Car Moon

Chrysler’s Ram brand has notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Association that it is recalling 242,780 pickup trucks over a steering failure that could lead to “a loss of directional stability”.

The safety agency reported that the left tie rod ball may fracture during low speed parking maneuvers when the driver is making a sudden turn. This could lead to the loss of directional stability in the left front wheel.

Following in the footsteps of its sister brands Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep, the Chrysler LLC Group’s Ram Truck division is relaunching its marketing strategy with a new tag line that will make its official debut during this weekend’s TV broadcast of the Kentucky Derby racing event, which the company is an official sponsor.

The firm’s new motto is ‘Guts. Glory. Ram’ and according to the Auburn Hills-based group, it pays homage to the history of Ram Truck Brand and “represents the hard work and dedication placed in the design, engineering and production of each and every Ram truck”.

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.

The Chrysler Group claims, “they don’t get much bigger” than its new Ram Long-Hauler Concept truck and at a whopping 24 feet (about 7.3 meters) long, who can blame them? Based on a Class 5 Ram 5500 Chassis Cab, the monstrous Long Hauler rides on an extended wheelbase measuring 197.4-in. (5,014mm) in length, which is more than enough to fit a Mercedes-Benz E-Class (191.7-in)!

The concept truck is also 79.1 inches tall and tips the scales at an environmentally…unfriendly 9,300 lbs (4,218 kg), or close to 2.5-times as much as a Mercedes-Benz E350 sedan. Ram says the Long-Hauler has a maximum Gross Combined Weight Rating of 37,500 lbs (16,783 kg).

In a somewhat strange move, the Chrysler Group's Ram Truck division announced today that it would launch a new entry-level version of its 1500 pickup truck equipped with a standard HEMI V8 engine, but it has yet to decide on the vehicle's name. According to the company, the new model is currently known under the code name “Adventurer".

Chrysler's Ram division introduced the a new Tradesman option package for the 2011 Ram 1500 at the Chicago Auto Show. Based on the ST trim level, the new variant comes with the 390HP 5.7-liter HEMI V8 and five-speed automatic transmission, accompanied by a more comprehensive standard equipment list.

We received some e-mails asking us if the green-colored Ram truck hiding behind the Chrysler-ized Prius 300C we showed you earlier today was a tricked out Dodge, or if, like many other project cars shown at the Tokyo Auto Salon, this too was a replica. The answer is it's a Ram Truck clone based on the Mazda Bongo Friendee, which is a Japanese domestic market MPV with seating for eight, offered between 1995 and 2005. Like the Prius 300C, the Ram Truck Friendee was built by a team of students from the Saitama Institute of Automotive Technology.

Chrysler and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a new partnership to explore the possibility of adapting the EPA's hydraulic hybrid system for passenger cars and light-duty vehicles. Developed by the EPA, the hydraulic hybrid system is currently used in industrial applications, including large delivery trucks and refuse trucks, but Chrysler, keen on developing a new portfolio of hybrid vehicles, wants to adopt it for use on passenger vehicles. Read more »

The U.S. auto sales numbers for 2010 are out and once again, Ford's F-Series pickup truck has been crowned the best-selling vehicle of the year, a title which it has held for 34 years in a row. According to Autodata Corp., the Dearborn-based brand moved 528,349 units of its F-150 light-duty and F-250, F-350 and F-450 heavy-duty trucks in 2010, recording an impressive increase of 27,7 per cent over 2009.

The Chrysler Group is recalling certain Dodge Journey crossovers and Ram trucks in three separate actions to repair defective steering wheels, airbags and noisy rear axles.

The largest of Chrysler's recalls involves 65,180 Dodge Journey vehicles manufactured from November 1, 2007, through September 7, 2008. According to a posting on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [NHTSA], the wires within the front door wire harnesses may fatigue and break. If this happens, the side-impact sensors may not work resulting in inoperative side airbags. Chrysler said it will replace the left and right door wiring harnesses free of charge.

A new recall announced by the Chrysler Group will affect 26,397 owners of Chrysler and Dodge brand vehicles in the USA. The recall includes certain 2010MY Chrysler 300 and Sebring, and Dodge Charger, Avenger, Challenger and Journey, and some 2011MY Ram pickup trucks, because a power steering pressure hose may leak fluid onto a hot engine and cause a fire.

There was a rumor floating around this week that Hyundai is in talks with Chrysler LLC to sell a version of the Dodge Ram pickup under its own brand in the States.

Today, the South Korean-based automaker vigorously denied the story through an official statement made from its U.S division.

"Hyundai Motor Co. denies that there are any current plans to bring a pickup truck of any type into the U.S. now or in the foreseeable future," the company said in its statement.

"Hyundai is not in discussion with Chrysler in regard to a selling a rebadged Chrysler Corp pickup truck, or any other vehicle, in the U.S," the automaker concluded.

Chrysler's Ram truck division will begin shipping its 2011 commercial-duty chassis cabs, putting another option out there for big truck buyers and helping to fill out the Ram lineup.

Ram's commercial chassis cabs, much like Ford's and GM's, are able to be spec'd out to suit a variety of customer needs: weight classes (3500, 4500, 5500), trim levels (ST, SLT and Laramie), "four cab-to-axle lengths (60, 84, 108 and 120)", engines (5.7 liter Hemi / cleaner, B-20 biodiesel-compatible 6.7 liter Cummins turbo-diesel), and 2- or 4-wheel-drive are all there to be chosen from.

The Chrysler Group LLC is the latest automaker to join the incentive war that car makers have been waging for the past month in order to increase sales to individual customers in the U.S.

The Detroit company said that it has began offering 0 percent financing or discounts (e.g. Dodge Charger buyers can choose from 0 percent financing for up to 72 months or a $3,000 rebate) on most 2010 model year Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram truck vehicles when financed through GMAC Financial Services.

The incentives announced are valid until June 1, 2010. For more details, check out the official release after the jump.

To celebrate the 2010 Ram Heavy Duty Motor Trend "Truck of the Year" win, Chrysler has put a dedicated 140-foot tall and 120-foot wide building wrap at its Pentastar Central headquarters in Auburn Hills.

Despite all the negative publicity, it seems that Americans would still rather be driving a Toyota than a Chrysler product. According to Edmunds, Chrysler's consumer sales are down a HUGE 44% this year, versus Toyota's 14% drop.

Anyone quoting a 3% drop by Chrysler is factoring in fleet sales, and that isn't exactly fair. However, a Chrysler spokesperson says, "Fleet is part our businesses strategy...We have to rebuild consumers' confidence in the company...The fact that large companies are willing to buy our vehicles helps rebuild that confidence." Hopefully.

Today, the Chrysler Group LLC and it's Italian parent company partner Fiat presented the firm's long-awaited five-year business plan that's supposed to show how Fiat will turn the U.S. automaker's fate around and save the company from going down. Many interesting thing were said and shown at the eight-hour long press conference including Chrysler's new logo but in this post, we'll concentrate on the 2010-2014 product plan of the Chrysler Group's core division that comprises of the Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge Cars and Ram Truck brands.