G. David Felt

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!

Sounds like they have woke up to the Green thing based on their self destruction of Diesel. OCNBLU, Guess you can get a new Bug with Lots of Torque, Electric Torque!

That is freakin Beautiful and I will agree that this should have gone into production and could still be done now as people would love it.

In all honesty I see what you mean by the more jelly bean look of the Chevy compared to Toyota or GMC, but both the Chevy and GMC I would take over the Toyota. Autoblog review title sums it up best. 2016 Tacoma Average in Everyway possible. http://autoomobile.com/news/2016-toyota-tacoma-is-just-average-in-every-way-possible/10030142/ Honestly, I would tell everyone to pass on Toyota even though they are getting ready to make their largest marketing push for the Tacoma ever according to the Motley Fool. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/10/02/toyota-prepares-to-push-the-2016-tacoma-as-gms-new.aspx

Amazing how many are for sale on AutoTrader at the dealers and you can find some really loaded AWD versions with minimal miles. Found a Gold 2011 one only 27 miles from my house with only 22K miles asking $28K, carfax is free and shows was a senior purchase all maintained at the dealer, no accidents. Very good deal for a loaded AWD CUV.

Interesting take on Musk and Tesla. Hate might be a bit strong of a word, yet based on videos of him being interviewed and talking about the car industry, he clearly does not have any passion for using petro. He has committed to pure electric and I will give him the credit of making a true massive move in the industry that people are clearly excited by. Over all, I have seen plenty of commercials in the last few days by Toyota about turning Lemonade into Fuel for their Fuel cell auto. Take a Tesla, add a Fuel cell generator and we have a incredible green auto. https://youtu.be/aYYT7LEBFYo

Your just reliving your Magnum PI watching days. These are the rare sexy ones to me, but I would not replace my amercian auto's with these.

I agree with you on most points and believe GM needs to get the VOLT powertrain out on multiple lines of auto's, every car line for sure should have a version of the VOLT powertrain. Tesla hates petro so much sadly they will lose due to not embracing some kind of VOLT type power train. Imagine a generator on an auto with a 200 mile range of battery and with generator 600 miles is capable. This becomes a real road trip capable auto.

Except for hardcore Toyota lovers, most will see the Tacoma and if they have compared trucks will go NO THANK YOU. Toyota really dropped the ball on this one.

This is great news for holding CTS and ATS till the new CT models come out. I just hope GM does a real game changer with the CT models that does blow away everyone. Personally, I think the whole product line could go with a Volt power train that would give amazing Torque and performance with MPG in a quiet luxury package. If you have driven a Volt or ELR you know what I mean about super quiet and amazing to drive.

Agree, GM needs to step up their game with a superior sound system across the board for all auto lines.

So Ferrari has a invitation only SuperCar that makes things very interesting. http://money.cnn.com/video/luxury/2014/10/27/ferrari-super-car.cnnmoney?iid=EL So the question is do you think it is worth it? What about the style? Sound off after watching above on what you think of this invitation only supercar!

Ferrari is now valued as a 10 Billion dollar company based on the IPO announcement today. http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/12/investing/ferrari-ipo-race/index.html You too can own a share of Ferrari purchasing their shares under the title of RACE. So will this help to fund FCA better?

They did. It was called the ELR and it sits on lots for 30K off sticker price. Wrong, the ELR is not a Pure EV auto. It is a glamoured version of the Volt, Hybrid electric auto with a generator. We all know they missed many things to make this better as to why they sit around.

That is a really interesting picture, you can see more of the divots in the background on those rails.

I happily would kick out all Italian brands from my Garage. I would love some SUV's Baby!

Outstanding MPG for the new models as well as a well deserved refinement. I expect this to be the last major change as they move to the CT branding.

Very informative write up, learned a few things I did not know about the car. Yet still this orange paint job and the ugly predator mouth just makes this a Lose / Lose auto for me.