Chrysler Group LLC said on Monday it is creating a new Ram brand for its Dodge-branded trucks as part of a plan to revive the company's vehicle lineup, Reuters reports. Chrysler, which has been rushing to revamp its old product lineup after it emerged from bankruptcy in June under a new management led by Fiat SpA, said its Dodge brand will be split into two: the Dodge Ram brand and the Dodge Car brand.  People with knowledge of the matter told Reuters last week that the No. 3 U.S. automaker planned to create a Ram brand for what have been Dodge-branded trucks. "This reorganization will allow us to protect and develop the unique nature of the product offerings within the Dodge Brand," Chrysler chief executive Sergio Marchionne said in a statement. The company named Fred Diaz Jr. to lead the Dodge Ram brand and Ralph Gilles to head the Dodge Car brand.

The board of Chrysler Group LLC will meet in Auburn Hills today to go over details of the five-year product and business plan that will be presented to the U.S. government next week and made public in mid-November, The Detroit News reports. It is a plan that has had Chrysler employees at all levels working long days and weekends to refine since the new Chrysler Group was formed June 10 in partnership with Fiat SpA. The automaker has kept most of the strategy secret as the new management team under Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne has worked to identify areas where Chrysler and Fiat engineering and technologies can be shared. Chrysler is counting on its minivans, Dodge Ram pickups, Jeep lineup and the Dodge Journey cross utility vehicle as the foundation of sales in North America while increasing sales internationally with Fiat's help.  New vehicles include the small Fiat 500 for North America at the end of next year and new versions of the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Chrysler 300.

From Vermont to California, exhausted but appreciative car dealers watched their lots grow empty as crowds rushed to trade in gas guzzlers during the final weekend of the popular Cash for Clunkers program, The Associated Press reports. The hectic pace of the $3 billion rebate program accelerated in the final weekend, after the government announced the program would end at 8 p.m. EDT Monday, two weeks earlier than expected.  Adding to the urgency, some dealers had said they would stop Cash for Clunkers sales even earlier to make sure the government reimbursed them for the rebates -- or because they didn't have enough eligible cars left. In the final hours, customers streamed in. "We thought about it a couple weeks ago," said Annette Palmer, 51, at Town and Country Honda in Berlin, Vt., on Saturday with her husband. They hoped to trade in a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee for a Honda CR-V. "We kind of dragged our feet. Then we heard it was closing and we picked up our feet and ran," she said.
 

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Thursday that after a wildly successful run, the cash for clunkers program will come to a close on Monday, August 24th at 8 p.m. EDT.

"This program has been a lifeline to the automobile industry, jump starting a major sector of the economy and putting people back to work," Secretary LaHood said. "At the same time, we've been able to take old, polluting cars off the road and help consumers purchase fuel efficient vehicles."
As of today, the CARS program has recorded more than 457,000 dealer transactions worth $1.9 billion in rebates.

The Car Allowance Rebate System, as it is officially known, has sparked intense interest, filling auto showrooms with buyers and revitalizing manufacturing plants. As a result of the program, automotive inventory has been depleted and both General Motors and Ford are ramping up production, adding shifts and rehiring laid off workers.

"It's been a thrill to be part of the best economic news story in America," Secretary LaHood said. "Now we are working toward an orderly wind down of this very popular program."

The program has provided rebates of up to $4,500 when people turned in their clunkers for fuel-efficient vehicles. Most consumers have turned in trucks and SUV's in exchange for passenger cars, with an improved gas mileage of about 60 percent.

Secretary LaHood said the Monday night end date will allow car dealers and buyers plenty of time to finalize purchases and submit applications for rebate from the remainder of the $3 billion provided by Congress. Based on conservative estimates of valid transactions so far, DOT analysts have projected that there is enough money to continue accepting submissions until the Monday deadline.

-- MORE -Applications for rebates will not be accepted after 8 p.m. EDT Monday and dealers should not make further sales without receiving all the necessary paperwork from their customers. Dealers are also strongly advised to submit complete applications, which will expedite payment. Dealers will still be able to resubmit rejected applications after the deadline. The Department of Transportation is continuing to expand the number of people processing dealer applications for rebates by adding federal workers to the outside contractors currently at work.
For more information, please visit CARS.gov.

July 22nd (from Chrysler)
D'Amico Chrysler Dodge Jeep in Geneva is exited to announce that Chrysler will match the $4,500 government incentive for people to trade in their old gas guzzlers for new vehicles under the "cash for clunkers" program, The Associated Press reports.  The automaker announced Wednesday that it will offer up to $4,500 cash or zero percent financing for six years on most of its 2009 Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep models. The incentive begins Thursday and lasts until Aug. 31. Chrysler Group LLC says in a statement that buyers are eligible even if they don't qualify for the clunkers program. The government's "cash for clunkers" program is expected to begin later this month. It gives owners of inefficient, older vehicles up to a $4,500 incentive to trade them in and send them to the scrap heap in exchange for more efficient models.

July 15th (from AP)

Chrysler Financial, the former financing arm of automaker Chrysler LLC, said Tuesday that it has repaid in full its $1.5 billion in government loans, The Associated Press reports. The funds used to repay the TARP loans were obtained through the completion of an automotive asset-backed securitization. Chrysler Financial said its original TARP loan contained provisions that increased its costs over time, motivating the company to pay off the loan quickly. Amid tight credit markets, Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Chrysler Financial secured the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, funding in January so it would be able to offer more loans to more consumers...Chrysler Financial said it used the TARP money to fund more than 85,000 consumer loans for purchases of Chrysler vehicles

 
July 13 (from The Wall Street Journal)
Auto dealers are starting to ramp up advertising built around the government's "cash for clunkers" program, even as they are growing more concerned that the incentives won't provide enough of a spark to revive U.S. auto sales, The Wall Street Journal reports today.  Restrictions on eligibility combined with delays in launching the program -- which promises rebates as high as $4,500 -- have quashed hopes that the U.S. will see the same sort of car-shopping craze experienced by countries such as Germany and Brazil that implemented similar plans. Cash-for-clunkers, formally known as the Car Allowance Rebate System, will provide about $1 billion in federal funds as incentive money. Eligible owners of gas guzzlers will receive a credit if they turn them in and buy or lease a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle. The program was approved June 1, but final details on eligibility have yet to be released. That information is expected "on or around" July 24, according to the program's Web site, www.cars.gov. Dealers are gearing up with online and newspaper ads inviting potential buyers to stop by and see if they are eligible. Some dealers have set up special Web sites. But the lag between passage of the measure by Congress last month and implementation has cooled consumer sentiment, dealers across the country say.

July10 (From www.AutoLoanDaily.com)
By Liz Opsitnik
Tuesday, Jul 07 2009 09:46

When Chrysler announced it was filing bankruptcy, owners of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles were probably nervous about their vehicle's value. The good news is that Chrysler vehicles' residual value has actually increased following the restructuring in bankruptcy court.

According to Automotive Lease Guide, the residual values for Chrysler vehicles are all up 3.5 to 5% for July and August compared to May and June. Chrysler is up 3.7%, Dodge is up 3.5% and Jeep is up 5%.Residual value is the amount agreed upon to represent the value of a new car at the end of a lease. It is a prediction of the future value of that vehicle and is used to determine monthly lease payments. Residual value is based on the used vehicle market, how big the incentives are for new models currently in showrooms and how the brand itself is doing with new car buyers, CNBC reports.

This is good news for Chrysler, as it continues to make a strong comeback.

July 2 (From Bloomberg.com) -- Chrysler Group LLC, will sell four models of the Italian carmaker's 500 subcompact in the U.S., Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne said.

Chrysler will eventually sell a convertible, wagon and sporty version called the "Abarth" in addition to the four-seat subcompact in the U.S., Marchionne said in an interview on June 30. While the base 500 will go on sale next year, he didn't say when the other models will be available.

"All of those cars will be coming to the U.S.," Marchionne said. "Fiat will be known in the U.S. purely in terms of its 500 car."

In Europe, the Fiat small car can be equipped with a 1.2- liter or 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine or a 1.3-liter turbo diesel. The 1.4-liter engine variant gets a combined, city- highway average of 36 miles per gallon under European regulatory standards.

"Its biggest impact will be to spark interest in bringing people back into the dealerships," Aaron Bragman, a Troy, Michigan-based analyst with IHS Global Insight Inc., said in an interview. "Given the fact that it is an unusual car and quirky and cute, it is a good car for them."

Chrysler's most efficient model today is the Dodge Caliber, which gets 24 to 30 miles per gallon.