panasonic-tesla-cobalt-ev-batteries/ Cool story on the 2020 Plug in Hybrid Focus https://www.autoblog.com/2018/05/30/2020-ford-escape-plug-in-hybrid/

eTron First Auto to Use Side Cameras en_MediaInfo_Audi_e-tron_prototype_Aerodynamics.pdf Audi has announced that with Europe and Japan supporting HD cameras as side mirrors, that the Audi eTron will be their first auto to do away with Mirrors and be shipped with high definition cameras showing up on a large screen inside the auto. A very cool tech feature that was shown on the Camaro concept as well as many other auto's over the years but is moving forward. It is expected that the US will approve side cameras as mirror replacements some time in 2018 and China is expected to follow suite by 2020. Based on the information provided by Audi, removing regular side mirrors and putting on a Golf Ball dimple underside to the auto dropped CD .07 to give a final drag coefficient of .28 for the Audi eTron. https://www.audi-mediacenter.com/en/press-releases/streamline-audi-e-tron-prototype-with-decisive-aerodynamics-10281

Another good read on this. https://www.autoblog.com/2018/05/30/fiat-chrysler-sergio-marchionne-ev-electric-hybrid/ Based on info from Reuters. I do like how they state that Sergio has in the past made good value for stock investors by doing spin offs, but to date has not ever been able to deliver on a turnaround plan. Analyst also say that Alfa Romeo is a bleeding cash cow that is not profitable. They imply it would have been better for Sergio to reinvest profits in his American name brands than to prop up Fiat and Bring back Alfa from the grave.

Yup, I know that GM came in during the bankruptcy period and cleaned house on all the stand alone places and now you have mega dealerships that are Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac. One Stop shopping which I like. I think FCA needs to clean house as well and it will cost them I am sure. Gonna be interesting to see what happens to some of these places as the Stand Alone Fiat place down south advertises how they have over 500 new fiats and over 100 used in stock. Best selection in the state. FCA cuts Fiat to one model and I do not see that store surviving on it's own, though I do think it just recently got bought up by a mega dealership, so guess they could survive that way.